Like any other dotfiles project, I'm looking to create myself
a templated solution that will help me apply it on new environments, mostly Unix ones.
I'm using a dotfiles manager alongside some custom shell scripts to achieve this,
managing both home and office/work environments.
To install, simply run one of the following commands in the environment you'd like to install in:
| Tool | Command |
|---|---|
| Curl | bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MrPointer/dotfiles/main/install.sh)" |
| Wget | bash -c "$(wget -O- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MrPointer/dotfiles/main/install.sh)" |
The bootstrap script will take you through a configuration process that would query some required info, and then will install the dotfiles manager and apply it.
The following options can be passed to the command above to customize the installation:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-v or --verbose |
Enable verbose output |
--ref=[git-ref] |
Reference the given git-ref for installation (can be any git ref - commit, branch, tag). Defaults to main |
--work-env |
Treat this installation as a work environment |
--work-name |
Use the given work-name as the work environment. Defaults to sedg (current workplace) |
--work-email=[email] |
Use given email address as work's email address. Defaults to timor.gruber@solaredge.com |
--shell=[shell] |
Install given shell if required and set it as user's default. Defaults to zsh. |
--no-brew |
Don't install brew (Homebrew) |
--brew-shell |
Install shell using brew. By default it's installed with system's package manager |
--prefer-package-manager |
Prefer installing tools with system's package manager rather than brew (Doesn't apply for Mac) |
--package-manager=[manager] |
Package manager to use for installing prerequisites |
--multi-user-system |
Take into account that the system is used by multiple users |
To add options to the install command above, append it after the last closing parentheses ), like so:
bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MrPointer/dotfiles/main/install.sh) --verbose"
I'm using a dedicated dotfiles manager, chezmoi, which provides templating abilities,
per-machine differences, and a lot more.
Other managers might be considered in the future, especially if chezmoi becomes stale.
To create a single-click installation experience, I'm bootstrapping the process by making sure everything is available, and only then proceed with the actual installation.
The main installation driver script is written in "Pure" shell,
guaranteed to work on almost all systems, even the strangest ones.
It checks whether bash is available, trying to install it if not.
The installation utilizes the guessed system package manager, e.g. apt for Debian systems.
If the installation fails for some reason, then the user is prompted to manually install bash.
After bash is properly installed, it's used to execute the actual installation script, written in bash.
The actual installation script installs the dotfiles manager in some way, preferably standalone,
creates a config file for it, prompting the user for some required info such as name and email,
and then "applies" the template.
The dotfiles manager can also install some additional packages on its own, depending on the configuration,
target machine, and the manager itself.
At last, the script tries to reinstall the dotfiles manager in a way that will get it updated,
but only if the user has configured it previously and have the correct package managers installed.