dotfiles

cjw6k's dotfiles, managed with chezmoi.

!! WIP !!

I have published dotfiles in a few iterations over many years. I'm making a fresh start. These are not yet in use, not ready for use, and are incomplete. I'm using a public repo at this early stage to greatly simplify the build out. These dotfiles will remain public.

Background

• I have been at this computerin' thing for more than 25 years.
• I do admin, ops, networks, hardware, and software.
• I do not do ai, crypto, or mobile.
• I am working on cloud in my free time.
• I use Windows 11 as my main workstation, and on a laptop.
• I use Linux: alpine, gentoo, debian, and ubuntu. In Docker, WSL2, VM, VPS, and on bare metal.
• I use BSD.
• I do not use macOS. I will someday.

I need these dotfiles to work everywhere. They will cover a lot.

Bootstrapping

Get chezmoi and checkout the quick start docs.

Don't clobber your home directory by applying these dotfiles unless you are good and ready!

Install and apply my dotfiles with chezmoi init --apply cjw6k. Better yet, fork the dotfiles and init from your own dotfiles repo where you can make them whatever you want them to be.

Windows

While building out these dotfiles I'm focused on the windows deployment and run everything in a Windows virtual machine. If the reader would like to try out these dotfiles in Windows without messing around creating test users and without mixing up the home folder, try a Windows VM!

1. Get Powershell 7.
   • Run terminal.
     • Settings > Startup > Default profile: PowerShell.
     • Settings > Profiles > PowerShell > Command line: add -NoLogo
2. Get Scoop.
   • Don't change the execution policy as in the example there!
     • Too late? We don't know what it may have been before, but restoring the default is: Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Undefined -Scope CurrentUser
3. Get chezmoi w/ scoop install chezmoi.

Features

Personal Secrets w/ 1password

I use 1password, since 2019 or so. It is excellent. I can't recommend it enough.

When you init these dotfiles there is a prompt: "Should this machine have personal secrets?" Choosing yes will prompt you to log in to 1password from the CLI. If successful, chezmoi will look for specific items by name in a vault named "dotfiles" in your account.

Item Name	Item Field	Produces File	Purpose
ssh key	public key	~/.ssh/id_ed25519_dotfiles.pub	The public part of your SSH key that you use to access github from the CLI.
ssh key	openssh private key	~/.ssh/id_ed25519_dotfiles	The private part of your SSH key that you use to access github on the CLI.
n/a	n/a	~/.ssh/config	Set the default identity file for all ssh connections to ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_dotfiles.

Notes

OpenSSH Private Key

1password's SSH Key item type stores the private key without a passphrase, in PKCS #8 format. At the time of writing most available openssh installs don't support ED25519 keys stored in PKCS #8 format, so we'll store a passphrase-protected version of the private key in an extra field.

1. After generating the SSH Key in 1password, export it -encrypted with a passphrase- to the clipboard.
2. Make a new text field on the SSH key: "openssh private key" and paste in the content.
3. Be sure that the text ends with a newline character.

Alternatively, if you generate the ssh key yourself on the cli e.g. ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -a 100 you can copy that content directly into the "openssh private key" field.

Installed Utilities

Utility	Description	Windows
1password-cli		✔️
7zip	A file archiver with a high compression ratio.	✔️
chezmoi	Manage your dotfiles across multiple diverse machines, securely.	✔️
git	Distributed version control system.	✔️
jq		✔️
nano		✔️