My dotfiles

Install

Warning

These are my personal dotfiles, and the installer changes the machine it runs on. Read install.sh before you run it, and consider forking this repository instead of installing from it directly. See What could go wrong.

To read the code first, clone the repository, review install.sh, then run it from a terminal:

git clone https://github.com/markosamuli/dotfiles.git ~/.dotfiles
cd ~/.dotfiles
make install

Run from a terminal, the installer asks before most installs and finishes the login shell step itself. The one-line form skips the reading and the prompts:

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/markosamuli/dotfiles/master/install.sh | bash -

The installer clones this repository to ~/.dotfiles if it is not there yet, then:

• installs Homebrew (macOS only), zsh, Sheldon, Vim and the GitHub CLI where they are missing. Run from a terminal, it asks before each of them except Vim; piped as above, it does not ask;
• links .zshrc, .zshenv, .zprofile, .bashrc, .profile, .aliases, .vimrc, .editorconfig, .markdownlintrc and .gitignore_global into ~, backing up any existing file;
• links the Sheldon plugin list to ~/.config/sheldon/plugins.toml;
• configures Git to include this repository's .gitconfig and use .gitignore_global, unless your global Git configuration already sets an include.path or an excludes file.

It makes zsh your login shell only when run from a terminal. When piped, it prints the commands to finish that step:

cd ~/.dotfiles
make install

What could go wrong

install.sh changes the machine, not only ~/.dotfiles. These are the highlights, not a full list: install.sh is the authority, and this section can fall behind it. Do not pipe the installer to bash on a machine you cannot repair. Piped, it installs without asking, so run it from a clone instead.

• Your dotfiles are moved aside. A real ~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc or similar file is renamed to ~/.<name>.<timestamp> and replaced with a symlink. An existing symlink is left alone, even if it points somewhere else, and the installer does not warn you.
• It runs remote installers and asks for sudo. Homebrew is installed with its own curl | bash installer, and on Linux so is Sheldon. On Debian and Ubuntu it uses sudo apt, adds the GitHub CLI package repository and its signing key, and may create a man page directory with sudo. Piped as above, it installs all of this without asking, and Vim is never asked about.
• It can change your login shell. When zsh comes from Homebrew, it may append that path to /etc/shells with sudo. Run from a terminal, it also runs chsh to make zsh your login shell.
• It edits your global Git configuration. It sets some values only when they are unset, and others every time it runs, so a value you set yourself can be overwritten. Check git config --global --list afterwards.
• It changes file permissions recursively. It removes group and other access from ~/.dotfiles, ~/.ssh and the Homebrew cache, and removes group and other write access from the shared zsh directory under /usr/local. Do not run it if something else relies on that access.
• Tools that edit your shell files edit this repository. After installing, ~/.zshrc and the other entry points are symlinks into the checkout, so an installer that appends to one, bun's for example, creates an uncommitted change here. Restore the file and add the setup as a module instead. The shell-config pre-commit hook stops absolute home paths from being committed.

Aliases

Custom aliases and functions are in .aliases.

Git

The installer adds .gitconfig to your global Git configuration with include.path (unless one is already set), so its aliases and defaults apply without copying anything. Settings for one machine only belong in ~/.gitconfig itself, which takes precedence.

My favourite aliases:

• git co - checkout
• git ci - commit
• git s - status
• git lg - log with nice tree
• git pullr - pull with rebase
• git wd - word diff changes
• git wds - word diff staged changes

AI Usage

Parts of this repository are written with AI assistance. Everything here is reviewed, tested on my own machines, and mine to maintain. Agent-assisted commits are marked in the git history; see AGENTS.md.

License

See License

Author

@markosamuli