Dotfiles

This project is my gnarly system manager and dotfile auto-configuration tool since dotfiles are meant to be forked!

Installation

Note: if you fork the repo, change mrandrewandrade below to your github username

git clone https://github.com/mrandrewandrade/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles
cd ~/dotfiles
sudo bash makesymlinks.sh

Note: This setup was orignally taken from here and built on Linux Mint based on my own preferences. The system should work for most *nix-based (Unix-like) systems (such at Mac and Ubuntu). If you are using Mac, I highly suggest upgrading your terminal and using iTerm2.

What are dotfiles?

Dotfiles are funky hidden configuration files which people use to customize their nerdery (and greatly enhance productivity): change how their prompt looks, set up their $PATH, completely change everything about Vim, adjust settings their settings and do about a billion and a half other things. They're tons of fun, and I use them to get things done at the speed of thought.

This repo contains the files to get you started!

Getting Started

To get started you either follow the command line installation instructions above (by opening terminal and typing the commands) or you can download the files and unzip them in your home directory so that the path is ~/dotfiles/.

You can then run makesymlinks.sh (by running sudo bash makesymlinks.sh) to install everything. Note, if you read the script, it creates symlinks from your home directory to the files which are located in ~/dotfiles/. The setup script is smart enough to back up your existing dotfiles into a ~/dotfiles_old/ directory if you already have any dotfiles of the same name as the dotfile symlinks being created in your home directory.

I also prefer zsh as my shell of choice. Here is why. As such, the setup script will also clone the oh-my-zsh repository from my GitHub. It then checks to see if zsh is installed. If zsh is installed, and it is not already configured as the default shell, the setup script will execute a chsh -s $(which zsh). This changes the default shell to zsh, and takes effect as soon as a new zsh is spawned or on next login.

So, to recap, the install script will:

1. Back up any existing dotfiles in your home directory to ~/dotfiles_old/
2. Create symlinks to the dotfiles in ~/dotfiles/ in your home directory
3. Clone the oh-my-zsh repository from my GitHub (for use with zsh)
4. Check to see if zsh is installed, if it isn't, try to install it.
5. If zsh is installed, run a chsh -s to set it as the default shell.

You can then configure any of your dotfiles by editing the files in ~/dotfiles.

Current TODO list:

• Add install tmux + other of my favourite tools to makesymlinks.sh