dotfiles

My personal dotfiles — shell prompt, aliases, vim, and tmux config — kept in sync across machines with a single installer. CI installs them from scratch on Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch, and openSUSE on every push, so "works on a fresh machine" is verified, not hoped for.

What's inside

bash/    bashrc, bash_profile, prompt.bash   (interactive bash + two-line prompt)
zsh/     zshrc, prompt.zsh                    (zsh, prompt matched to bash)
shell/   aliases.sh                           (aliases shared by bash + zsh)
vim/     vimrc                                (sensible defaults, no plugins)
tmux/    tmux.conf                            (C-a prefix, mouse, status bar)
git/     gitconfig                            (aliases + sane defaults; identity stays local)
lib/     install-tools.sh                     (package-manager-agnostic tool install)
macos/   hammerspoon/, *.terminal             (reference assets, not auto-installed)
install.sh    bootstrap.sh    test.sh         (+ .github/workflows/test.yml)

Install

Requirements: git (for the bootstrap clone and dot-update). The shell/tool configs apply only to what you have installed — bash, and optionally zsh, vim, tmux.

On a machine that already has the repo cloned to ~/dotfiles:

cd ~/dotfiles && ./install.sh

On a brand-new machine, one command does it all (clone + install):

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BenGNelson/dotfiles/main/bootstrap.sh)

On a bare machine that doesn't even have the tools yet, add --with-tools to install git/vim/tmux first. It detects the package manager (apt/dnf/pacman/zypper), so it works on Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, and openSUSE alike (may use sudo):

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BenGNelson/dotfiles/main/bootstrap.sh) --with-tools

The installer is idempotent and non-destructive:

• It adds a small managed block to ~/.bashrc, ~/.bash_profile, ~/.zshrc, ~/.vimrc, and ~/.tmux.conf that sources the matching repo file, and wires git/gitconfig into ~/.gitconfig via a native [include].
• Re-running updates that block in place — it never duplicates.
• The first time it touches a non-empty file, it backs the original up to <file>.dotfiles-bak-<timestamp>.

Open a new shell afterwards, or run reload.

To back everything out (strip the managed blocks and the git include — your backups and ~/.config/dotfiles/ overrides are left alone):

./install.sh --uninstall

Login shells

~/.bash_profile sources ~/.profile (so a login/SSH shell keeps the distro's PATH setup, e.g. ~/.local/bin) and then ~/.bashrc, loading the config exactly once. Repo paths are derived from each rc file's own location, so the clone doesn't have to live at ~/dotfiles.

The prompt

Two lines: the working directory (and git status) on top, the machine's hostname and an arrow on the bottom (mybox below stands in for whatever the machine is actually called):

~/projects (main)
mybox ->

The git segment shows branch, a * when dirty, and ↑/↓ when ahead/behind the upstream. It turns red when dirty or behind, yellow otherwise.

The machine name (no more per-machine edits)

The bottom-line name defaults to the machine's live hostname, so it's correct on every machine with zero edits and nothing to commit. To show a custom label instead, set it in the untracked local file (see below):

export DOTFILES_LABEL="deathstar"

git

git/gitconfig carries shortcuts (git st, co, br, ci, lg, …) and sane defaults (init.defaultBranch=main, pull.ff=only, push.autoSetupRemote, fetch.prune). It's wired into ~/.gitconfig with a native [include], so it stacks on top of whatever is already there rather than replacing it.

Your identity (name/email) deliberately lives in the untracked ~/.config/dotfiles/gitconfig.local, not in the repo — set it once per machine:

git config --file ~/.config/dotfiles/gitconfig.local user.name  "Your Name"
git config --file ~/.config/dotfiles/gitconfig.local user.email "you@example.com"

Per-machine settings

Anything machine-specific — a custom prompt label, secrets, extra exports — goes in ~/.config/dotfiles/local.sh (shell) or ~/.config/dotfiles/gitconfig.local (git). The installer seeds both on first run. They live outside the repo, so they're never tracked and can never dirty git.

Keeping machines in sync

Pull the latest and re-run the installer in one step:

dot-update

Testing

test.sh spins up clean containers across a matrix of distros — Ubuntu 24.04 & 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora, Arch, and openSUSE (the four major package-manager families: apt, dnf, pacman, zypper) — installs the dotfiles into each like a brand-new machine, and asserts the result is correct, idempotent (install runs twice), and reversible (--uninstall). The in-container dependency install goes through lib/install-tools.sh, so each run also exercises the cross-distro tool installer. Requires Docker; nothing touches the host:

./test.sh                     # full matrix
./test.sh ubuntu:24.04        # a single image
./test.sh debian:12 fedora:latest   # a chosen subset

The same matrix runs in CI (.github/workflows/test.yml) on every push.

tmux

Prefix is C-a (not the default C-b). Mouse is on (click panes, drag borders, scroll history), with a status bar showing session, windows, host, and clock.

The only commands you actually need:

tmux new -s work     # start a named session 'work'
#   C-a d            # detach — leave it running, return to your normal shell
tmux attach -t work  # reattach later (survives SSH drops / closing the laptop)
tmux ls              # list running sessions

Inside a session: C-a | and C-a - split panes, C-a h/j/k/l move between them, C-a r reloads the config.

Aliases

Defined in shell/aliases.sh — navigation (.., ..., dl, docs, home), ls variants (ll, la, lrth, lrtha), git shortcuts (gs, ga, gc, gd, gl, gp, gco, gb), safer rm/cp/mv, plus helpers mkcd, extract, reload, and dot-update.