My personal dotfiles

My personal dotfiles. Also used by nearly all other geeks at spatie.be and the amazing Frederick Vanbrabant.

It contains the installation of some basic tools, some handy aliases and functions. Backups of settings are done via Mackup.

Requirements

• macOS (tested on macOS Sonoma and later)
• Administrator access (for Homebrew installation and system configuration)
• Dropbox (optional, for Mackup backups)

Installation

You can install them by cloning the repository as .dotfiles in your home directory and running the bootstrap script.

git clone git@github.com:rhyslees/dotfiles.git .dotfiles
cd .dotfiles
./bootstrap

The bootstrap script will:

1. Install oh-my-zsh
2. Set up shell configuration (zsh, vim)
3. Install Homebrew and all required packages
4. Configure npm, PHP, Composer, and other development tools
5. Set up symlinks for configuration files

Installed Tools

Development Tools

• Node.js - Managed via fnm (Fast Node Manager)
• PHP 8.3 - Via Homebrew tap
• Composer - PHP dependency manager
• MySQL - Database server
• Yarn - JavaScript package manager
• Git - Version control (with GitHub CLI)

Modern CLI Tools

• gh - GitHub CLI (replaces deprecated hub)
• rg (ripgrep) - Fast text search
• fd - Modern find alternative
• bat - Modern cat with syntax highlighting
• eza - Modern ls alternative
• fzf - Fuzzy finder
• zoxide - Smart directory jumping (alternative to z.sh)

Utilities

• httpie - HTTP client
• ncdu - Disk usage analyzer
• wget - File downloader
• doctl - DigitalOcean CLI
• git-secret - Git encryption
• mackup - Application settings backup
• zsh-autosuggestions - Zsh plugin

Laravel/PHP Tools

• Laravel Valet - Local development environment
• Laravel Envoy - Task runner
• PHPUnit Watcher - Test watcher
• aicommits - AI-powered commit messages

Quick Look Plugins

• qlcolorcode, qlstephen, qlmarkdown, quicklook-json, qlprettypatch, quicklook-csv, betterzip, suspicious-package

Configuration Files

• shell/.zshrc - Zsh configuration
• shell/.vimrc - Vim configuration
• shell/.aliases - Shell aliases
• shell/.functions - Shell functions
• shell/.exports - Environment variables
• macos/set-defaults.sh - macOS system defaults
• macos/.mackup.cfg - Mackup configuration

Using Brewfile

For easier dependency management, you can use the included Brewfile:

brew bundle

This will install all Homebrew packages and casks listed in the Brewfile.

Post-Installation

After running the bootstrap script:

1. Install terminal font: Install the Menlo Powerline font from ~/.dotfiles/misc/Menlo-Powerline.otf
2. Install terminal theme: Install the Solarized Dark theme from ~/.dotfiles/misc
3. Run Mackup (if using Dropbox):
   • First time: mackup backup
   • Restore existing: mackup restore
4. Set macOS defaults: Run ~/.dotfiles/macos/set-defaults.sh
5. Create custom aliases (optional): Create ~/.dotfiles-custom/shell/.aliases for personal commands

Troubleshooting

Node.js not found

After installation, you may need to install a Node version:

fnm install --lts
fnm use --install-if-missing

PHP not found

Ensure PHP is linked:

brew link --overwrite --force php@8.3

GitHub CLI authentication

After installation, authenticate with GitHub:

gh auth login

Terminal theme not working

Make sure you've installed the Menlo Powerline font and set it as your terminal font.

Customization

You can add custom configuration files that won't be committed:

• ~/.dotfiles-custom/shell/.aliases
• ~/.dotfiles-custom/shell/.functions
• ~/.dotfiles-custom/shell/.exports
• ~/.dotfiles-custom/shell/.zshrc

These files are automatically sourced by the main .zshrc.

License

Feel free to use and modify these dotfiles for your own use.