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Publish Why I Threw Out My Dotfiles

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Dave Gallant
2021-09-08 23:44:38 -04:00
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--- ---
I'm a software engineer with a passion for open-source, infrastructure, tooling and security. I'm a software engineer with a passion for open-source, infrastructure, tooling and security.
When I'm not in front of a computer, I enjoy traveling, hiking and spending time with my family.

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title: "Throwing Out Your Dotfiles"
date: 2021-09-08T00:42:33-04:00
lastmod: 2021-09-08T00:42:33-04:00
draft: true
keywords: []
description: ""
tags: ['nix', 'dotfiles', 'home-manager']
categories: []
author: ""
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---
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Do you manage a `.zshrc`? `.vimrc`? `tmux.conf`? Do you have dozens of configuration files that you manage in a git repo? Or maybe don't backup at all? Do you also have a bunch of command line utilities that you forget you installed? Or don't remember why you installed them?
Over the years I have collected a number of dotfiles that I have shared across both Linux and macOS machines. I have tried several different ways to manage them, including [bare git repos](https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/dotfiles) and utilities such as [GNU Stow](https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/). These solutions work well enough, but I have since found what I would consider a much better solution for organizing user configuration: [home-manager](https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager).
## What is nix and why is it required?

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title: "Why I Threw Out My Dotfiles"
date: 2021-09-08T00:42:33-04:00
lastmod: 2021-09-08T00:42:33-04:00
draft: false
keywords: []
description: ""
tags: ['nix', 'dotfiles', 'home-manager']
categories: []
author: ""
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autoCollapseToc: false
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hiddenFromHomePage: false
# You can also define another contentCopyright. e.g. contentCopyright: "This is another copyright."
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---
<!--more-->
Over the years I have collected a number of dotfiles that I have shared across both Linux and macOS machines (`~/.zshrc`, `~/.config/git/config`, `~/.config/tmux/tmux.conf`, etc). I have tried several different ways to manage them, including [bare git repos](https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/dotfiles) and utilities such as [GNU Stow](https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/). These solutions work well enough, but I have since found what I would consider a much better solution for organizing user configuration: [home-manager](https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager).
## What is home-manager?
Before understanding home-manager, it is worth briefly discussing what nix is. [nix](https://nixos.org/) is a package manager that originally spawned from a [PhD thesis](https://edolstra.github.io/pubs/phd-thesis.pdf). Unlike other package managers, it uses symbolic links to keep track of the currently installed packages, keeping around the old ones in case you may want to rollback.
For example, I have used nix to install the package [bind](https://search.nixos.org/packages?channel=unstable&show=bind&from=0&size=50&sort=relevance&type=packages&query=bind) which includes `dig`. You can see that it is available on multiple platforms. The absolute path of `dig` can be found by running:
```console
❯ ls -lh $(which dig)
lrwxr-xr-x 73 root 31 Dec 1969 /run/current-system/sw/bin/dig -> /nix/store/0r4qdyprljd3dki57jn6c6a8dh2rbg9g-bind-9.16.16-dnsutils/bin/dig
```
Notice that there is a hash included in the file path? This is a nix store path and is computed by the nix package manager. This [nix pill](https://nixos.org/guides/nix-pills/nix-store-paths.html) does a good job explaining how this hash is computed. All of the nix pills are worth a read, if you are interested in learning more about nix itself. However, using home-manager does not require extensive knowledge of nix.
Part of the nix ecosystem includes [nixpkgs](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs). Many popular tools can be found already packaged in this repository. As you can see with these [stats](https://repology.org/repositories/statistics/total), there is a large number of existing packages that are being maintained by the community. Contributing a new package is easy, and anyone can do it!
home-manager leverages the nix package manager (and nixpkgs), as well the nix language so that you can declaratively define your system configuration. I store my [nix-config](https://github.com/davegallant/nix-config) in git so that I can keep track of my packages and configurations, and retain a clean and informative git commit history so that I can understand what changed and why.
## Setting up home-manager
> ⚠️ If you run this on your main machine, make sure you backup your configuration files first. home-manager is pretty good about not overwriting existing configuration, but it is better to have a backup! Alternatively, you could test this out on a VM or cloud instance.
The first thing you should do is [install nix](https://nixos.org/guides/install-nix.html):
```shell
curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install | sh
```
It's not a good idea to curl and execute files from the internet (without verifying integrity), so you might want to download the install script first and take a peak before executing it!
Open up a new shell in your terminal and running `nix` *should* work. If not, run `. ~/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/nix.sh`
Now, [install home-manager](https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager#installation):
```shell
nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/archive/master.tar.gz home-manager
nix-channel --update
nix-shell '<home-manager>' -A install
```
You should see a wave of `/nix/store/*` paths being displayed on your screen.
Now, to start off with a basic configuration, open up `~/.config/nixpkgs/home.nix` in the editor of your choice and paste this in (you will want to change `userName` and `homeDirectory`):
```nix
{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
programs.home-manager.enable = true;
home = {
username = "dave";
homeDirectory = "/home/dave";
stateVersion = "21.11";
packages = with pkgs; [
bind
exa
fd
ripgrep
];
};
programs = {
git = {
enable = true;
aliases = {
"aa" = "add -A .";
"br" = "branch";
"c" = "commit -S";
"ca" = "commit -S --amend";
"cb" = "checkout -b";
"co" = "checkout";
"d" = "diff";
"l" =
"log --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit";
};
delta = {
enable = true;
options = {
features = "line-numbers decorations";
whitespace-error-style = "22 reverse";
plus-style = "green bold ul '#198214'";
decorations = {
commit-decoration-style = "bold yellow box ul";
file-style = "bold yellow ul";
file-decoration-style = "none";
};
};
};
extraConfig = {
push = { default = "current"; };
pull = { rebase = true; };
};
};
starship = {
enable = true;
enableZshIntegration = true;
settings = {
add_newline = false;
scan_timeout = 10;
};
};
zsh = {
enable = true;
enableAutosuggestions = true;
enableSyntaxHighlighting = true;
history.size = 1000000;
localVariables = {
CASE_SENSITIVE = "true";
DISABLE_UNTRACKED_FILES_DIRTY = "true";
RPROMPT = ""; # override because macOS defaults to filepath
ZSH_AUTOSUGGEST_HIGHLIGHT_STYLE = "fg=#838383,underline";
ZSH_DISABLE_COMPFIX = "true";
};
initExtra = ''
export PAGER=less
'';
shellAliases = {
".." = "cd ..";
grep = "rg --smart-case";
ls = "exa -la --git";
};
"oh-my-zsh" = {
enable = true;
plugins = [
"gitfast"
"last-working-dir"
];
};
};
};
}
```
Save the file and run:
```
home-manager switch
```
You should see another wave of `/nix/store/*` paths. The new configuration should now be active.
If you run `zsh`, you should see that you have [starship](https://starship.rs/) and access to several other utils such as `rg`, `fd`, and `exa`.
This basic configuration above is also defining your `~/.config/git/config` and `.zshrc`. If you already have either of these files, home-manager will complain about them already existing.
If you run `cat ~/.zshrc`, you will see the way these configuration files are generated.
## Wrapping up
And that is how you can get started defining your user configuration with home-manager. You can extend this configuration for programs such as (neo)vim, emacs, alacritty, ssh, etc. To see other programs, take a look at [home-manager/modules/programs](https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/tree/master/modules/programs).