My opinionated dotfiles

I don't recommend cloning this repo and opting into my way of doing things, unless you intend to use my dotfiles as a foundation for making something that fits your needs and desires.

Don't fork the repo, instead clone/download the repo and copy whatever files or blocks of configuration makes sense to you.

The setup

I use Chezmoi to power my dotfiles system. I've tried a bunch of similar solutions, but Chezmoi is without a doubt the most flexible and user-friendly tool for managing configurations files. Chezmoi ships as a single, standalone executable (written in Go), and it supports templating, integrations with tools such as 1Password, age, etc.

The easiest way to experiment with my dotfiles is to run the following command:

sh -c "$(curl -fsLS get.chezmoi.io)" -- init --apply thomasjo

That command downloads and installs the chezmoi executable, clones this repo into ~/.local/share/chezmoi, and applies my dotfiles to your system. Be aware that this might override any existing configuration files that have the same filenames unless you pay attention.

You can also install Chezmoi using e.g., brew install chezmoi. For all of the package manager options available, see the Chezmoi install page.

If you've installed Chezmoi using your favorite package manager, run the following command instead of the one shown initially:

chezmoi init --apply thomasjo

I highly recommend reading the Chezmoi quick start, as well as skimming through the Chezmoi user guide to familiarize yourself with "daily" operations, Chezmoi terminology, etc.

Making my dotfiles your dotfiles

If you've experimented with my dotfiles and you want to make them yours, then I think one of the easiest routes to follow is to first create your own dotfiles repo on GitHub (or somewhere else). Make sure the new repo is completely bare, which means no auto-generated README.md, LICENSE, or similar files.

After creating your remote repo, navigate to the Chezmoi source directory. An easy way is to use the chezmoi cd command. From the Chezmoi source directory, you should "re-init" the existing dotfiles repo by first removing the existing .git sub-directory, then initialize an empty, local Git repo. Stage whichever files you want to keep, commit, and push to your remote repo;

chezmoi cd
rm -rf .git
git init -b main .
git remote add origin <your-remote-repo-address>
git add <files-you-want-to-keep ...>
git commit
git push -u origin main

Make sure you delete any files you don't want to keep. At this point it's also a good idea to use commands such as chezmoi doctor and chezmoi [un]managed to ensure your dotfiles are properly setup and working as expected.