Dotfiles

My OS X / Ubuntu dotfiles.

Why is this a git repo?

I've been using zsh for a long time. In all that time, every time I've set up a new Linux or OS X machine, I've copied over my .zshrc file and my ~/bin folder to each machine manually. And I've never done a very good job of actually maintaining these files. It's been a total mess.

I finally decided that I wanted to be able to execute a single command to "bootstrap" a new system to pull down all of my dot files and configs, as well as install all the tools I commonly use. In addition, I wanted to be able to re-execute that command at any time to synchronize anything that might have changed. Finally, I wanted to make it easy to re-integrate changes back in, so that other machines could be updated.

That command is ~/bin/dotfiles, and this is my "dot files" Git repo.

What, exactly, does the "dot files" command do?

It's really not very complicated. When dotfiles is run, it does a few things:

1. Git is installed if necessary, via APT or Homebrew (which is installed if necessary).
2. This repo is cloned into the ~/.dotfiles directory (or updated if it already exists).
3. Files in init are executed (in alphanumeric order).
4. Files in copy are copied into ~/.
5. Files in link are linked into ~/.

Note:

• The backups folder only gets created when necessary. Any files in ~/ that would have been overwritten by copy or link get backed up there.
• Files in bin are executable shell scripts (~/.dotfiles/bin is added into the path).
• Files in source get sourced whenever a new shell is opened (in alphanumeric order)..
• Files in conf just sit there. If a config file doesn't need to go in ~/, put it in there.
• Files in caches are cached files, only used by some scripts. This folder will only be created if necessary.

Installation

OS X

Notes:

• You need to be an administrator (for sudo).
• You need to have installed XCode Command Line Tools, which are available as a separate, optional (and much smaller) download from Xcode.

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

Ubuntu

Notes:

• You need to be an administrator (for sudo).
• If APT hasn't been updated or upgraded recently, it will probably be a few minutes before you see anything.

sudo apt-get -qq update && sudo apt-get -qq upgrade && sudo apt-get -qq install curl && echo &&
bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/drudge/dotfiles/master/bin/dotfiles)" && source ~/.zshrc

Android

Notes:

• Install Termux, a great terminal emulator and Linux environment for Android that doesn't require root.

apt update && apt install curl && echo &&
bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/drudge/dotfiles/master/bin/dotfiles)"

The "init" step

These things will be installed, but only if they aren't already.

OS X

• Homebrew
  • git
  • tree
  • sl
  • lesspipe
  • id3tool
  • nmap
  • git-extras
  • htop-osx
  • apple-gcc42 (via homebrew-dupes)

Ubuntu

• APT
  • build-essential
  • libssl-dev
  • git-core
  • tree
  • sl
  • id3tool
  • nmap
  • telnet
  • htop

Both

• Nave
  • Npm (latest stable)
    • Jake
    • JSHint
    • Uglify-JS

The ~/ "copy" step

Any file in the copy subdirectory will be copied into ~/. Any file that needs to be modified with personal information (like .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 dot files repo.

The ~/ "link" step

Any file in the link subdirectory gets symbolically linked with ln -s into ~/. Edit these, and you change the file in the repo. Don't link files containing sensitive data, or you might accidentally commit that data!

Aliases and Functions

To keep things easy, the ~/.zshrc file is 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 script, there are a few other shell scripts.

• dotfiles - (re)initialize dot files. 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.

Inspiration

https://github.com/cowboy/dotfiles https://github.com/gf3/dotfiles https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles

License

Copyright (c) 2012 Nicholas Penree Licensed under the MIT license. http://benalman.com/about/license/

Original Work: Copyright (c) 2012 "Cowboy" Ben Alman Licensed under the MIT license. http://benalman.com/about/license/

Useful

The ZSH reference card is a pretty good start for tips.

Feedback

Suggestions/improvements are welcome