Dotfiles

My dotfiles repo.

About this project

My fork of @cowboy's dotfiles.

How the "dotfiles" command works

When [dotfiles][dotfiles] is run for the first time, it does a few things:

1. This repo is cloned into your user directory, under ~/.dotfiles.
2. Files in /copy are copied into ~/. (read more)
3. Files in /link are symlinked into ~/. (read more)
4. Files in /conf are copied/symlinked into various per-app config directories.
5. You are prompted to choose scripts in /init to be executed. The installer attempts to only select relevant scripts, based on the detected OS and the script filename.
6. Your chosen init scripts are executed (in alphanumeric order, hence the funky names). (read more)

On subsequent runs, step 1 is skipped, step 2 just updates the already-existing repo, and step 5 remembers what you selected the last time. The other steps are the same.

Other subdirectories

• The /backups directory gets created when necessary. Any files in ~/ that would have been overwritten by files in /copy or /link get backed up there.
• The /bin directory contains executable shell scripts (including the [dotfiles][dotfiles] script) and symlinks to executable shell scripts. This directory is added to the path.
• The /caches directory contains cached files, used by some scripts or functions.
• The /conf directory just exists. If a config file doesn't need to go in ~/, reference it from the /conf directory. Some of the files here are also copied/symlinked into per-app conf dirs by init scripts
• The /source directory contains files that are sourced whenever a new shell is opened (in alphanumeric order, hence the funky names).
• The /test directory contains unit tests for especially complicated bash functions.
• The /vendor directory contains third-party libraries.

The "copy" step

Any file in the /copy subdirectory will be copied into ~/. Any file that needs to be modified with personal information (like copy/.gitconfig which contains an email address and private key) should be copied into ~/. Because the file you'll be editing is no longer in ~/.dotfiles, it's less likely to be accidentally committed into your public dotfiles repo.

The "link" step

Any file in the /link subdirectory gets symlinked into ~/ with ln -s. Edit one or the other, and you change the file in both places. Don't link files containing sensitive data, or you might accidentally commit that data! If you're linking a directory that might contain sensitive data (like ~/.ssh) add the sensitive files to your .gitignore file!

The "init" step

Scripts in the /init subdirectory will be executed. A whole bunch of things will be installed, but only if they aren't already.

OS X

• Minor XCode init via the init/10_osx_xcode.sh script
• Homebrew via the init/20_osx_homebrew.sh script
• Homebrew recipes via the init/30_osx_homebrew_recipes.sh script
• Homebrew casks via the init/30_osx_homebrew_casks.sh script
• Fonts via the init/50_osx_fonts.sh script

Ubuntu

• APT packages and git-extras via the init/20_ubuntu_apt.sh script

Arch

• Pacman packages via the init/20_arch_pacman.sh script

Hacking my dotfiles

Because the [dotfiles][dotfiles] script is completely self-contained, you should be able to delete everything else from your dotfiles repo fork, and it will still work. The only thing it really cares about are the /copy, /link and /init subdirectories, which will be ignored if they are empty or don't exist.

Also, before installing, be sure to read my gently-worded note.

Installation

OS X Notes

You need to have XCode or, at the very minimum, the XCode Command Line Tools, which are available as a much smaller download.

The easiest way to install the XCode Command Line Tools in OSX 10.9+ is to open up a terminal, type xcode-select --install and follow the prompts.

Ubuntu Notes

You might want to set up your ubuntu server like I do it, but then again, you might not.

Either way, you should at least update/upgrade APT with sudo apt-get -qq update && sudo apt-get -qq dist-upgrade first.

Tested in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Heed this critically important warning before you install

If you're not me, please do not install dotfiles directly from this repo!

Why? Because I often completely break this repo while updating. Which means that if I do that and you run the dotfiles command, your home directory will burst into flames, and you'll have to go buy a new computer. No, not really, but it will be very messy.

Actual installation (for you)

1. Read my gently-worded note
2. Fork this repo
3. Open a terminal/shell and do this:

export github_user=YOUR_GITHUB_USER_NAME

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/$github_user/dotfiles/master/bin/dotfiles)" && source ~/.bashrc

Since you'll be using the [dotfiles][dotfiles] command on subsequent runs, you'll only have to export the github_user variable for the initial install.

There's a lot of stuff that requires admin access via sudo, so be warned that you might need to enter your password here or there.

Actual installation (for me)

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://herbein.net/dotfiles)" && source ~/.bashrc

Aliases and Functions

To keep things easy, the ~/.bashrc and ~/.bash_profile files are extremely simple, and should never need to be modified. Instead, add your aliases, functions, settings, etc into one of the files in the source subdirectory, or add a new file. They're all automatically sourced when a new shell is opened. Take a look, I have a lot of aliases and functions.

Scripts

In addition to the aforementioned [dotfiles][dotfiles] script, there are a few other bin scripts. This includes nave, which is a git submodule.

• [dotfiles][dotfiles] - (re)initialize dotfiles. It might ask for your password (for sudo).
• src - (re)source all files in /source directory
• Look through the bin subdirectory for a few more.

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Stephen Herbein Licensed under the MIT license.