dotfiles

dotfiles for macOS machines with nix

Description

This is a set of dotfiles and installation scripts appropriate for machines running macOS using nix and home-manager.

A small caveat: these files are useful to me, i.e. @dmentipl; they might also be useful to you.

Requirements

There are two main requirements:

1. Nix; see https://nixos.org/guides/install-nix.html.
2. Home-manager; see https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager#installation.

Note: if the nix command is not on the path run the following.

. ~/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/nix.sh

After installation, home-manager will ensure nix is properly configured.

Usage

Installation

1. Clone this repository locally (or download a tarball/zip archive) to

   ~/repos/dotfiles

2. Symlink home.nix to ~/.config/nixpkgs:

   ln -s ~/repos/dotfiles/home.nix ~/.config/nixpkgs/home.nix

3. Run home-manager:

   home-manager switch

Update

Each time you make a configuration change in home.nix or its dependencies do the following.

home-manager switch

To update all nix packages do the following.

nix-channel --update

# NOTE: this may take a while
home-manager switch

This is analogous to sudo apt upgrade.

Further details

Managed by nix and home-manager

Nix and home-manager manage the installation of command-line applications such as: bat, dust, exa, fd, fish, fzf, htop, jq, neovim, pandoc, procs, ripgrep, sd, tmux, and trash. See home.nix and files imported therein for further details.

Nix and home-manager also manages the configuration of those applications, including via symlinking of dotfiles to the appropriate locations in $HOME. This includes dotfiles such as config.fish, git/config, init.lua, settings.json, starship.toml, and tmux.conf, for example.

Not managed by nix

Applications

The following applications are not managed by nix or home-manager.

• marp to generate slides from markdown. Download the stand-alone binary from the GitHub releases page and put in ~/bin.
• pandiff for producing file diffs for any files that pandoc supports. Install with node -g install pandiff into an appropriate node installation.
• starship for a configurable command prompt. Download the stand-alone binary from the GitHub releases page and put in ~/bin.
• vale styles. Download styles and put in ~/.config/vale/styles. The VSCodium extension expects .vale.ini in the working directory, so symlink as follows: ln -s ~/.config/vale .vale. See errata-ai/styles for a list of styles.
• watchexec to watch for file changes then execute a program. Download the stand-alone binary from the GitHub releases page and put in ~/bin.

Extensions

The following extensions are not managed by nix or home-manager.

• codium extensions. Install with the following

  for ext in $(jq '.recommendations[]' -r base/editors/extensions.json)
  do
    codium --install-extension $ext
  done

  See base/editors/extensions.json for the list of "recommended" extensions.

• neovim extensions. First, install paq (a package manager) with the following

  git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/savq/paq-nvim.git \
      "${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}"/nvim/site/pack/paqs/start/paq-nvim

  Then run :PaqInstall inside Neovim. See base/editors/init.lua for the list of extensions.

• Doom Emacs configuration for Emacs.

  git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs ~/.emacs.d
  ~/.emacs.d/bin/doom install

macOS

Command line tools

To install the Xcode command line tools (which include git and other basic programs) run:

xcode-select --install

ssh keys

Generate a public-private key with the following.

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"

Start the ssh-agent in the background.

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

The following goes in ~/.ssh/config.

Host *
  IgnoreUnknown UseKeychain
  AddKeysToAgent yes
  UseKeychain yes
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Add the key to the ssh-agent.

ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Then you can add the public key to, for example, GitHub via the web interface.

Configuration

Configure macOS, e.g. Finder, the Dock, trackpad and keyboard, terminal. See mac.sh for details.

base/os/mac.sh

Note: it seems that many settings cannot be scripted.

Require password immediately

1. System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> General
2. Tick Require password and set to "Immediately"

Set caps lock key to no action

1. Go to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Modifier Keys...
2. Set Caps Lock Key to "No Action"

Turn on night shift

1. System Preferences -> Displays -> Night Shift...
2. Set Schedule to "Sunset to Sunrise"

Applications

Install the following applications manually.

• Brave
• Emacs
• iTerm
• Logseq
• Obsidian
• Signal
• Spotify
• Transmission
• VSCodium

Install the following utilities manually.

• KeepingYouAwake
• ProtonVPN
• Sync

Font

I like Fira Code font. Install manually from here.