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1. Installation (dotfiles)

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simonvic edited this page Jun 2, 2025 · 1 revision

PREAMBLE

This guide will assume that you have a bare system; it's likely that you already have the needed software already installed. Some commands and some steps are shown for a ArchLinux system, but all my dotfiles should work on other systems too.

NOTE: you're highly encouraged in doing a backup of your current system / dotfiles before proceeding with the installation

NOTE: The WIKI is still in the making and not 100% accurate




INSTALLATION

git is required in order to install the dotfiles and some other software. Follow your system instruction on how to install it. Example for Arch users:

sudo pacman -S git

  1. Clone the dotfiles

    git clone --bare https://github.com/simonvic/dotfiles.git ${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/.dotfiles

  1. Checkout the content

    git --git-dir=${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME checkout

    Optionally you can checkout the dev branch to have the latest changes

     git --git-dir=${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME checkout dev

  1. Hide the untracked files

    git --git-dir=${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no

  1. Append .local/bin to the PATH enviroment variable

    Follow your system instruction on how to edit the PATH and make the changes persistent. For Arch users:

    echo '
if [[ $UID -ge 1000 && -d $HOME/.local/bin && -z $(echo $PATH | grep -o $HOME/.local/bin) ]]; then
	export PATH="${PATH}:$HOME/.local/bin"
fi' >> /etc/profile

  1. Make the scripts executable

    It's advised to manually make executable each script you can find in:

    chmod +x <path of script>

    If you don't have any other file in these folders, it's safe to do this:

    chmod +x ~/.local/bin/*
chmod +x ~/.config/i3/scripts/*
chmod +x ~/.config/polybar/scripts/*



  1. Relog or reboot your system to make sure the changes have taken effect

    Assuming you already have zsh as your shell (if not check how to change your default shell), you should now see the custom prompt.

    You can use the dotfiles alias to manage the dotfiles. With the power of git you can easily fetch updates for the dotfiles or see what has changed.

  • List changes 
     dotfiles log --oneline
    or for more details 
     dotfiles log

  • Check for new updates 
     dotfiles fetch --tags

  • Change to developement branch to get latest changes 
     dotfiles checkout dev

  • Update the dotfiles 
     dotfiles pull

Clone this wiki locally