Dotfiles

Personal shell configuration files and environment settings for macOS/Linux development environments.

Overview

This repository contains my personal dotfiles including shell configurations (bash/zsh), terminal multiplexer settings (tmux), and various development environment configurations. The setup is optimized for software development with features like git-aware prompts, modern shell options, and convenient aliases.

Features

Shell Configuration

• Bash: Enhanced history, safety aliases, git-aware prompt, OS-specific configurations
• Zsh: Modern shell options, auto-completion, directory navigation shortcuts, git integration
• Cross-platform: Works on macOS, Linux, and Cygwin

Terminal Multiplexer

• Tmux: Custom key bindings, enhanced status bar, optimized for development workflows

Development Tools Integration

• Git completion and branch information in prompts
• Docker shortcuts and utilities
• Node.js (nvm), Ruby (rvm), Rust, Python (virtualenv) support
• Google Cloud SDK integration
• Kubernetes (kubectl) completion

Installation

Prerequisites

• Git
• GNU Stow
• tmux 3.2 or newer (the config uses terminal-features and extended-keys)
• On Linux, a clipboard tool for tmux-yank: xclip, xsel, or wl-copy (from wl-clipboard) on Wayland. macOS has pbcopy built in.

Install GNU Stow

macOS:

brew install stow

Linux (Ubuntu/Debian):

sudo apt-get install stow

Linux (CentOS/RHEL):

sudo yum install stow

Quick Setup

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles
cd ~/dotfiles

2. Create symlinks using GNU Stow:

make link

3. Install the tmux plugins (tpm, catppuccin, tmux-yank):

make tmux-plugins

Each plugin is checked out at the commit pinned in scripts/tmux-plugins.txt. Rerun it after changing a pin. Skip it and tmux still starts, but with the default status bar and no clipboard integration.

4. Reload your shell:

# For bash
source ~/.bashrc

# For zsh  
source ~/.zshrc

Alternative Installation Methods

Manual Symlink Creation

# Create symlinks manually
stow --target=$HOME .

Replace Existing Files

If make link refuses because files already exist in $HOME, move them aside to <name>.bak and link in one step:

make force-link

It never overwrites: if a .bak already exists it stops without changing anything, and if stow still fails it undoes the renames.

Adopt Existing Files

To pull your existing $HOME copies into this repo, overwriting the tracked versions (review with git diff afterwards):

make adopt

Configuration Files

File	Purpose
.bashrc	Bash shell configuration, aliases, and functions
.zshrc	Zsh shell configuration with modern features
.zshenv	Zsh, every invocation; dedupes PATH and sources .profile
.bash_profile	Bash login shell; sources .profile then .bashrc
.tmux.conf	Tmux terminal multiplexer configuration
.gitignore	Files to ignore in this repository
.profile	POSIX base: PATH, EDITOR/VISUAL and exported env, shared by sh, bash and zsh
.stow-local-ignore	Files for Stow to ignore when symlinking (must be named .stow-local-ignore; Stow does not read a .stow-global-ignore placed inside a package)

Key Features

Bash Configuration

• Enhanced history: 50K entries with timestamps and deduplication
• Safety aliases: Interactive prompts for rm, cp, mv
• Git integration: Branch information in prompt
• OS detection: Platform-specific aliases and settings
• Development tools: Integration with Docker, Node.js, Python, etc.

Zsh Configuration

• Modern shell options: Auto-completion, directory navigation, history management
• Git-aware prompt: Shows branch name and status indicators
• Smart aliases: Directory shortcuts, safety features, productivity helpers
• Performance optimized: Fast startup with efficient plugin loading

Tmux Configuration

• Custom prefix: Ctrl-g (better for Emacs users)
• Intuitive bindings: | for horizontal split, - for vertical split
• Enhanced status bar: Catppuccin (mocha) theme, via a plugin
• Clipboard: tmux-yank copies to the system clipboard, including over SSH
• Pinned plugins: installed by make tmux-plugins at exact commits, not the latest code. Avoid tpm's prefix + I and prefix + U, which fetch the latest code; change the pin in scripts/tmux-plugins.txt instead
• Mouse support: Enabled for modern terminal interaction

Customization

Adding Personal Configurations

The configurations support loading additional personal files:

Bash:

• ~/.bash_profile_ps - PostScript/work-specific settings
• ~/.bash_profile_do - DigitalOcean-specific settings
• ~/.bash_profile_personal - Personal settings
• ~/.bash_linux - Linux-specific settings
• ~/.bash_osx - macOS-specific settings

Zsh: You can add custom configurations at the end of .zshrc or create separate files and source them.

Environment Variables

Set environment variables in:

• .zshenv (for zsh)
• .bash_profile (for bash)

Aliases Reference

Common Aliases

• ll - Long listing with human-readable sizes
• la - List all files including hidden
• .., ..., .... - Navigate up directories
• dev - Quick navigate to development directory
• c - Clear terminal
• weather - Get weather for NYC

Safety Aliases

• rm='rm -i' - Interactive remove
• cp='cp -i' - Interactive copy
• mv='mv -i' - Interactive move

Development Aliases

• tmux='tmux -2' - Force 256 color mode
• ec - Open file in Emacs client
• gbp - Git branch and push function

VCS Prompt

All three shells (bash, zsh, fish) show the state of the repository you are in. Which VCS is reported is decided by walking up from the current directory: the first .jj or .git found wins, so a colocated repo reports as jj.

Git — rendered in blue as (branch<markers>)

Marker	Meaning
+	staged changes (index differs from HEAD)
*	unstaged changes (working tree differs from index)
?	untracked files present

On a detached HEAD — including git bisect and git worktree add --detach — there is no branch name, so the short commit is shown instead: (@a1b2c3d).

Jujutsu — rendered in magenta as (bookmark@changeid<markers>)

Marker	Meaning
*	working copy is not empty (as of the last snapshot — see below)
!	the change is conflicted
?	the change is divergent

The markers differ from git because the models do. jj has no index, so there is no staged/unstaged split and no +. jj tracks everything in the workspace, so there is no untracked state either, and ? is reused for divergent changes.

bookmark is the nearest bookmark in the ancestry, not a "current branch" — jj has no such concept, and the working copy @ usually carries no bookmark at all. When there is none anywhere above you, the prompt shows just (@changeid).

Snapshot accuracy. The prompt runs jj with --ignore-working-copy. Without that flag, every prompt render would snapshot the working copy, writing a snapshot working copy entry to the operation log and running roughly 5x slower. The trade-off is that * reflects the last snapshot rather than this instant; it catches up the next time any jj command runs. Set DOTFILES_JJ_SNAPSHOT=1 to get an always-accurate marker at the cost of mutating the repo on every prompt.

Troubleshooting

Stow Conflicts

If you get conflicts when running make link:

# Rename the conflicting files to *.bak, then link
make force-link

Permission Issues

Ensure proper permissions:

chmod 600 ~/.bashrc ~/.zshrc

Missing Dependencies

Install missing tools as needed:

# macOS
brew install git stow tmux

# Linux (add xsel or wl-clipboard instead of xclip if you prefer)
sudo apt-get install git stow tmux xclip

Tmux Has a Plain Status Bar

The plugins are not installed. Run make tmux-plugins, then reload with tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf.

License

Licensed under the BSD License. See the repository for full license details.

Contributing

Feel free to fork this repository and adapt it to your needs. Pull requests for improvements are welcome!