23 ms·

A decade of dotfiles

338 points by mmazzarolo 4y ago

e3bc54b2 4y ago
This is a good one, I hope I'll have mine for that long (started 2019). Personally, I stopped worrying about dotfiles and GNU stow after joining the cult of Nix. While I gave honest attempt to everything else, Nix made it stick. Now I only have one single repo, where In write config for (almost) all of my applications in Nix, deploy them with Nix, rollback with Nix etc. Compared to hodgepodge of INI/YAML/TOML/XML/JSON/WHATHAVEYOU it is nice to to only have single tool to worry about. I wished Guix had the momentum and size of Nixpkgs. I'd much prefer a Lisp than the language contraption of Nix.
- akavel 4y ago
  Notably, Nix with home-manager. Makes it pretty seamless for me to switch between Linux, Mac, and between employers. I love it even more since I got my home-manager config to be a Nix Flake - this way I have it 100% deterministic and can upgrade/downgrade the tool versions when I like without worrying too much whether I'll be able to go back if something breaks (having flake.lock versioned in git is kinda mandated and checked by Flakes).
  - tsuujin 4y ago
    I’ve been toying with the idea of switching from stow to home-manager, but I feel like there’s a lot of friction in the form of hard to answer questions. For example, my emacs config is a literate org file, which is important to me. It is large and complicated and I don’t feel like it’s a good fit for an “all my configs together” solution. I’m not sure how that would fit into home manager and while I’m sure the answer is in the docs somewhere it just seems hard enough to get to that it stops me from really digging in.
    - ryangibb 4y ago
      I'm not all too familiar with emacs, but is https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/options.html#opt-home.file https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/options.html#op... or https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/options.html#opt-xdg.configFile https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/options.html#op... what you're looking for? They just symlink a config file into $HOME or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME respectively.
    - akavel 4y ago
      Not sure if that would be good enough for you, but: 1. There's some syntax for importing files "raw" as strings; I don't recall details now from memory, but it's used extensively e.g. to load contents of .patch files. So you could have an Org file and get it imported. 2. I suspect there's some "smart wrapper" (so-called "module") for emacs in home-manager; it could conflict with your one. But using the "modules" is not mandatory; you can just have h-m put raw files in your ~/.emacs/ dir or whatsit, and add emacs in your $PATH. The thing that may be most tricky would be plugins - sure doable, but could need some nontrivial work. Alternatively, you could try seeing if the emacs module has some "extraConfig" field or something similar, and plug your literate Org there.
    - ParetoOptimal 4y ago
      > For example, my emacs config is a literate org file, which is important to me. It is large and complicated and I don’t feel like it’s a good fit for an “all my configs together” solution. I have a literate config that works with home-manager. The problem is the 800 noweb-ref blocks took 10+ seconds to tangle. I reported it, and someone optimized tangling to 0.5 seconds. I'm still using the custom patches though since the changes haven't been released or maybe even merged yet.
  - SuperSandro2000 4y ago
    If home-manager options for configuration files weren't always that backwards and hard to use. Compared to NixOS a lot is still lacking and you're better off just using it for package management IMO.
- shreyshnaccount 4y ago
  Does having one gh repo with everything on there count? Asking for a friend...
- doliveira 4y ago
  Oh, I so wish to learn it, seems quite awesome. I literally made my own scripts to do exactly this management over the years. But the learning curve seems huge, not many good resources, etc... Honestly they all sound like those posts trying to explain monads And frankly, I barely have motivation to study more concrete stuff...
  - e3bc54b2 4y ago
    Admittedly, it can be worse than sitting down and reading the manual front to back, but I did it the hard (or simple) way. I used the simple template generated during nixos-install and kept adding packages I needed. Configured them manually as usual and went about my business. It works out more often than people would realize. For services, development toolchains etc just google and copy-paste from other people's config. Simply add 'ext:nix' to google query and you should be good. I'm at almost 3 years, know just enough Nix to write some custom stuff, but nowhere close to the Wizard title. Its not as bad as people make it out. Remember, your target is not to master it on day 1. Target is to get VLC to play the media file (or some equivalent for you).
    - klysm 4y ago
      As soon as you get something weird though, the rabbit hole is forever
- ewuhic 4y ago
  Can one use the benefits of Nix provisioning while using other linux distro, Debian specifically?
  - PufPufPuf 4y ago
    You can install Nix package manager on any system, but the packages will be separate from system packages. You can try it and switch to full NixOS if you like it
  - mschwaig 4y ago
    If you are talking about provisioning dot files and command line applications you want to have available on all you machines then take a look at home-manager. https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager I use it on NixOS. It should absolutely work on other distros unfortunately I don't have any first hand experience with that or with what the best way is to set it up on other distos (I think there are few options for how to do it).
    - chrisweekly 4y ago
      > "there are few options" I'm curious about your phrasing. In idiomatic English, this says "there are _not many_ options", IOW options are limited. It emphasizes the constraints. OTOH had you written "there are _a_ few options", it'd emphasize the existence of more than one option, with a positive connotation. From context I infer you meant the latter, is that right?
      - mschwaig 4y ago
        Yes sorry. This was a typo. I meant to write 'a few options'.
  - rgoulter 4y ago
    Yes. I think it's a good way to get started with Nix. e.g. with nix installed, you'll be able to use the nix-shell to get the development dependencies without having to install system wide, if a shell.nix or flake.nix has been written for it. (e.g. for repos like https://github.com/helix-editor/helix https://github.com/helix-editor/helix). You'll be able to use the `nix shell` command to try out a program without needing it installed system wide. Or you can figure out how to write your own nix-shells etc. I think Home Manager is worth trying only once you're otherwise familiar with Nix (or if you find a good config to copy-paste from, though), since Nix's error messages and debugging still aren't great.
- francis-io 4y ago
  Currently I use Ansible to deploy my dotfiles, along with anything else needed to setup a workstation. I keep seeing people mention Nix. Would it give me anything that Ansible and Git can't give me?
  - noahmasur 4y ago
    Mostly it provides guarantees about your system. It guarantees that anything not in your config is not on your system (for the most part). It guarantees that everything builds successfully before it applies any changes. Most of the filesystem is immutable so it forces you to use the configuration. There are some other advantages: rollback to a previous state at any time, enable complex system services with one line in your config file, install multiple versions of tools on your system without conflicts, install programs without root (using home manager), build VMs and Docker images, pin the versions and dependencies of all packages for reproducibility, patch software with your own tweaks natively. You can also put a Nix file in a code repo and easily share your build dependencies with other developers.
    - francis-io 4y ago
      This might show my ignorance, but can Nix replace something like asdf (https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf)?
      - noahmasur 4y ago
        Yes, that’s exactly the kind of thing it’s great at. Nix stores all builds of its packages in a separate “store” on the machine, each identified by the hash of the build (“derivation”). When you activate your config, it basically symlinks the version you want into your PATH. If your project needs a specific version, when you activate a Nix shell or script it will check your store for that version and activate it. If it doesn’t exist, it will fetch it (or even compile it from scratch if you need to).
        kcorbitt 4y ago
- tylergetsay 4y ago
  Any tips on places to get started with Nix?
  - e3bc54b2 4y ago
    If you're looking to learn Nix start-to-end, there manuals for Nix and NixOS, both are good. This is an extensive study at trying to 'understand' Nix, because is does so many things differently: https://ianthehenry.com/posts/how-to-learn-nix/ https://ianthehenry.com/posts/how-to-learn-nix/ If you're just looking to start building your system, follow NixOS manual up until you have a running system, then pace yourself as you will. You can also setup Nix on existing Linux distro or macOS and practice the ropes before plunging into NixOS.
  - jeppesen-io 4y ago
    I'd just install nix + home-manager on your linux or Macos box. That's not too hard. Then take one of your dotfiles supported by home-manager e.g. kitty term, and port it to nix + home-manager No need to boil the ocean, just start small. You can mix and match with what you're using now. If you like, port it all to nix over time
- a-dub 4y ago
  i want to like nix, but the inconsistent naming and use of the language was a huge turn off. all the randomly named config options and the spotty coverage of them were like fingernails on the chalkboard for me.
  - SuperSandro2000 4y ago
    The nix language almost always uses camel case while packages use kebab case. Options are almost exclusively discovered through search.nixos.org, the configuration man page or by reading the source code. Since the introduction of structured settings there is also often a way to set settings in a freeform type.
- mekeor 4y ago
  there's a lispy alternative to nix, called gnu guix, which uses guile/scheme instead of nix-lang.
  - e3bc54b2 4y ago
    I know, I even mentioned it. Unfortunately and understandably Guix means my WiFi won't work and there will be less stuff supported OOTB. So I'll be on Nix for foreseeable future.
    - sierkov 4y ago
      https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix ?
    - turboponyy 4y ago
      You can include community sources in order to use the standard, non-libre Linux kernel - though my Guix experience was a bit frustrating in part due to complications such as this one compared to what I'm currently experiencing with NixOS (thoroughly enjoying it!). There are a fair few very vocal former NixOS users who miss no opportunity to extol the benefits of Guix in the chatrooms I frequent, though. Not without merit either, I should say: the project and its UX does seem to be much more well-thought out; it's developed by GNU; the project takes software freedom seriously; many will surely enjoy hacking away at their config in Scheme. As it stands currently, though, there are more resources and it's easier to get things done with NixOS - you also get to use learn a (imo really great) packaging system that is in somewhat wide use.
  - cassepipe 4y ago
    I tried learning Guile some days ago because Guix seems so cool and I like the idea that the configuration is not done in a special purpose language. Had never lisped before. It seemed cool and I tried my hand with a tutorial that makes you embed guile in a C program to make it interactive. It was okay but it seemed like too much boilerplate to have to register functions individually but maybe it is standard when embedding. Never tried with lua or Janet before so I can't say. In general there is a lack of resources, it is quite hard as a beginner to get a start with the language past playing with the repl a little. Also tried to see if there was a Guile version of the famous SICP but ugh it was not straightforward. I gave up. Hope Guix will foster better resources on Guile Scheme.
- pmarreck 4y ago
  > I wish Guix had the momentum and size of Nixpkgs. I'd much prefer a Lisp than the language contraption of Nix This is exactly my feeling as well. The fact that Guix uses Guile (which is basically Scheme, a Lisp) throughout the entire process (even from the preboot environment!) is kind of a big deal. Plus the commandline UI is just better (at least if you prefer your package manager to look like "brew install <packagename>" instead of "pacman -Ssyyu <package>"). I know the "nix" command is making headway there but it's apparently also being rewritten at the same time and is basically still a buggy clusterfuck plus I hear there's an added complication of friction between the older nix devs and the newer committers working on the newer stuff. I almost wish there was a "declarative Bash" variant on a fork of Nix that would allow people to lean on Bash knowledge but would only permit declarative style operations, so you could get the underlying Nix goodness but would have a more familiar (to most) declarative command language on top of it... or even better, something like https://wryun.github.io/es-shell/ https://wryun.github.io/es-shell/ ... but you'd still lose the nix momentum
  - cassepipe 4y ago
    How did you learn Guile ? Here is my experience so far : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31558878 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31558878
    - pmarreck 4y ago
      I actually learned Scheme in CS212 at Cornell (which, incidentally, I bombed at the time, but it was due to the pacing, not being unable to handle the depth), so it was pretty much a no-op for me. Fundamentally it's a pretty simple language. Once you grasp those details, the rest kind of falls into place where you look at some code and go "Oh, THAT'S what it's doing". I also answered your comment there.
- asiachick 4y ago
  So, not having heard of Nix, I go to their home page and watch the video. It shows "nix-shell -p nodejs". Hmm, sounds like it's using the apt-get version of node which is usually out of date. It then shows making a shell.nix that enables nodejs and commits it to a repo and suggests sharing it. This completely ignores the fact that my various projects requires specific versions of node. Maybe the first example shouldn't be one that's pretty clearly wrong?
  - akho 4y ago
    > sounds like it's using the apt-get version of node which is usually out of date It’s using the Nixpkgs version, which unfortunately depends on which nixpkgs channel you’re on. There’s a `nodejs_latest` attribute, which is actually latest (18.2.0 right now), as well as `nodejs-12_x` or somesuch for past major versions (where required by other nixpkgs packages). Plain `nodejs` should be the LTS version. > This completely ignores the fact that my various projects requires specific versions of node Nix allows you to pin either nixpkgs or a particular package with commit-level granularity. I’m not sure this sort of video is the right place to introduce that.
    - akavel 4y ago
      Notably, with Nix Flakes, everything managed by Nix gets automatically 100% precisely pinned to specific versions by hash.
    - asiachick 4y ago
      would have been all that hard for the video to show node-12.x instead of nodejs? I would have clearly shown choosing a version instead of wrongly showing bad unreproducible practices that makes anyone paying attention question if the devs actually get what they're doing
- klysm 4y ago
  I wonder if we can make nix into a library of sorts for other languages so we don’t have to deal with its arcane-ness.
  - SuperSandro2000 4y ago
    Insert xkcd about creating a unified standard
    - klysm 4y ago
      I didn’t mean a standard, more of exposing its primitive s with interfaces that are usable in other languages.
- civodul 4y ago
  Speaking of Guix and dotfiles, you may like Guix Home, a tool to manage one's "home environment": to deploy software and associated config files. https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2022/keeping-ones-home-tidy/ https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2022/keeping-ones-home-tidy/
sgiratch 4y ago
The site from wayback machine since it died from hug of death https://web.archive.org/web/20220529161019/https://evanhahn.com/a-decade-of-dotfiles/ https://web.archive.org/web/20220529161019/https://evanhahn....
kkfx 4y ago
My personal sauce is Emacs with org-mode configs to be tangled, far more efficient than anything else tried before to manage dotfiles I care, ignoring those I do not care... NixOS (since unfortunately Guix System is still a bit raw for me) complete tha game allowing to easy tangle the whole system config and generate a custom iso with Emacs and all the rest. Zsh complete the game as shell, eshell honestly it's on my list but I still can't use it daily...
- jamesmstone 4y ago
  hey thats neat! how do you build the iso?
  - kkfx 4y ago
    It's very simple, a basic NixOS config like https://paste2.org/E5IUKfs9 https://paste2.org/E5IUKfs9 built with nix-build '<nixpkgs/nixos>' -A config.system.build.isoImage \ -I nixos-config=iso.nix you can add anything else, for instance X config for interactive usage, perhaps with the same (nearly) EXWM used normally etc. Nix language is obscene but making iso is awesome easy, just a matter of download and build time.
    - jamesmstone 4y ago
      thanks!
jchook 4y ago
> Prefer scripts over aliases I prefer aliases when possible because they inherit autocomplete rules. Also it’s easy to “complect” things with custom scripts.
francis-io 4y ago
No one asked, but I feel like I've been down this road before. Heavily customizing a system with obscure lines plucked from strangers dotfiles. These days I use VS Code and Firefox for almost everything.
kuon 4y ago
I used to use stow to manage my dotfiles but this was a cumbersome step that didn't provide any real advantage. Now I just edit config files by hand and with zfs autosnapshot I can easily rollback if needed. I'd love to try something like nix, but I rely on many aur packages that are bleeding edge for my workflow, I fear it would be hard to be up to date with nix, but I have not tried yet.
- ninjin 4y ago
  NixOS user here. My experience is that if you track unstable, you will have bleeding edge packages within a day or two from an upstream release. Likewise, due to how Nix works, you can pick and mix from stable, unstable, and your own custom expressions to your heart’s content. My personal preference is stable, with a very small subset of packages from unstable that I try to peg back to stable once there is a new stable release. I will not pretend that there is not a learning curve though, Nix is a bit of a beast.
teodorlu 4y ago
I love `entr`, but I've recently moved a lot of my `entr` usage to `watchexec`. Entr requires a file list on stdin, watchexec watches the current folder. With entr: find . | entr COMMAND with watchexec: watchexec COMMAND Watchexec also gracefully handles new files and file deletions. https://watchexec.github.io/ https://watchexec.github.io/
- teodorlu 4y ago
  I think entr handles some things more cleanly, though: 1. Some bash is allowed, which has been confusing me. I'd rather call 'bash -c "echo stuff > file"' myself. 2. Watchexec has its own interface for "filter which files to watch". Entr just relies on unix tools.
- fallat 4y ago
  The point is that entr can then focus only on specific files... watchexec now has to add special behaviors for .gitignores and whatnot. It's way more flexible and you can alias this so you don't have to remember anything or save it to ~/bin/my-watcher-thing.sh (both of these things I find people are not using enough).
caeruleus 4y ago
Last year, I started setting up a Qubes OS workstation. Doing all the intricate little steps manually seemed like such a waste of time that I started learning SaltStack, which is built into the Qubes management stack, to be able to automate and replicate the setup. This small itch exploded in such a way that I wrote a formula for almost every program on every system and server I use. For all other small programs, I just use one formula that syncs the appropriate dotfiles (I can also template them with Jinja). In hindsight, going with Nix would have been the most efficient way to reach most of that, apart from the Qubes-specific stuff. This will probably be the next step on my (ironic) odyssey of going all-in on configuration to finally stop worrying about it and reap the benefits of the beauty that is computing without its nasty warts. In essence, I would love a proper integration between Nix and Qubes OS. Edit: For anyone interested in an example of my current process, see https://github.com/lkubb/salt-tool-chromium-formula https://github.com/lkubb/salt-tool-chromium-formula, https://github.com/lkubb/salt-tool-gpg-formula https://github.com/lkubb/salt-tool-gpg-formula or https://github.com/lkubb/salt-tool-macos-formula https://github.com/lkubb/salt-tool-macos-formula.
- rgoulter 4y ago
  > In essence, I would love a proper integration between Nix and Qubes OS. This sounds like it'd be interesting to you: https://spectrum-os.org/ https://spectrum-os.org/
yakshaving_jgt 4y ago
> It doesn’t work for everything. For example, I have a boop command (which I mentioned above) that needs access to the previous command’s exit status—as far as I know, that’s impossible with a script. I got nerd-sniped by this. I can't see any reason why this wouldn't work. I tested this myself by writing a script called show-error.sh: #!/bin/bash echo $? And then I ran $(exit 5) . ./show-error.sh And this outputs 5
- faho 4y ago
  Well, yeah, if you source the file (for which `.` is a shortcut) it runs in the current shell so the environment is intact. If you just run it it won't work. So instead of running `boop` you would always have to `source boop` or `. boop`. A function or alias you could just run like normal. (and `export ?` complains about ? being an invalid identifier in bash, in zsh `export "?"` apparently "works", but will reset it before you get a chance to print it in another process)
  - NegativeLatency 4y ago
    You could also pass the exit status into the program being called
- SuchAnonMuchWow 4y ago
  this only works because you are sourcing the file, and not just executing it: $(exit 5) ./show_error.sh outputs 0. Sourcing the file is the same as copying and pasting its content into the current shell. It is designed to allow this kind of things (accessing the caller execution context). But it is not what we usually call a script precisely because of this.
- throwaway41232 4y ago
  I cant really check this right now but doesnt $(exit 5) just spawn a subshell which exits with 5 which is visible by the parent script you just source your show-error.sh in? Try to subshell the source too like (. ./show-error.sh)
iRomain 4y ago
For my dotfiles [1] I use https://www.chezmoi.io https://www.chezmoi.io which I really like using and stuck (as opposed to my previous dotfiles attempts which didn’t stick). Albeit I have only been using it for a few months as opposed to the author’s decade. I guess the idea is to find the one tool/methodology that sticks with you. [1] https://github.com/politician/dotfiles https://github.com/politician/dotfiles
- blueflow 4y ago
  I find it odd that people use extra management software for their dotfiles. Most of the files are in `~/.config` anyways, so you can track this folder like a regular directory in git. And for the software that does insist on writing into `~` directly you can set up symlinks, with a script or manually.
  - twp 4y ago
    Tracking `~/.config` as a regular directory in git only works if all your machines are near-identical. If you want to share dotfiles between, say, Linux and macOS, or between your home and work machines, then a dotfile manager makes it much much easier. For more reasons, see: https://www.chezmoi.io/why-use-chezmoi/ https://www.chezmoi.io/why-use-chezmoi/ Disclaimer: I'm the author of chezmoi
    - vivab0rg 4y ago
      Unrelated, but thank you for chezmoi, it's a clever little utility very well designed. I use it to manage many distinct Arch-based systems and soon will be moving my Ubuntu servers to it. Congratulations!
      - twp 4y ago
        Thank you <3
  - yunohn 4y ago
    > I find it odd that people use extra management software for their dotfiles > you can set up symlinks, with a script or manually. So yeah… that’s exactly what dotfile managers do with standardised scripts.
kunalgupta 4y ago
luv murder
dividedbyzero 4y ago
I use yadm (https://yadm.io/ https://yadm.io/), very happy with it. It's a thin wrapper above a git repo rooted in the user home that is configured to ignore untracked files. yadm adds a bunch of helpful convenience feature on top (like "alt files" that symlink either one or the other file depending system tags or the OS, and secrets [which I don't use])
mikewarot 4y ago
As a long time Windows user... I had no idea, nor knowledge of dotfiles. I found this introduction[1] which seems to explain it fairly well, as far as I'm concerned. I find the idea of having a file system full of links in it a bit odd.... but I only discovered the nest of them in my Windows 10 system a month or so ago with the windows DIR /AL command. I'll have to get over the cognitive dissonance and adjust to this new reality. 1 - https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/dotfiles-what-is-a-dot-file-and-how-to-create-it-in-mac-and-linux/ https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/dotfiles-what-is-a-dot-fil...
- dimgl 4y ago
  > I find the idea of having a file system full of links in it a bit odd... Windows has the same concept of a PATH, which is where your OS looks for binaries. The difference is that Windows development is, most of the time, not CLI driven, especially if you use Visual Studio and other GUI tools. Development in Windows is a completely different beast to Linux/Unix.
- tasuki 4y ago
  > I find the idea of having a file system full of links in it a bit odd... Why?
  - mikewarot 4y ago
    Quite simply, they weren't a thing for decades in the Windows world. There were facilities to do so built into the code and NTFS, but you had to be an administrator to make symlinks or junctions. The big issue is that backup programs didn't know about them, and would back up things more than once.
- akavel 4y ago
  AFAIK, many Windows apps traditionally tend to use the registry for storing their configs. Which I believe is a similarly odd and foreign idea to most Linux users. On the other hand, before there was the Registry, there were .INI files on Windows too, so kinda similar like dotfiles.
tomxor 4y ago
> Saying that I’ve been maintaining my dotfiles for a decade is like saying that I’ve been decorating my home for a decade. I think it's more like decorating your home for the first time (which is a lot of work), but then in the proceeding years you keep tweaking a few bits to your liking as you learn more about "decoration". The true benefits of the analogy break down a little, for instance one big advantage is persistence, stability and control - that some large corporation doesn't keep rudely breaking into your home every month and forcefully redecorate everything with the latest trend, or keep moving the furniture and light switches around while you are asleep, and inserting annoying store fronts into critical appliances like the fridge, or your toothpaste... The other benefit being that you can fairly effortlessly take your decorations with you to your next home!
- unboxingelf 4y ago
  I’ve been decorating my home for a decade. I’ve been decorating my $HOME for a decade.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - tomxor 4y ago
    I quite like to destroy my $HOME occasionally So I've been decorating my $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS for a decade.
    - encryptluks2 4y ago
      That's not quite accurate either. Some programs use dot files in the home directory and not XDG. Better yet is to use chezmoi or something similar.
bbkane 4y ago
I used GNU Stow for a several years and always found it difficult to tell what symlinks were actually being created, even in verbose mode. When I also ran into the stow bug with --dotfiles , I gave up on stow and wrote fling ( https://github.com/bbkane/fling https://github.com/bbkane/fling ), which works quite similarly, but prints out what symlinks it plans to create and asks for confirmation before making them. Being written in Go, fling is also easy to install on Windows, which has come in real handy on occasion.
- asdfqwertzxcv 4y ago
  Looks excellent! This is my major gripe with Stow as well.
nunez 4y ago
I also started my dotfiles over ten years ago! First commit was in 2012. Use them every day. I thank the awesome folks at Jane Street for teaching me about both dotfiles and Mercurial! (Second job out of college.)
- pqs 4y ago
  I started in 2009. :-)
  - technothrasher 4y ago
    1990, and I've still got things in my .cshrc to fix quirks in SunOS 4 and Irix that I can't bear to remove out of nostalgia.
    - zvr 4y ago
      1983, but not in a git repo ;-) Also stuff to distinguish between different Unix flavors and hardware ("if it's this host which is a sun3 with FPU, add -m68881 to CFLAGS") -- not removed but commented out.
      - gnubison 4y ago
        I think a lot of us would be fascinated by stuff like this, if you were okay with publishing it :)
      - nunez 4y ago
        That's amazing. I knew I'd get some responses like this here!
pmarreck 4y ago
wow, I didn't know about a lot of these useful tools, super cool!
thejosh 4y ago
I have recently gone through mine when I finally changed to zsh after using Bash for the last 16 years (starting on Ubuntu and removed so many random commands I used. Now I barely need anything, as the tooling is really good and is going through a renaissance. Ripgrep (coming from silversearcher a few years ago) is one of my favourite tools I use constantly.
thayne 4y ago
The first part of his murder command can be accomplished by using pkill or killall (but maybe those aren't available on mac?). The second part is useful though.
asiachick 4y ago
Going to be that person but an article named "a decade of dotfiles" has nothing to do with dotfiles. The first sentence says "My first commit to my dotfiles repository was ten years ago" and then the entire rest of the article has nothing to do with "dotfiles" whatsoever. And then nearly all of the comments are actually about the title, not about the article itself.
yonrg 4y ago
dot files, configs and hosts are now managed in ansible. First solution a decade ago was to have a git repo and dotfiles were linked directly into the working dir. This was nuts. The dots were changed immediately, when checking out other branches. And slight differences between hosts were not easily manageable. A branch per host was not a solution. I learned from those mistakes and wrote an installer script for that repo which copied/rsynced files from repo into ~ Still, slight changes between hosts were not easily manageable and I was thinking about a templating mechanism... but then ansible became a thing which I happily adopted. Might be too much for most users, but it helps me managing many machines.
- mathstuf 4y ago
  Yeah, I started with the direct symlink long ago too ("declarative" lines that were just shell commands sourced at the top). I now have a more…complex setup that uses CMake. The basic setup is: group/ (e.g., "devel" or "pim") program/ (e.g., "vim" or "mutt") CMakeLists.txt (lists files and packages needed; I use Fedora) config/ local/ repeat for each program, sorted into groups. Each program is added via a function that wraps `add_subdirectory` in an option asking if I want to enable that project. It also takes a list of dependencies (so, e.g., `mutt` is hidden if I turn off `msmtp` or `nvim` since it needs it in its configuration). Each program's CMake code declares what needs symlinked, directories to be made, permission bits, etc. This is used to also write out a "validation" script to ensure symlinks are accurate and to notice untracked config files and such. I then just configure, turn the programs I plan on using on in the project and then "build" it. It also generates a `dnf install` argument list for me to install anything needed for these configurations. The symlink setup is actually `$HOME/.path` (to avoid the repo from having hidden files; skippable if needed in the CMake code) -> `$builddir/group/program/path` -> `$srcdir/group/program/path`. This way, turning off a program nukes the build tree and then I can just go and look for broken symlinks in `$HOME` to clean up. Per-host bits overlay cleanly since I use split configs where possible (i.e., `include *.rc`). One nice thing about using CMake is that I can also have `add_custom_command` at hand to generate files if needed (I use it to generate `xcompose` combinations).
superpope99 4y ago
> You don’t need to reload your shell when you work on it. For this point - I use an alias alias chalias="vim ~/.bash_aliases && source ~/.bash_aliases" auto-reloads the aliases when you exit the file
- MenaceInc 4y ago
  Aliases all the way down
lobocinza 4y ago
murder is similar to killall
swyx 4y ago
sharing my own new mac setup + dotfiles here: https://github.com/sw-yx/swyxdotio/issues/420 https://github.com/sw-yx/swyxdotio/issues/420 (maintained for ~5 years)
swyx 4y ago
i couldnt figure out what "sfx good" was in the boop command so in case anyone was wondering here is my mac osx equivalent 110 boop () { 111 local last="$?" 112 if [[ "$last" == '0' ]]; then 113 afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Glass.aiff 114 else 115 afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Submarine.aiff 116 fi 117 $(exit "$last") 118 }
eternityforest 4y ago
It's always cool to see what the real lived experience of using a totally different workflow is like. I don't have any dotfile management at all(Aside from my regular incremental backups), and the only time I provision a new machines is if i get a new laptop or reinstall. I prefer to stay extremely hands off with VMs or servers. Ideally anything I do via SSH should be declarative and repeatable with Ansible. But recently there seems to be more and more important tools that can't be installed from a package manager and usually require manually editing PATH for some reason(I have no idea why they can't just use ~/.local/bin, or why there's no standard path management tool). It might be time to start putting things like that in a provisioning script. Or not, because they might not have a stable install process, and it's only a few minutes to do each one manually every few years.
parentheses 4y ago
I do love improving my dot files. My aliases and functions have become like a second language. I often make interesting one liners that make cumbersome multi command workflows interactive with fzf and related tooling I’ve built and collected. I am a big fan of making higher order tools for yourself that reflect your own working style and preferences.
account42 4y ago
Please enable display scaling and adjust your website font size accordingly. 24px for body text is obscene.
yencabulator 4y ago
> boop plays a happy sound if the previous command exited successfully (i.e., exited with status code 0) and a sad sound otherwise. Similarly, but using speech synthesis to tell which command is done: https://github.com/tv42/audibly https://github.com/tv42/audibly audibly rsync junk server:/data/ says "success: rsync" or "failure: rsync" at the end.

338 points by mmazzarolo 4y ago

This is a good one, I hope I'll have mine for that long (started 2019). Personally, I stopped worrying about dotfiles and GNU stow after joining the cult of Nix. While I gave honest attempt to everything else, Nix made it stick. Now I only have one single repo, where In write config for (almost) all of my applications in Nix, deploy them with Nix, rollback with Nix etc. Compared to hodgepodge of INI/YAML/TOML/XML/JSON/WHATHAVEYOU it is nice to to only have single tool to worry about. I wished Guix had the momentum and size of Nixpkgs. I'd much prefer a Lisp than the language contraption of Nix.

akavel 4y ago
Notably, Nix with home-manager. Makes it pretty seamless for me to switch between Linux, Mac, and between employers. I love it even more since I got my home-manager config to be a Nix Flake - this way I have it 100% deterministic and can upgrade/downgrade the tool versions when I like without worrying too much whether I'll be able to go back if something breaks (having flake.lock versioned in git is kinda mandated and checked by Flakes).
- tsuujin 4y ago
  I’ve been toying with the idea of switching from stow to home-manager, but I feel like there’s a lot of friction in the form of hard to answer questions. For example, my emacs config is a literate org file, which is important to me. It is large and complicated and I don’t feel like it’s a good fit for an “all my configs together” solution. I’m not sure how that would fit into home manager and while I’m sure the answer is in the docs somewhere it just seems hard enough to get to that it stops me from really digging in.
  - ryangibb 4y ago
    I'm not all too familiar with emacs, but is https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/options.html#opt-home.file https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/options.html#op... or https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/options.html#opt-xdg.configFile https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/options.html#op... what you're looking for? They just symlink a config file into $HOME or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME respectively.
  - akavel 4y ago
    Not sure if that would be good enough for you, but: 1. There's some syntax for importing files "raw" as strings; I don't recall details now from memory, but it's used extensively e.g. to load contents of .patch files. So you could have an Org file and get it imported. 2. I suspect there's some "smart wrapper" (so-called "module") for emacs in home-manager; it could conflict with your one. But using the "modules" is not mandatory; you can just have h-m put raw files in your ~/.emacs/ dir or whatsit, and add emacs in your $PATH. The thing that may be most tricky would be plugins - sure doable, but could need some nontrivial work. Alternatively, you could try seeing if the emacs module has some "extraConfig" field or something similar, and plug your literate Org there.
  - ParetoOptimal 4y ago
    > For example, my emacs config is a literate org file, which is important to me. It is large and complicated and I don’t feel like it’s a good fit for an “all my configs together” solution. I have a literate config that works with home-manager. The problem is the 800 noweb-ref blocks took 10+ seconds to tangle. I reported it, and someone optimized tangling to 0.5 seconds. I'm still using the custom patches though since the changes haven't been released or maybe even merged yet.
- SuperSandro2000 4y ago
  If home-manager options for configuration files weren't always that backwards and hard to use. Compared to NixOS a lot is still lacking and you're better off just using it for package management IMO.
shreyshnaccount 4y ago
Does having one gh repo with everything on there count? Asking for a friend...
doliveira 4y ago
Oh, I so wish to learn it, seems quite awesome. I literally made my own scripts to do exactly this management over the years. But the learning curve seems huge, not many good resources, etc... Honestly they all sound like those posts trying to explain monads And frankly, I barely have motivation to study more concrete stuff...
- e3bc54b2 4y ago
  Admittedly, it can be worse than sitting down and reading the manual front to back, but I did it the hard (or simple) way. I used the simple template generated during nixos-install and kept adding packages I needed. Configured them manually as usual and went about my business. It works out more often than people would realize. For services, development toolchains etc just google and copy-paste from other people's config. Simply add 'ext:nix' to google query and you should be good. I'm at almost 3 years, know just enough Nix to write some custom stuff, but nowhere close to the Wizard title. Its not as bad as people make it out. Remember, your target is not to master it on day 1. Target is to get VLC to play the media file (or some equivalent for you).
  - klysm 4y ago
    As soon as you get something weird though, the rabbit hole is forever
ewuhic 4y ago
Can one use the benefits of Nix provisioning while using other linux distro, Debian specifically?
- PufPufPuf 4y ago
  You can install Nix package manager on any system, but the packages will be separate from system packages. You can try it and switch to full NixOS if you like it
- mschwaig 4y ago
  If you are talking about provisioning dot files and command line applications you want to have available on all you machines then take a look at home-manager. https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager I use it on NixOS. It should absolutely work on other distros unfortunately I don't have any first hand experience with that or with what the best way is to set it up on other distos (I think there are few options for how to do it).
  - chrisweekly 4y ago
    > "there are few options" I'm curious about your phrasing. In idiomatic English, this says "there are _not many_ options", IOW options are limited. It emphasizes the constraints. OTOH had you written "there are _a_ few options", it'd emphasize the existence of more than one option, with a positive connotation. From context I infer you meant the latter, is that right?
    - mschwaig 4y ago
      Yes sorry. This was a typo. I meant to write 'a few options'.
- rgoulter 4y ago
  Yes. I think it's a good way to get started with Nix. e.g. with nix installed, you'll be able to use the nix-shell to get the development dependencies without having to install system wide, if a shell.nix or flake.nix has been written for it. (e.g. for repos like https://github.com/helix-editor/helix https://github.com/helix-editor/helix). You'll be able to use the `nix shell` command to try out a program without needing it installed system wide. Or you can figure out how to write your own nix-shells etc. I think Home Manager is worth trying only once you're otherwise familiar with Nix (or if you find a good config to copy-paste from, though), since Nix's error messages and debugging still aren't great.
francis-io 4y ago
Currently I use Ansible to deploy my dotfiles, along with anything else needed to setup a workstation. I keep seeing people mention Nix. Would it give me anything that Ansible and Git can't give me?
- noahmasur 4y ago
  Mostly it provides guarantees about your system. It guarantees that anything not in your config is not on your system (for the most part). It guarantees that everything builds successfully before it applies any changes. Most of the filesystem is immutable so it forces you to use the configuration. There are some other advantages: rollback to a previous state at any time, enable complex system services with one line in your config file, install multiple versions of tools on your system without conflicts, install programs without root (using home manager), build VMs and Docker images, pin the versions and dependencies of all packages for reproducibility, patch software with your own tweaks natively. You can also put a Nix file in a code repo and easily share your build dependencies with other developers.
  - francis-io 4y ago
    This might show my ignorance, but can Nix replace something like asdf (https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf)?
    - noahmasur 4y ago
      Yes, that’s exactly the kind of thing it’s great at. Nix stores all builds of its packages in a separate “store” on the machine, each identified by the hash of the build (“derivation”). When you activate your config, it basically symlinks the version you want into your PATH. If your project needs a specific version, when you activate a Nix shell or script it will check your store for that version and activate it. If it doesn’t exist, it will fetch it (or even compile it from scratch if you need to).
      - kcorbitt 4y ago
tylergetsay 4y ago
Any tips on places to get started with Nix?
- e3bc54b2 4y ago
  If you're looking to learn Nix start-to-end, there manuals for Nix and NixOS, both are good. This is an extensive study at trying to 'understand' Nix, because is does so many things differently: https://ianthehenry.com/posts/how-to-learn-nix/ https://ianthehenry.com/posts/how-to-learn-nix/ If you're just looking to start building your system, follow NixOS manual up until you have a running system, then pace yourself as you will. You can also setup Nix on existing Linux distro or macOS and practice the ropes before plunging into NixOS.
- jeppesen-io 4y ago
  I'd just install nix + home-manager on your linux or Macos box. That's not too hard. Then take one of your dotfiles supported by home-manager e.g. kitty term, and port it to nix + home-manager No need to boil the ocean, just start small. You can mix and match with what you're using now. If you like, port it all to nix over time
a-dub 4y ago
i want to like nix, but the inconsistent naming and use of the language was a huge turn off. all the randomly named config options and the spotty coverage of them were like fingernails on the chalkboard for me.
- SuperSandro2000 4y ago
  The nix language almost always uses camel case while packages use kebab case. Options are almost exclusively discovered through search.nixos.org, the configuration man page or by reading the source code. Since the introduction of structured settings there is also often a way to set settings in a freeform type.
mekeor 4y ago
there's a lispy alternative to nix, called gnu guix, which uses guile/scheme instead of nix-lang.
- e3bc54b2 4y ago
  I know, I even mentioned it. Unfortunately and understandably Guix means my WiFi won't work and there will be less stuff supported OOTB. So I'll be on Nix for foreseeable future.
  - sierkov 4y ago
    https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix ?
  - turboponyy 4y ago
    You can include community sources in order to use the standard, non-libre Linux kernel - though my Guix experience was a bit frustrating in part due to complications such as this one compared to what I'm currently experiencing with NixOS (thoroughly enjoying it!). There are a fair few very vocal former NixOS users who miss no opportunity to extol the benefits of Guix in the chatrooms I frequent, though. Not without merit either, I should say: the project and its UX does seem to be much more well-thought out; it's developed by GNU; the project takes software freedom seriously; many will surely enjoy hacking away at their config in Scheme. As it stands currently, though, there are more resources and it's easier to get things done with NixOS - you also get to use learn a (imo really great) packaging system that is in somewhat wide use.
- cassepipe 4y ago
  I tried learning Guile some days ago because Guix seems so cool and I like the idea that the configuration is not done in a special purpose language. Had never lisped before. It seemed cool and I tried my hand with a tutorial that makes you embed guile in a C program to make it interactive. It was okay but it seemed like too much boilerplate to have to register functions individually but maybe it is standard when embedding. Never tried with lua or Janet before so I can't say. In general there is a lack of resources, it is quite hard as a beginner to get a start with the language past playing with the repl a little. Also tried to see if there was a Guile version of the famous SICP but ugh it was not straightforward. I gave up. Hope Guix will foster better resources on Guile Scheme.
pmarreck 4y ago
> I wish Guix had the momentum and size of Nixpkgs. I'd much prefer a Lisp than the language contraption of Nix This is exactly my feeling as well. The fact that Guix uses Guile (which is basically Scheme, a Lisp) throughout the entire process (even from the preboot environment!) is kind of a big deal. Plus the commandline UI is just better (at least if you prefer your package manager to look like "brew install <packagename>" instead of "pacman -Ssyyu <package>"). I know the "nix" command is making headway there but it's apparently also being rewritten at the same time and is basically still a buggy clusterfuck plus I hear there's an added complication of friction between the older nix devs and the newer committers working on the newer stuff. I almost wish there was a "declarative Bash" variant on a fork of Nix that would allow people to lean on Bash knowledge but would only permit declarative style operations, so you could get the underlying Nix goodness but would have a more familiar (to most) declarative command language on top of it... or even better, something like https://wryun.github.io/es-shell/ https://wryun.github.io/es-shell/ ... but you'd still lose the nix momentum
- cassepipe 4y ago
  How did you learn Guile ? Here is my experience so far : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31558878 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31558878
  - pmarreck 4y ago
    I actually learned Scheme in CS212 at Cornell (which, incidentally, I bombed at the time, but it was due to the pacing, not being unable to handle the depth), so it was pretty much a no-op for me. Fundamentally it's a pretty simple language. Once you grasp those details, the rest kind of falls into place where you look at some code and go "Oh, THAT'S what it's doing". I also answered your comment there.
asiachick 4y ago
So, not having heard of Nix, I go to their home page and watch the video. It shows "nix-shell -p nodejs". Hmm, sounds like it's using the apt-get version of node which is usually out of date. It then shows making a shell.nix that enables nodejs and commits it to a repo and suggests sharing it. This completely ignores the fact that my various projects requires specific versions of node. Maybe the first example shouldn't be one that's pretty clearly wrong?
- akho 4y ago
  > sounds like it's using the apt-get version of node which is usually out of date It’s using the Nixpkgs version, which unfortunately depends on which nixpkgs channel you’re on. There’s a `nodejs_latest` attribute, which is actually latest (18.2.0 right now), as well as `nodejs-12_x` or somesuch for past major versions (where required by other nixpkgs packages). Plain `nodejs` should be the LTS version. > This completely ignores the fact that my various projects requires specific versions of node Nix allows you to pin either nixpkgs or a particular package with commit-level granularity. I’m not sure this sort of video is the right place to introduce that.
  - akavel 4y ago
    Notably, with Nix Flakes, everything managed by Nix gets automatically 100% precisely pinned to specific versions by hash.
  - asiachick 4y ago
    would have been all that hard for the video to show node-12.x instead of nodejs? I would have clearly shown choosing a version instead of wrongly showing bad unreproducible practices that makes anyone paying attention question if the devs actually get what they're doing
klysm 4y ago
I wonder if we can make nix into a library of sorts for other languages so we don’t have to deal with its arcane-ness.
- SuperSandro2000 4y ago
  Insert xkcd about creating a unified standard
  - klysm 4y ago
    I didn’t mean a standard, more of exposing its primitive s with interfaces that are usable in other languages.
civodul 4y ago
Speaking of Guix and dotfiles, you may like Guix Home, a tool to manage one's "home environment": to deploy software and associated config files. https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2022/keeping-ones-home-tidy/ https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2022/keeping-ones-home-tidy/

sgiratch 4y ago

The site from wayback machine since it died from hug of death https://web.archive.org/web/20220529161019/https://evanhahn.com/a-decade-of-dotfiles/ https://web.archive.org/web/20220529161019/https://evanhahn....

kkfx 4y ago

My personal sauce is Emacs with org-mode configs to be tangled, far more efficient than anything else tried before to manage dotfiles I care, ignoring those I do not care... NixOS (since unfortunately Guix System is still a bit raw for me) complete tha game allowing to easy tangle the whole system config and generate a custom iso with Emacs and all the rest. Zsh complete the game as shell, eshell honestly it's on my list but I still can't use it daily...

jamesmstone 4y ago
hey thats neat! how do you build the iso?
- kkfx 4y ago
  It's very simple, a basic NixOS config like https://paste2.org/E5IUKfs9 https://paste2.org/E5IUKfs9 built with nix-build '<nixpkgs/nixos>' -A config.system.build.isoImage \ -I nixos-config=iso.nix you can add anything else, for instance X config for interactive usage, perhaps with the same (nearly) EXWM used normally etc. Nix language is obscene but making iso is awesome easy, just a matter of download and build time.
  - jamesmstone 4y ago
    thanks!

jchook 4y ago

> Prefer scripts over aliases I prefer aliases when possible because they inherit autocomplete rules. Also it’s easy to “complect” things with custom scripts.

francis-io 4y ago

No one asked, but I feel like I've been down this road before. Heavily customizing a system with obscure lines plucked from strangers dotfiles. These days I use VS Code and Firefox for almost everything.

kuon 4y ago

I used to use stow to manage my dotfiles but this was a cumbersome step that didn't provide any real advantage. Now I just edit config files by hand and with zfs autosnapshot I can easily rollback if needed. I'd love to try something like nix, but I rely on many aur packages that are bleeding edge for my workflow, I fear it would be hard to be up to date with nix, but I have not tried yet.

ninjin 4y ago
NixOS user here. My experience is that if you track unstable, you will have bleeding edge packages within a day or two from an upstream release. Likewise, due to how Nix works, you can pick and mix from stable, unstable, and your own custom expressions to your heart’s content. My personal preference is stable, with a very small subset of packages from unstable that I try to peg back to stable once there is a new stable release. I will not pretend that there is not a learning curve though, Nix is a bit of a beast.

teodorlu 4y ago

I love `entr`, but I've recently moved a lot of my `entr` usage to `watchexec`. Entr requires a file list on stdin, watchexec watches the current folder. With entr: find . | entr COMMAND with watchexec: watchexec COMMAND Watchexec also gracefully handles new files and file deletions. https://watchexec.github.io/ https://watchexec.github.io/

teodorlu 4y ago
I think entr handles some things more cleanly, though: 1. Some bash is allowed, which has been confusing me. I'd rather call 'bash -c "echo stuff > file"' myself. 2. Watchexec has its own interface for "filter which files to watch". Entr just relies on unix tools.
fallat 4y ago
The point is that entr can then focus only on specific files... watchexec now has to add special behaviors for .gitignores and whatnot. It's way more flexible and you can alias this so you don't have to remember anything or save it to ~/bin/my-watcher-thing.sh (both of these things I find people are not using enough).

caeruleus 4y ago

Last year, I started setting up a Qubes OS workstation. Doing all the intricate little steps manually seemed like such a waste of time that I started learning SaltStack, which is built into the Qubes management stack, to be able to automate and replicate the setup. This small itch exploded in such a way that I wrote a formula for almost every program on every system and server I use. For all other small programs, I just use one formula that syncs the appropriate dotfiles (I can also template them with Jinja). In hindsight, going with Nix would have been the most efficient way to reach most of that, apart from the Qubes-specific stuff. This will probably be the next step on my (ironic) odyssey of going all-in on configuration to finally stop worrying about it and reap the benefits of the beauty that is computing without its nasty warts. In essence, I would love a proper integration between Nix and Qubes OS. Edit: For anyone interested in an example of my current process, see https://github.com/lkubb/salt-tool-chromium-formula https://github.com/lkubb/salt-tool-chromium-formula, https://github.com/lkubb/salt-tool-gpg-formula https://github.com/lkubb/salt-tool-gpg-formula or https://github.com/lkubb/salt-tool-macos-formula https://github.com/lkubb/salt-tool-macos-formula.

rgoulter 4y ago
> In essence, I would love a proper integration between Nix and Qubes OS. This sounds like it'd be interesting to you: https://spectrum-os.org/ https://spectrum-os.org/

yakshaving_jgt 4y ago

> It doesn’t work for everything. For example, I have a boop command (which I mentioned above) that needs access to the previous command’s exit status—as far as I know, that’s impossible with a script. I got nerd-sniped by this. I can't see any reason why this wouldn't work. I tested this myself by writing a script called show-error.sh: #!/bin/bash echo $? And then I ran $(exit 5) . ./show-error.sh And this outputs 5

faho 4y ago
Well, yeah, if you source the file (for which `.` is a shortcut) it runs in the current shell so the environment is intact. If you just run it it won't work. So instead of running `boop` you would always have to `source boop` or `. boop`. A function or alias you could just run like normal. (and `export ?` complains about ? being an invalid identifier in bash, in zsh `export "?"` apparently "works", but will reset it before you get a chance to print it in another process)
- NegativeLatency 4y ago
  You could also pass the exit status into the program being called
SuchAnonMuchWow 4y ago
this only works because you are sourcing the file, and not just executing it: $(exit 5) ./show_error.sh outputs 0. Sourcing the file is the same as copying and pasting its content into the current shell. It is designed to allow this kind of things (accessing the caller execution context). But it is not what we usually call a script precisely because of this.
throwaway41232 4y ago
I cant really check this right now but doesnt $(exit 5) just spawn a subshell which exits with 5 which is visible by the parent script you just source your show-error.sh in? Try to subshell the source too like (. ./show-error.sh)

iRomain 4y ago

For my dotfiles [1] I use https://www.chezmoi.io https://www.chezmoi.io which I really like using and stuck (as opposed to my previous dotfiles attempts which didn’t stick). Albeit I have only been using it for a few months as opposed to the author’s decade. I guess the idea is to find the one tool/methodology that sticks with you. [1] https://github.com/politician/dotfiles https://github.com/politician/dotfiles

blueflow 4y ago
I find it odd that people use extra management software for their dotfiles. Most of the files are in `~/.config` anyways, so you can track this folder like a regular directory in git. And for the software that does insist on writing into `~` directly you can set up symlinks, with a script or manually.
- twp 4y ago
  Tracking `~/.config` as a regular directory in git only works if all your machines are near-identical. If you want to share dotfiles between, say, Linux and macOS, or between your home and work machines, then a dotfile manager makes it much much easier. For more reasons, see: https://www.chezmoi.io/why-use-chezmoi/ https://www.chezmoi.io/why-use-chezmoi/ Disclaimer: I'm the author of chezmoi
  - vivab0rg 4y ago
    Unrelated, but thank you for chezmoi, it's a clever little utility very well designed. I use it to manage many distinct Arch-based systems and soon will be moving my Ubuntu servers to it. Congratulations!
    - twp 4y ago
      Thank you <3
- yunohn 4y ago
  > I find it odd that people use extra management software for their dotfiles > you can set up symlinks, with a script or manually. So yeah… that’s exactly what dotfile managers do with standardised scripts.

kunalgupta 4y ago

luv murder

dividedbyzero 4y ago

I use yadm (https://yadm.io/ https://yadm.io/), very happy with it. It's a thin wrapper above a git repo rooted in the user home that is configured to ignore untracked files. yadm adds a bunch of helpful convenience feature on top (like "alt files" that symlink either one or the other file depending system tags or the OS, and secrets [which I don't use])

mikewarot 4y ago

As a long time Windows user... I had no idea, nor knowledge of dotfiles. I found this introduction[1] which seems to explain it fairly well, as far as I'm concerned. I find the idea of having a file system full of links in it a bit odd.... but I only discovered the nest of them in my Windows 10 system a month or so ago with the windows DIR /AL command. I'll have to get over the cognitive dissonance and adjust to this new reality. 1 - https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/dotfiles-what-is-a-dot-file-and-how-to-create-it-in-mac-and-linux/ https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/dotfiles-what-is-a-dot-fil...

dimgl 4y ago
> I find the idea of having a file system full of links in it a bit odd... Windows has the same concept of a PATH, which is where your OS looks for binaries. The difference is that Windows development is, most of the time, not CLI driven, especially if you use Visual Studio and other GUI tools. Development in Windows is a completely different beast to Linux/Unix.
tasuki 4y ago
> I find the idea of having a file system full of links in it a bit odd... Why?
- mikewarot 4y ago
  Quite simply, they weren't a thing for decades in the Windows world. There were facilities to do so built into the code and NTFS, but you had to be an administrator to make symlinks or junctions. The big issue is that backup programs didn't know about them, and would back up things more than once.
akavel 4y ago
AFAIK, many Windows apps traditionally tend to use the registry for storing their configs. Which I believe is a similarly odd and foreign idea to most Linux users. On the other hand, before there was the Registry, there were .INI files on Windows too, so kinda similar like dotfiles.

tomxor 4y ago

> Saying that I’ve been maintaining my dotfiles for a decade is like saying that I’ve been decorating my home for a decade. I think it's more like decorating your home for the first time (which is a lot of work), but then in the proceeding years you keep tweaking a few bits to your liking as you learn more about "decoration". The true benefits of the analogy break down a little, for instance one big advantage is persistence, stability and control - that some large corporation doesn't keep rudely breaking into your home every month and forcefully redecorate everything with the latest trend, or keep moving the furniture and light switches around while you are asleep, and inserting annoying store fronts into critical appliances like the fridge, or your toothpaste... The other benefit being that you can fairly effortlessly take your decorations with you to your next home!

unboxingelf 4y ago
I’ve been decorating my home for a decade. I’ve been decorating my $HOME for a decade.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- tomxor 4y ago
  I quite like to destroy my $HOME occasionally So I've been decorating my $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS for a decade.
  - encryptluks2 4y ago
    That's not quite accurate either. Some programs use dot files in the home directory and not XDG. Better yet is to use chezmoi or something similar.

bbkane 4y ago

I used GNU Stow for a several years and always found it difficult to tell what symlinks were actually being created, even in verbose mode. When I also ran into the stow bug with --dotfiles , I gave up on stow and wrote fling ( https://github.com/bbkane/fling https://github.com/bbkane/fling ), which works quite similarly, but prints out what symlinks it plans to create and asks for confirmation before making them. Being written in Go, fling is also easy to install on Windows, which has come in real handy on occasion.

asdfqwertzxcv 4y ago
Looks excellent! This is my major gripe with Stow as well.

nunez 4y ago

I also started my dotfiles over ten years ago! First commit was in 2012. Use them every day. I thank the awesome folks at Jane Street for teaching me about both dotfiles and Mercurial! (Second job out of college.)

pqs 4y ago
I started in 2009. :-)
- technothrasher 4y ago
  1990, and I've still got things in my .cshrc to fix quirks in SunOS 4 and Irix that I can't bear to remove out of nostalgia.
  - zvr 4y ago
    1983, but not in a git repo ;-) Also stuff to distinguish between different Unix flavors and hardware ("if it's this host which is a sun3 with FPU, add -m68881 to CFLAGS") -- not removed but commented out.
    - gnubison 4y ago
      I think a lot of us would be fascinated by stuff like this, if you were okay with publishing it :)
    - nunez 4y ago
      That's amazing. I knew I'd get some responses like this here!

pmarreck 4y ago

wow, I didn't know about a lot of these useful tools, super cool!

thejosh 4y ago

I have recently gone through mine when I finally changed to zsh after using Bash for the last 16 years (starting on Ubuntu and removed so many random commands I used. Now I barely need anything, as the tooling is really good and is going through a renaissance. Ripgrep (coming from silversearcher a few years ago) is one of my favourite tools I use constantly.

thayne 4y ago

The first part of his murder command can be accomplished by using pkill or killall (but maybe those aren't available on mac?). The second part is useful though.

asiachick 4y ago

Going to be that person but an article named "a decade of dotfiles" has nothing to do with dotfiles. The first sentence says "My first commit to my dotfiles repository was ten years ago" and then the entire rest of the article has nothing to do with "dotfiles" whatsoever. And then nearly all of the comments are actually about the title, not about the article itself.

yonrg 4y ago

dot files, configs and hosts are now managed in ansible. First solution a decade ago was to have a git repo and dotfiles were linked directly into the working dir. This was nuts. The dots were changed immediately, when checking out other branches. And slight differences between hosts were not easily manageable. A branch per host was not a solution. I learned from those mistakes and wrote an installer script for that repo which copied/rsynced files from repo into ~ Still, slight changes between hosts were not easily manageable and I was thinking about a templating mechanism... but then ansible became a thing which I happily adopted. Might be too much for most users, but it helps me managing many machines.

mathstuf 4y ago
Yeah, I started with the direct symlink long ago too ("declarative" lines that were just shell commands sourced at the top). I now have a more…complex setup that uses CMake. The basic setup is: group/ (e.g., "devel" or "pim") program/ (e.g., "vim" or "mutt") CMakeLists.txt (lists files and packages needed; I use Fedora) config/ local/ repeat for each program, sorted into groups. Each program is added via a function that wraps `add_subdirectory` in an option asking if I want to enable that project. It also takes a list of dependencies (so, e.g., `mutt` is hidden if I turn off `msmtp` or `nvim` since it needs it in its configuration). Each program's CMake code declares what needs symlinked, directories to be made, permission bits, etc. This is used to also write out a "validation" script to ensure symlinks are accurate and to notice untracked config files and such. I then just configure, turn the programs I plan on using on in the project and then "build" it. It also generates a `dnf install` argument list for me to install anything needed for these configurations. The symlink setup is actually `$HOME/.path` (to avoid the repo from having hidden files; skippable if needed in the CMake code) -> `$builddir/group/program/path` -> `$srcdir/group/program/path`. This way, turning off a program nukes the build tree and then I can just go and look for broken symlinks in `$HOME` to clean up. Per-host bits overlay cleanly since I use split configs where possible (i.e., `include *.rc`). One nice thing about using CMake is that I can also have `add_custom_command` at hand to generate files if needed (I use it to generate `xcompose` combinations).

superpope99 4y ago

> You don’t need to reload your shell when you work on it. For this point - I use an alias alias chalias="vim ~/.bash_aliases && source ~/.bash_aliases" auto-reloads the aliases when you exit the file

MenaceInc 4y ago
Aliases all the way down

lobocinza 4y ago

murder is similar to killall

swyx 4y ago

sharing my own new mac setup + dotfiles here: https://github.com/sw-yx/swyxdotio/issues/420 https://github.com/sw-yx/swyxdotio/issues/420 (maintained for ~5 years)

swyx 4y ago

i couldnt figure out what "sfx good" was in the boop command so in case anyone was wondering here is my mac osx equivalent 110 boop () { 111 local last="$?" 112 if [[ "$last" == '0' ]]; then 113 afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Glass.aiff 114 else 115 afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Submarine.aiff 116 fi 117 $(exit "$last") 118 }

eternityforest 4y ago

It's always cool to see what the real lived experience of using a totally different workflow is like. I don't have any dotfile management at all(Aside from my regular incremental backups), and the only time I provision a new machines is if i get a new laptop or reinstall. I prefer to stay extremely hands off with VMs or servers. Ideally anything I do via SSH should be declarative and repeatable with Ansible. But recently there seems to be more and more important tools that can't be installed from a package manager and usually require manually editing PATH for some reason(I have no idea why they can't just use ~/.local/bin, or why there's no standard path management tool). It might be time to start putting things like that in a provisioning script. Or not, because they might not have a stable install process, and it's only a few minutes to do each one manually every few years.

parentheses 4y ago

I do love improving my dot files. My aliases and functions have become like a second language. I often make interesting one liners that make cumbersome multi command workflows interactive with fzf and related tooling I’ve built and collected. I am a big fan of making higher order tools for yourself that reflect your own working style and preferences.

account42 4y ago

Please enable display scaling and adjust your website font size accordingly. 24px for body text is obscene.

yencabulator 4y ago

> boop plays a happy sound if the previous command exited successfully (i.e., exited with status code 0) and a sad sound otherwise. Similarly, but using speech synthesis to tell which command is done: https://github.com/tv42/audibly https://github.com/tv42/audibly audibly rsync junk server:/data/ says "success: rsync" or "failure: rsync" at the end.