dotfiles #

all the cool kids do this

Overview #

These are configuration files, scripts, lists of packages that I have available for two types of systems: macOS and Manjaro. Manjaro is my daily driver so those are more fleshed out and existent in this repository. This is an overview of the core software that I use:

• Window Manager: Sway (Manjaro) and Yabai (macOS)
• Terminal emulator: Alacritty
• Terminal multiplexer: tmux
• Shell: Zsh
• Editor: Neovim
• Browser: Firefox

Installation #

Note that this presumes that you’ve already got git setup which may very well not be the case if you are on macOS. If that is you, run xcode-select --install first.

Clone the bare repository:

git clone https://github.com/knowler/dotfiles.git $HOME/.dotfiles --bare

Checkout the files in your $HOME directory:

git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles --work-tree=$HOME checkout

Note that if any of these files exist, this will fail and you will need to either remove them or back them up using a different file name.

Run the setup script:

~/.scripts/setup.sh

Reload the shell:

exec $SHELL -l

Using the Git wrapper, set untracked files not to show in status calls for the repo:

dots config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no

Generating Nerd Font for Dank Mono (used in Alacritty) #

I still need to write out the instructions for this. For now, if you don’t have the Nerd Font, then run apply the patch and just don’t commit the change:

dots apply ~/.patches/alacritty-no-nerd-font.patch

Maintaining #

Some notes on maintaining.

Using the dots Git wrapper alias #

Following those who have used the bare-repo method of dotfiles before me, I have made an alias dots as a wrapper around Git to make updating these dotfiles a breeze. You will notice a few integrations do not work like any shell autocompletion or editor Git integration. I am sure that someone else has those things solved, I just haven’t found that yet. Note that with using the repo through the helper, you will need to explicitly add new files. This includes new files that are created as a product of renaming another file.

Quickly edit a tracked dotfile #

I have a script dot which feeds all tracked dotfiles into fzf for selection.

Installing packages and keeping package lists up-to-date #

Note that running the setup script again will install new packages for you. If you want packages that you’ve added to persist, make sure to generate a new package list before you pull so that you can merge the changes accordingly.

macOS #

On macOS, use the following command to install new packages from ~/.Brewfile:

brew bundle install --global --cleanup --no-upgrade

If you’ve installed packages, run the following command to “update” the file:

brew bundle dump --global --force --no-lock

The --force flag allows the command to write over the file (kind of annoying, if you ask me).

Manjaro #

On Manjaro, use the following command to install new packages from ~/.pkglist.txt:

yay -S --needed - < $HOME/.pkglist.txt

If you’ve installed packages, generate a new list of packages run the following command:

yay -Qqe > $HOME/.pkglist.txt

# or from $HOME

make -B .pkglist.txt

I’ve seen a systemctl hook to automate this which I will be exploring in the near future. I guess a Git hook could work well for the installation part.