dotfiles

This is a project created for syncing as much of my MacOS dev machine configuration as possible

Prerequisites

• git
• On MacOS, brew for package installation

Installation - dotfiles

• This is based off of Atlassian's bare dotfile repo implementation
• Open a shell, and bare clone this repo into the .dotfiles directory
  • git clone --bare git@github.com:verhey/dotfiles.git $HOME/.dotfiles
• Define the following alias in your shell:
  • alias dotfiles='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'
  • or abbr -a dotfiles "/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME" if using fish
• Checkout the content from the bare repo into your home folder:
  • dotfiles checkout
  • If this fails, delete any dotfiles that may conflict, or back them up
  • Try dotfiles checkout again, and you should see the files in the root of this repo end up in your home dir
• To make dotfiles status output useful, set local config for this repo to ignore untracked files (as in, the rest of your home dir)
  • dotfiles config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no

Usage

• If you want to update a dotfile here, the dotfiles alias you set up in previous steps works just like git does.
  • Your status command is somewhat nerfed though, because you don't want to be tracking every file in your home directory

Installation - Brew and Fish

• brew bundle to install contents of Brewfile
• Set Fish as the default system shell via:
  • sudo echo $(which fish) >> /etc/shells
  • chsh -s $(which fish)
• Probably reboot

MacOS Behavior Tweaks

I used to keep a script of various commands I'd run on new machines for things like key repeat, etc. This is a constant moving target with MacOS updates, but these are things that have worked in the past:

Setting	Command
Save to disk (not to iCloud) by default	defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSDocumentSaveNewDocumentsToCloud -bool false
Disable the warning when changing a file extension	defaults write com.apple.finder FXEnableExtensionChangeWarning -bool false
Disable automatic capitalization	defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticCapitalizationEnabled -bool false
Disable smart dashes	defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticDashSubstitutionEnabled -bool false
Disable automatic period substitution	defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticPeriodSubstitutionEnabled -bool false
Disable smart quotes	defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticQuoteSubstitutionEnabled -bool false
Disable auto-correct	defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticSpellingCorrectionEnabled -bool false
Set a fast keyboard repeat rate	defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -int 1 && defaults write NSGlobalDomain InitialKeyRepeat -int 10
Enable key repeating for an application	defaults write TODO_REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_APPLICATION ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false
Use plain text mode for new TextEdit documents	defaults write com.apple.TextEdit RichText -int 0
Open and save files as UTF-8 in TextEdit	defaults write com.apple.TextEdit PlainTextEncoding -int 4 && defaults write com.apple.TextEdit PlainTextEncodingForWrite -int 4
Show the main window when launching Activity Monitor	defaults write com.apple.ActivityMonitor OpenMainWindow -bool true
Visualize CPU usage in the Activity Monitor Dock icon	defaults write com.apple.ActivityMonitor IconType -int 5
Show all processes in Activity Monitor	defaults write com.apple.ActivityMonitor ShowCategory -int 0
Sort Activity Monitor results by CPU usage	defaults write com.apple.ActivityMonitor SortColumn -string "CPUUsage" && defaults write com.apple.ActivityMonitor SortDirection -int 0
Make Dock icons of hidden applications translucent	defaults write com.apple.dock showhidden -bool true
Don't show recent applications in Dock	defaults write com.apple.dock show-recents -bool false
Allow quitting Finder via Cmd+Q	defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem -bool true
Show hidden files by default in Finder	defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true
Show all filename extensions in Finder	defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleShowAllExtensions -bool true
Show status bar in Finder	defaults write com.apple.finder ShowStatusBar -bool true
Show path bar in Finder	defaults write com.apple.finder ShowPathbar -bool true
Avoid creating .DS_Store files on network or USB volumes	defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores -bool true && defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteUSBStores -bool true
Use list view in all Finder windows by default	defaults write com.apple.finder FXPreferredViewStyle -string "Nlsv"
Show the ~/Library folder	chflags nohidden ~/Library && xattr -d com.apple.FinderInfo ~/Library
Show the /Volumes folder	sudo chflags nohidden /Volumes