Dane MacMillan's dotfiles customized.

These are all the settings you will incrementally set and ultimately forget. dotfiles attempts to work seamlessly between MacOS and most GNU/Linux environments.

Additionally, it strictly adheres to the XDG Base Directory Specification ("XDG" or "XDG spec" or "XDG specification"). This is good for anyone who wants a clean ${HOME}, especially MacOS users who do not natively benefit from the XDG spec.

Beyond Version v2.0.0

ℹ️ From November 19, 2021 onward , these dotfiles use Home Manager with Nix instead of Homebrew for the majority of its tooling and configuration. To use the last supported Homebrew version, it is tagged as v2.0.0. The master branch beyond that point will reflect an evolving adoption of Nix.

Setup

Install

⚠️ Note: The installation will unforgivingly replace all the files in your home directory that match the files in this repo. Back them up if you do not want to lose them.

The install command to use depends on whether the host machine's SSH key has been added to GitHub. If it is a new machine that does not have a key, or this distinction is confusing, go with "No."

SSH Key on GitHub	Install Command
Yes	cd ~ && curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/drew7721/dotfiles/master/bin/__dotfiles_install | bash -
No	cd ~ && curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/drew7721/dotfiles/master/bin/__dotfiles_install | bash -s -- nossh

Update

Just run dotfiles from anywhere. It is in the ${PATH}.

Command Arguments

Several arguments can be used with the dotfiles utility:

• dotfiles unstow: Unlinks all symlinks.
• dotfiles restow: Unlinks and re-links all symlinks. Effective for pruning.
• dotfiles skippackages: Run command but skip packages installation. This is only recommended once all the packages have been installed at least once.

Check tab completion for all possible arguments.

Customize

Local customizations can be made to dotfiles without actually touching the code. It generates several local config templates at ${XDG_DATA_HOME}/doftiles. That path usually expands to ${HOME}/.local/shared/dotfiles.

${XDG_DATA_HOME}/doftiles/shell.local

This is the second-to-last file sourced by ${HOME}/.bashrc. Write in any local configuration and environment changes here.

${XDG_DATA_HOME}/doftiles/${DOTFILES_HOSTNAME}.shell.local

This is the last file sourced by ${HOME}/.bashrc. This one is even more specific than the previous one, as it includes the hostname of the machine. This is useful when sharing environments across machines, and each machine requires slight changes.

For example, my machine generates a file called macmillanator.local.shell.local. I have a virtual machine that shares the same ${HOME}, so on that machine, dotfiles also generates a vagrant.test.shell.local file. Both of these files co-exist, and do not interfere with each other's respective environments. Putting all local configuration changes in shell.local would mean both environments share the same changes, which is not always desired.

${XDG_DATA_HOME}/doftiles/gitconfig.local

This file is included at the bottom of the global git config. It is typically used to store personal credentials.

Technical Details

These are some features or configuration choices worth highlighting.

📑 XDG Base Directory Specification

The XDG Base Directory Specification is created for operating systems that do not support it by default. This is done by creating all the $XDG_* environment variables and their corresponding directories. Strict adherence to the specification has been observed.

Tools that natively support the specification will leverage these environment variables and directories without additional work. If the variables and directories were already available, dotfiles will respect them.

Read the source to see how the XDG spec environment variables and directories are created.

Partial Support

A number of tools do not natively support the specification, so in those instances dotfiles have modified environment variables, aliases, and configurations so that they can emulate support. These tools will be referred to as having partial support.

To see all of the tools adhering to the XDG spec, both with official support and partial workarounds, look in home/.config and home/.local/share.

📁 Repository Organization

dotfiles is organized into a very deliberate, tidy structure. The effort was made to ensure a distinction existed between the canonical dotfiles that comprise all the plain settings and configurations, and the control dotfiles that typically arise from the need to manage the canonical ones. I never liked having them mixed together in the {$HOME} directory.

dotfiles
├── /bin          -> Essential executable scripts for dotfiles. Available in $PATH.
├── /dpm          -> Dotfiles package manager ("dpm"): TODO EXPLAIN
├── /home         -> Canonical dotfiles that mirror ${HOME}. Symlink targets.
│   ├── /.config  -> ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}
│   ├── /.local   -> ${XDG_DATA_HOME}
│   └── /bin      -> Miscellaneous executable scripts. Available in $PATH.
└── /source       -> Core scripts sourced by dotfiles.
    └──bootstap   -> Bootstrap file that connects everything.

dotfiles/home

These are the files that contain all of the configurations for a new environment, from all variety of tools and utilities. This is what I refer to as canonical dotfiles.

The contents of this directory are what appears in a user's ${HOME} directory. Note that there are very few files at the root. That means that the ${HOME} directory itself will also be kept clean, aside from a few culprits that have not been able to be coerced into adhering to the XDG spec. The contents of this directory and its subdirectories are symlinked into ${HOME}.

Traditionally, and by most dotfiles' standards, these files are the ones at the root of a repository, as they are also traditionally at the root of a user's ${HOME} directory. dotfiles tidies things up and places them in their own directory, in order to serve as a clean reference to what actually symlinks into ${HOME}. This is achieved because of dotfiles's strict adherence to the XDG spec. This is the only directory that will have contents symlinked. All other files are either sourced internally, or available in the ${PATH}.

⚡ Packages (dpm)

dotfiles include a package management-like script for handling dependencies from a wide array of package manager types. This is what enables it to create environments across a variety of MacOS and GNU/Linux operating systems. bin/dpm is the tool used for this. It will eventually become its own repository.

TODO: explain how this works.

Symlinks via stow

As of November 16, 2021, these dotfiles replaced manual symlink creation with the stow command. Everything under dotfiles/home will be symlinked using stow.

☁️ iCloud Drive

There is a technique in use for users of iCloud Drive, that will also symlink any files that are found at: /Users/${USER}/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/${USER}. This is useful for any sensitive config files that usually co-exist with config files that are symlinked from these dotfiles. For example, if a /Users/${USER}/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/${USER}/.ssh directory exists, it will be symlinked to ${HOME}/.ssh alongside the non-sensitive config files that are stored in this repository.

Author

Dane MacMillan