hkdobrev’s dotfiles

My personal macOS dotfiles: the Homebrew Bash shell setup, aliases, functions, a thorough Git configuration, a Brewfile of every tool and app I install, and a .macos script that reproduces my system preferences. Built for Apple Silicon Macs.

Installation

The repo is meant to live in your $HOME directory. It only tracks the files it already knows about and ignores everything else.

A brand-new Mac has no SSH key yet, so clone over HTTPS first:

cd "$HOME"
git init
git remote add origin https://github.com/hkdobrev/dotfiles.git
git fetch origin main
git reset --hard origin/main

It is recommended to fork the repo and adjust it to your own taste.

Bootstrap with the install script

init/install.sh is the single entry point for a new machine. It:

1. installs the Xcode Command Line Tools and Homebrew,
2. runs brew bundle over the Brewfile — every formula, Cask app and Mac App Store app (sign in to the App Store first so the mas apps install),
3. switches the login shell to the Homebrew Bash, and
4. applies the macOS system preferences via .macos (Dock, Finder, trackpad, Mission Control, Stage Manager, menu bar and keyboard shortcuts).

./init/install.sh

It is idempotent — safe to re-run. The final .macos step asks for confirmation (it restarts Dock/Finder and quits a few apps). To run unattended and skip it:

NO_MACOS=1 ./init/install.sh

You can also re-apply individual pieces at any time:

./.macos                       # just the macOS system preferences
brew bundle --file=~/Brewfile  # just the Homebrew packages

Some macOS changes need a logout/restart to take effect.

Switch the Git remote to SSH

Once you have an SSH key, authenticate with GitHub and move the remote off HTTPS. The bundled ~/.ssh/config uses the default ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 key name:

# Create a modern key (no passphrase) if you don't have one:
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "you@example.com"

# Authenticate the GitHub CLI (installed via the Brewfile), wire it into Git,
# and register the public key on your account:
gh auth login
gh auth setup-git
gh ssh-key add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub --title "$(hostname -s)"

git remote set-url origin git@github.com:hkdobrev/dotfiles.git

Updating

Pull the latest dotfiles:

cd && git pull

Update all your software with the update alias (macOS software updates, Homebrew formulae and casks, npm globals and Ruby gems):

update

Customisation

~/.path

If ~/.path exists it is sourced before the other files, so it can extend $PATH before any feature detection runs:

export PATH="$HOME/utils:$PATH"

~/.extra

If ~/.extra exists it is sourced as well. Use it for machine-specific or private settings, functions and aliases that you don't want to commit — a handy way to tweak things without forking the whole repo.

Per-machine Git identity

Git loads additional configuration from ~/git/.gitconfig.local (untracked). Use it to set your own identity:

git config --file=~/git/.gitconfig.local user.name "John Doe"
git config --file=~/git/.gitconfig.local user.email "john.doe@example.com"
git config --file=~/git/.gitconfig.local user.signingKey "0xABCDE"

Feedback

Suggestions/improvements welcome!

Author

Haralan Dobrev

Originally forked from Mathias Bynens’ dotfiles and heavily modified since for my own purposes.

Thanks to…

• @ptb and his OS X Lion Setup repository
• Ben Alman and his dotfiles repository
• Chris Gerke and his tutorial on creating an OS X SOE master image + Insta repository
• Cãtãlin Mariş and his dotfiles repository
• Gianni Chiappetta for sharing his amazing collection of dotfiles
• Jan Moesen and his ancient .bash_profile + shiny tilde repository
• Lauri ‘Lri’ Ranta for sharing loads of hidden preferences
• Matijs Brinkhuis and his dotfiles repository
• Nicolas Gallagher and his dotfiles repository
• Sindre Sorhus
• Tom Ryder and his dotfiles repository
• Kevin Suttle and his dotfiles repository and OSXDefaults project, which aims to provide better documentation for ~/.osx
• anyone who contributed a patch or made a helpful suggestion