Perma-Shell: A Persistent Google Cloud Shell Environment

This repository contains the dotfiles, scripts, and configurations to create a powerful, customized, and persistent development environment within the ephemeral architecture of Google Cloud Shell.

The Challenge of Cloud Shell

Google Cloud Shell provides a fantastic, temporary compute environment. However, its key limitation is that the underlying VM is ephemeral. Any system-level changes (like packages installed with apt) are wiped clean when the session ends. Only the $HOME directory persists.

The Solution: A Hybrid Approach

This project solves the persistence problem by using a hybrid installation strategy managed by two core scripts:

1. install.sh (The Persistent Installer): This is the main script you run once. It sets up everything that can live permanently in your $HOME directory. This includes:

   • Dotfiles (.bashrc, .tmux.conf, etc.).
   • Application configurations (for lazygit, yazi, etc.) in ~/.config.
   • Pre-compiled binaries (like Neovim, Lazygit, Yazi) installed directly into ~/.local/bin.
   • User-level package managers like nvm.

2. ~/.customize_environment (The Ephemeral Installer): The install.sh script creates this special script in your home directory. Google Cloud Shell automatically executes this script as root every single time a new session starts. It is responsible for reinstalling the essential system-level dependencies that your tools need to function, such as tty-clock, ripgrep, and others.

This two-script system ensures that your environment is both persistent (for your personal files and binaries) and fully functional (with system dependencies re-installed on-demand), giving you a consistent and reliable developer experience every time you log in.

How to Use

To set up your persistent Cloud Shell environment, follow these steps:

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/your-username/perma-shell.git ~/perma-shell

2. Run the installation script:

   cd ~/perma-shell
   ./install.sh

3. Restart Your Session: After the script completes, restart your Google Cloud Shell session. The ~/.customize_environment script will run automatically on the next startup to finish the setup.

Your environment is now ready.

Repository Structure

• install.sh: The main, one-time installation script for the persistent user environment.
• dotfiles/: Contains all dotfiles (e.g., .bashrc) and dot-directories (e.g., .config/) that will be copied to the $HOME directory.
• scripts/: Contains helper scripts, including the template for the ephemeral customize_environment.sh.
• bin/: Stores pre-downloaded, compressed binaries (like Neovim) for faster installation.
• packages/: Contains lists of binaries to be downloaded and installed.
• README.md: This file.