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<h1 class=title>Why I Threw Out My Dotfiles</h1>
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<span class=screen-reader-text>Posted on </span>
<time class=entry-date datetime=2021-09-08T00:42:33-04:00>2021, Sep 08</time>
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5 mins read
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<div class="container entry-content"><p>Over the years I have collected a number of dotfiles that I have shared across both Linux and macOS machines (<code>~/.zshrc</code>, <code>~/.config/git/config</code>, <code>~/.config/tmux/tmux.conf</code>, etc). I have tried several different ways to manage them, including <a href=https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/dotfiles>bare git repos</a> and utilities such as <a href=https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/>GNU Stow</a>. These solutions work well enough, but I have since found what I would consider a much better solution for organizing user configuration: <a href=https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager>home-manager</a>.</p>
<h2 id=what-is-home-manager>What is home-manager?<a href=#what-is-home-manager class=hanchor arialabel=Anchor>#</a></h2>
<p>Before understanding home-manager, it is worth briefly discussing what nix is. <a href=https://nixos.org/>nix</a> is a package manager that originally spawned from a <a href=https://edolstra.github.io/pubs/phd-thesis.pdf>PhD thesis</a>. 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.</p>
<p>For example, I have used nix to install the package <a href="https://search.nixos.org/packages?channel=unstable&show=bind&from=0&size=50&sort=relevance&type=packages&query=bind">bind</a> which includes <code>dig</code>. You can see that it is available on multiple platforms. The absolute path of <code>dig</code> can be found by running:</p>
<div class=highlight><pre tabindex=0 style=background-color:#f0f3f3;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4><code class=language-console data-lang=console><span style=color:#009;font-weight:700>$ </span>ls -lh <span style=color:#069;font-weight:700>$(</span>which dig<span style=color:#069;font-weight:700>)</span>
<span style=color:#aaa>lrwxr-xr-x 73 root 31 Dec 1969 /run/current-system/sw/bin/dig -&gt; /nix/store/0r4qdyprljd3dki57jn6c6a8dh2rbg9g-bind-9.16.16-dnsutils/bin/dig
</span></code></pre></div><p>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 <a href=https://nixos.org/guides/nix-pills/nix-store-paths.html>nix pill</a> 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.</p>
<p>Part of the nix ecosystem includes <a href=https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs>nixpkgs</a>. Many popular tools can be found already packaged in this repository. As you can see with these <a href=https://repology.org/repositories/statistics/total>stats</a>, 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!</p>
<p>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 <a href=https://github.com/davegallant/nix-config>nix-config</a> 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.</p>
<h2 id=setting-up-home-manager>Setting up home-manager<a href=#setting-up-home-manager class=hanchor arialabel=Anchor>#</a></h2>
<blockquote>
<p>⚠️ 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.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The first thing you should do is <a href=https://nixos.org/guides/install-nix.html>install nix</a>:</p>
<div class=highlight><pre tabindex=0 style=background-color:#f0f3f3;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4><code class=language-shell data-lang=shell>curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install | sh
</code></pre></div><p>It&rsquo;s generally 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 look before executing it!</p>
<p>Open up a new shell in your terminal and running <code>nix</code> <em>should</em> work. If not, run <code>. ~/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/nix.sh</code></p>
<p>Now, <a href=https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager#installation>install home-manager</a>:</p>
<div class=highlight><pre tabindex=0 style=background-color:#f0f3f3;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4><code class=language-shell data-lang=shell>nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/archive/master.tar.gz home-manager
nix-channel --update
nix-shell <span style=color:#c30>&#39;&lt;home-manager&gt;&#39;</span> -A install
</code></pre></div><p>You should see a wave of <code>/nix/store/*</code> paths being displayed on your screen.</p>
<p>Now, to start off with a basic configuration, open up <code>~/.config/nixpkgs/home.nix</code> in the editor of your choice and paste this in (you will want to change <code>userName</code> and <code>homeDirectory</code>):</p>
<div class=highlight><pre tabindex=0 style=background-color:#f0f3f3;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4><code class=language-nix data-lang=nix>{ config<span style=color:#555>,</span> pkgs<span style=color:#555>,</span> <span style=color:#555>...</span> }:
{
programs<span style=color:#555>.</span>home-manager<span style=color:#555>.</span>enable <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#360>true</span>;
home <span style=color:#555>=</span> {
username <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;dave&#34;</span>;
homeDirectory <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;/home/dave&#34;</span>;
stateVersion <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;21.11&#34;</span>;
packages <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#069;font-weight:700>with</span> pkgs; [
bind
exa
fd
ripgrep
];
};
programs <span style=color:#555>=</span> {
git <span style=color:#555>=</span> {
enable <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#360>true</span>;
aliases <span style=color:#555>=</span> {
aa <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;add -A .&#34;</span>;
br <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;branch&#34;</span>;
c <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;commit -S&#34;</span>;
ca <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;commit -S --amend&#34;</span>;
cb <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;checkout -b&#34;</span>;
co <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;checkout&#34;</span>;
d <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;diff&#34;</span>;
l <span style=color:#555>=</span>
<span style=color:#c30>&#34;log --graph --pretty=format:&#39;%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)&lt;%an&gt;%Creset&#39; --abbrev-commit&#34;</span>;
};
delta <span style=color:#555>=</span> {
enable <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#360>true</span>;
options <span style=color:#555>=</span> {
features <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;line-numbers decorations&#34;</span>;
whitespace-error-style <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;22 reverse&#34;</span>;
plus-style <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;green bold ul &#39;#198214&#39;&#34;</span>;
decorations <span style=color:#555>=</span> {
commit-decoration-style <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;bold yellow box ul&#34;</span>;
file-style <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;bold yellow ul&#34;</span>;
file-decoration-style <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;none&#34;</span>;
};
};
};
extraConfig <span style=color:#555>=</span> {
push <span style=color:#555>=</span> { default <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;current&#34;</span>; };
pull <span style=color:#555>=</span> { rebase <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#360>true</span>; };
};
};
starship <span style=color:#555>=</span> {
enable <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#360>true</span>;
enableZshIntegration <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#360>true</span>;
settings <span style=color:#555>=</span> {
add_newline <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#360>false</span>;
scan_timeout <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#f60>10</span>;
};
};
zsh <span style=color:#555>=</span> {
enable <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#360>true</span>;
enableAutosuggestions <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#360>true</span>;
enableSyntaxHighlighting <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#360>true</span>;
history<span style=color:#555>.</span>size <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#f60>1000000</span>;
localVariables <span style=color:#555>=</span> {
CASE_SENSITIVE <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;true&#34;</span>;
DISABLE_UNTRACKED_FILES_DIRTY <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;true&#34;</span>;
RPROMPT <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;&#34;</span>; <span style=color:#09f;font-style:italic># override because macOS defaults to filepath</span>
ZSH_AUTOSUGGEST_HIGHLIGHT_STYLE <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;fg=#838383,underline&#34;</span>;
ZSH_DISABLE_COMPFIX <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;true&#34;</span>;
};
initExtra <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#39;&#39;
</span><span style=color:#c30> export PAGER=less
</span><span style=color:#c30> &#39;&#39;</span>;
shellAliases <span style=color:#555>=</span> {
<span style=color:#c30>&#34;..&#34;</span> <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;cd ..&#34;</span>;
grep <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;rg --smart-case&#34;</span>;
ls <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#c30>&#34;exa -la --git&#34;</span>;
};
<span style=color:#c30>&#34;oh-my-zsh&#34;</span> <span style=color:#555>=</span> {
enable <span style=color:#555>=</span> <span style=color:#360>true</span>;
plugins <span style=color:#555>=</span> [
<span style=color:#c30>&#34;gitfast&#34;</span>
<span style=color:#c30>&#34;last-working-dir&#34;</span>
];
};
};
};
}
</code></pre></div><p>Save the file and run:</p>
<pre tabindex=0><code>home-manager switch
</code></pre><p>You should see another wave of <code>/nix/store/*</code> paths. The new configuration should now be active.</p>
<p>If you run <code>zsh</code>, you should see that you have <a href=https://starship.rs/>starship</a> and access to several other utils such as <code>rg</code>, <code>fd</code>, and <code>exa</code>.</p>
<p>This basic configuration above is also defining your <code>~/.config/git/config</code> and <code>.zshrc</code>. If you already have either of these files, home-manager will complain about them already existing.</p>
<p>If you run <code>cat ~/.zshrc</code>, you will see the way these configuration files are generated.</p>
<p>You can extend this configuration for programs such as (neo)vim, emacs, alacritty, ssh, etc. To see other programs, take a look at <a href=https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/tree/master/modules/programs>home-manager/modules/programs</a>.</p>
<h2 id=gateway-to-nix>Gateway To Nix<a href=#gateway-to-nix class=hanchor arialabel=Anchor>#</a></h2>
<p>In ways, home-manager can be seen as a gateway to the nix ecosystem. If you have enjoyed the way you can declare user configuration with home-manager, you may be interested in expanding your configuration to include other system dependencies and configuration. For example, in Linux you can define your entire system&rsquo;s configuration (including the kernel, kernel modules, networking, filesystems, etc) in nix. For macOS, there is <a href=https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin>nix-darwin</a> that includes nix modules for configuring launchd, dock, and other preferences and services. You may also want to check out <a href=https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Flakes>Nix Flakes</a>: a more recent feature that allows you declare dependencies, and have them automatically pinned and hashed in <code>flake.lock</code>, similar to that of many modern package managers.</p>
<h2 id=wrapping-up>Wrapping up<a href=#wrapping-up class=hanchor arialabel=Anchor>#</a></h2>
<p>The title of this post is slightly misleading, since it&rsquo;s possible to retain some of your dotfiles and have them intermingle with home-manager by including them alongside nix. The idea of defining user configuration using nix can provide a clean way to maintain your configuration, and allow it to be portable across platforms. Is it worth the effort to migrate away from shell scripts and dotfiles? I&rsquo;d say so.</p></div>
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