159 lines
6 KiB
Markdown
159 lines
6 KiB
Markdown
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title = "Dotfiles"
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date = "2022-01-05T11:36:47-08:00"
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author = "alejandro"
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tags = ["info-dump"]
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keywords = ["dotfiles"]
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showFullContent = false
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Not too long ago I had completely different configurations across different computers. Terminal color schemes between computers
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weren't consistent. Git was configured slightly differently between all computers. Lucky for me, there's a program that's well
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suited for this task: [stow](https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/).
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Special thanks to [Brandon Invergo](http://brandon.invergo.net/) for
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[his blog post](http://brandon.invergo.net/news/2012-05-26-using-gnu-stow-to-manage-your-dotfiles.html) documenting how he uses
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stow to manage dotfiles.
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## Git & Stow
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Before I found stow I was using a [purely git-based workflow](https://github.com/alejandro-angulo/dotfiles-bak). It worked but it
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was a little clunky keeping a git repo at the root of my home directory. One minor annoyance was that the repo's README would show
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up in my home directory whenever I ran `ls` (minor, I know, but it didn't feel _right_ to me). I was always a little paranoid that
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I would accidentally commit some secret inside of `~/.cache` too.
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My [updated workflow](https://github.com/alejandro-angulo/dotfiles/tree/0af75c92fdbf908f9445bfbaf5e07b0e223db97d) still uses git
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but I no longer maintain a repo at the root of my home folder. Instead, I use stow to manage symlinks for me. My directory
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structure is cleaner now with a directory for each set of configuration files (below are my git and [terminal
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emulator](https://alacritty.org/) configurations).
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```zsh
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❯ tree -a git alacritty
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git
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└── .config
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└── git
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├── config
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└── global_ignore
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alacritty
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└── .config
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└── alacritty
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└── alacritty.yml
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4 directories, 3 files
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```
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Installing the configurations for those two programs is as easy as running `stow -t ~ alacritty && stow -t ~ git`.
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## Handling Plugins (and Plugin Managers)
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There are some utilities ([vundle](https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim),
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[base16-shell](https://github.com/chriskempson/base16-shell), [Oh My ZSH](https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh), etc) that I want to
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have available regardless of my underlying system's environment. I set up submodules in my git repo for these utilities so that I
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have those utilities available without having to go through my system's package manager (brew, apt, yay, etc).
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As an added bonus, I can rely on plugin managers to pull in the bulk of my dependencies without cluttering up my git repo with a
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bunch of submodules.
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```zsh
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❯ tree -a -L 3 vim
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vim
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├── .vim
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│ ├── bundle
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│ │ ├── ale
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│ │ ├── base16-vim
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│ │ ├── fzf
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│ │ ├── fzf.vim
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│ │ ├── nerdcommenter
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│ │ ├── nerdtree
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│ │ ├── tmuxline.vim
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│ │ ├── vim-airline
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│ │ ├── vim-airline-themes
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│ │ ├── vim-devicons
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│ │ ├── vim-fugitive
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│ │ ├── vim-gitgutter
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│ │ ├── vimspector
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│ │ ├── vim-tmux-navigator
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│ │ ├── vim-toml
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│ │ └── Vundle.vim
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│ └── ftplugin
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│ ├── css.vim
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│ ├── go.vim
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│ ├── javascript.vim
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│ ├── python.vim
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│ ├── rust.vim
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│ └── yaml.vim
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├── .vimrc
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└── .vimrc_background
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19 directories, 8 files
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❯ git ls-files vim/.vim/bundle/
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vim/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim
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```
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Instead of setting up submodules for each individual vim plugin I only have a submodule for vundle (a vim plugin manager) and then
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I run `vim +PluginInstall +qall` to pull in my vim plugins.
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## Special Snowflake Configurations
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There are some cases where I don't want to use the exact same configuration across all my devices. I've found that this situation
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comes up in one of two cases:
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- device-specific configuration
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- environment-specific configuration
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### Device-Specific Configurations
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I have certain configurations that are device-specific. For example, I have a `sway` configuration but there are slight
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differences between my laptop and desktop because the output configuration isn't the same (one display vs multiple displays). To
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handle this I have `sway-carbon` and `sway-gospel` directories in my dotfiles repo.
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```zsh
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❯ tree -a sway*
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sway
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└── .config
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├── sway
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│ ├── config
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│ └── status
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└── waybar
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├── config
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└── style.css
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sway-carbon
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└── .config
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└── sway
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└── includes
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└── carbon
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sway-gospel
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└── .config
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└── sway
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└── includes
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└── gospel
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9 directories, 6 files
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```
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My main sway configuration has this line `include ~/.config/sway/includes/*` which loads all files inside of
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`~/.config/sway/includes/`. My `sway-carbon` and `sway-gospel` configurations will place the correct device-specific configuration
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once stowed.
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### Environment-Specific Configurations
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I don't use the same set of programs on all my devices. Sometimes there's no need to install something everywhere (I wouldn't use
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my sway configuration on a device running OS X). Sometimes I just want to play around with a new program first before deciding
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it's something that I want to install everywhere.
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For example, I wanted to try out [delta](https://github.com/dandavison/delta) for pretty git output on a personal device. The
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configuration for delta requires changes to git's configuration file which depend on having `delta` in `$PATH`. To prevent
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breaking things on devices, like my work computer or one of my raspberry pi's, I updated git's configuration so that there would
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be fallback.
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```ini
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[pager]
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diff = "$(which delta 2>/dev/null) | less"
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log = "$(which delta 2>/dev/null) | less"
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reflog = "$(which delta 2>/dev/null) | less"
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show = "$(which delta 2>/dev/null) | less"
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```
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So now on devices with delta installed that'll be used, otherwise less will be used.
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