Patrick does dotfiles

Your dotfiles are how you personalize your system. These are mine for macOS and Linux.

I was a little tired of having long alias files and everything strewn about (which is extremely common on other dotfiles projects, too). That led to this project being much more topic-centric. I realized I could split a lot of things up into the main areas I used (Ruby, git, system libraries, and so on), so I structured the project accordingly.

If you're interested in the philosophy behind why projects like these are awesome, you might want to read holman's post on the subject.

Everything's built around topic areas. If you're adding a new area to your forked dotfiles — say, "Java" — you can simply add a java directory and put files in there. Anything with an extension of .zsh will get automatically included into your shell. Anything with an extension of .symlink will get symlinked without extension into $HOME when you run script/bootstrap.

A lot of stuff. Seriously, a lot of stuff. Check them out in the file browser above and see what components may mesh up with you. Fork it, remove what you don't use, and build on what you do use.

There's a few special files in the hierarchy.

• bin/: Anything in bin/ will get added to your $PATH and be made available everywhere.
• Brewfile: This is a list of applications for Homebrew Cask to install: things like Chrome and 1Password and Adium and stuff. Might want to edit this file before running any initial setup.
• topic/*.zsh: Any files ending in .zsh get loaded into your environment.
• topic/path.zsh: Any file named path.zsh is loaded first and is expected to setup $PATH or similar.
• topic/completion.zsh: Any file named completion.zsh is loaded last and is expected to setup autocomplete.
• topic/install.sh: Any file named install.sh is executed when you run script/install. To avoid being loaded automatically, its extension is .sh, not .zsh.
• topic/*.symlink: Any file ending in *.symlink gets symlinked into your $HOME. This is so you can keep all of those versioned in your dotfiles but still keep those autoloaded files in your home directory. These get symlinked in when you run script/bootstrap.

Run this:

git clone https://github.com/PatrickAuld/dotfiles.git ~/.dotfiles
cd ~/.dotfiles
script/bootstrap

For unattended bootstrap, pass the Git identity explicitly:

script/bootstrap --git-name "Your Name" --git-email "you@example.com"

In non-interactive mode, existing-file conflicts default to skip. You can override that behavior with --conflict skip|overwrite|backup.

script/bootstrap --git-name "Your Name" --git-email "you@example.com" --conflict overwrite

You can also provide the same values through environment variables:

DOTFILES_GIT_AUTHORNAME="Your Name" \
DOTFILES_GIT_AUTHOREMAIL="you@example.com" \
script/bootstrap

This will symlink the appropriate files in .dotfiles to your home directory. Everything is configured and tweaked within ~/.dotfiles.

The main file you'll want to change right off the bat is zsh/zshrc.symlink, which sets up a few paths that'll be different on your particular machine.

The script/bootstrap command sets up the entire environment including symlinks, macOS defaults, and dependencies. The script/install command runs topic-specific installers. Run these occasionally to keep your environment fresh and up-to-date.

Linux automatically selects headless setup when there is no X11 or Wayland session, or when running over SSH (including X11 forwarding). A local DISPLAY, WAYLAND_DISPLAY, or XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11|wayland selects desktop setup. macOS defaults to desktop setup.

Run as the target user (root is also supported):

script/bootstrap --git-name "Your Name" --git-email "you@example.com"

For an existing checkout that only needs dependencies:

script/install

Headless setup disables prompts and skips font packages, downloads, and cache refreshes. Desktop setup installs fonts even when run without a TTY. Existing files default to skip; use --conflict backup or --conflict overwrite to change that. Debian/Ubuntu packages are installed noninteractively, keeping existing configuration files. Non-root users need passwordless sudo; missing privileges fail immediately. Other Linux distributions need dependencies preinstalled.

Use --headless or --desktop with bootstrap or install to override detection. DOTFILES_HEADLESS=1 or DOTFILES_HEADLESS=0 also overrides detection; explicit command-line flags take precedence. Use the environment variable for the standalone font installer, e.g. DOTFILES_HEADLESS=0 fonts/install.sh.

SSH text is rendered by the local terminal: install and select ComicShannsMono on the computer you connect from.

The font installer runs during desktop bootstrap and skips headless installs. It can also be run on its own, using the same detection:

fonts/install.sh

It installs ComicShannsMono Nerd Font (Nerd Fonts v3.5.1) into ~/Library/Fonts/comic-shanns-mono on macOS or ${XDG_DATA_HOME:-~/.local/share}/fonts/comic-shanns-mono on Linux. Linux also installs the existing Source Code Pro fonts and refreshes the fontconfig cache. On Debian/Ubuntu, dependencies are installed with apt; other Linux systems need curl, unzip, and fontconfig installed first.

After installation, select ComicShannsMono Nerd Font in your terminal or editor (or ComicShannsMono Nerd Font Mono for fixed-width icons).

I want this to work for everyone on macOS; that means when you clone it down it should work for you even though you may not have certain tools installed. That said, I do use this as my dotfiles, so there's a good chance I may break something if I forget to make a check for a dependency.

If you're brand-new to the project and run into any blockers, please open an issue on this repository and I'd love to get it fixed for you!

I forked Ryan Bates' excellent dotfiles for a couple years before the weight of my changes and tweaks inspired me to finally roll my own. But Ryan's dotfiles were an easy way to get into bash customization, and then to jump ship to zsh a bit later. A decent amount of the code in these dotfiles stem or are inspired from Ryan's original project.