etc

This contains some of my (often used) configuration settings for Mac and Linux. I hope you find it useful.

Parts

The repository is broken into a few different pieces:

• bash/ - Contains my bash configuration.
• zsh/ - Contains my zsh configuration.
• shell-common/ - Contains support scripts used by both bash and zsh.
• editrc/ - Contains an rc script used to configure editline (used in various places on the Mac).
• inputrc/ - Contains an rc script used to configure readline.
• gitconfig/ - Contains a couple of files that I use to help configure git.
• git-addons/ - Contains a couple of git commands that I find myself using frequently.
• python/ - A startup.py script for use with the Mac to enable readline support.

Getting the Repository

Things work best when using the default install location of $HOME/projects/etc. To do this, simply run:

mkdir -p ~/projects
cd ~/projects
git clone https://github.com/jszakmeister/etc.git

You can choose to clone the repository elsewhere (~/.etc is often a useful place). However, there is a tad more work you need to do. Those steps will be explained below.

Quick Start

To opt into everything, the easiest thing to do is run the setup.sh file. It will create the necessary files and symlinks to all the appropriate content.

Setting up Bash

My Bash environment sets up quite a few things. The most noticeable bit is the prompt, but it also adjusts some shell options for history, smart auto-completion, aliases, a few environment settings, and the PATH. At the moment, there is no way to dissect it and just get the bits you want. Perhaps down the road, I'll make it more severable.

To get started, all you really need to do is add a line to your ~/.bashrc file:

. $HOME/projects/etc/bash/bashrc

That will bring in the entire environment. If you checkout out etc.git to a different location, then you need something like this:

ETC_HOME=/path/to/location
. $ETC_HOME/bash/bashrc

So if you checkout out etc.git to ~/.etc, your ~/.bashrc should contain:

ETC_HOME=$HOME/.etc
. $ETC_HOME/bash/bashrc

You'll need to exit your shell, and create a new one. That should let the new settings take affect.

Note

The default configuration expects that you're using a terminal with a dark background color. If you're using a light background, you may find the prompt to be unreadable as it uses some fairly light colors.

For the Mac

It seems that Macs don't have their shell environment setup out-of-the-box... at least with Snow Leopard or earlier. Therefore, you will need to add a ~/.bash_profile with the following text:

if [ "${BASH-no}" != "no" ]; then
        [ -r ~/.bashrc ] && . ~/.bashrc
fi

This simply checks for the existence of ~/.bashrc and sources it.

Setting up ZSH

I've also been exploring the use of ZSH. Primarily because ZSH has some better prompting capabilities. I won't waste time trying to compare Bash and ZSH. Both are great shells, and both have strengths and weaknesses.

To get started, do is add a line to your ~/.zshrc file (create the file if it doesn't exist):

. $HOME/projects/etc/zsh/zshrc

As with Bash, it will bring in the entire environment. If you checkout out etc.git a different location, then you need something like this:

ETC_HOME=/path/to/location
. $ETC_HOME/zsh/zshrc

So if you checkout out etc.git to ~/.etc, your ~/.zshrc should contain:

ETC_HOME=$HOME/.etc
. $ETC_HOME/zsh/zshrc

You'll need to exit your shell, and create a new one. That should let the new settings take affect.

Changing your Shell

ZSH is usually not the default shell. To start a ZSH, you can just run zsh. However, if you want to change your shell so that it's the default on launched, you need to run this at the command line:

chsh -s /bin/zsh

It'll ask for your password and switch the shell.

Getting PATH updates with ssh server <command>

I occasionally have the need to run a command on a server with ssh. However, I set up some tools in path that are not the default locations. To deal with that, you need to have a ~/.zshenv. If you anticipate the need to do such a thing, they you'll want to create a ~/.zshenv file that has the following:

. $HOME/projects/etc/zsh/zshenv

Or, if you have etc.git checked out elsewhere:

ETC_HOME=/path/to/location
. $ETC_HOME/zsh/zshenv

Using ZSH even when you can't change the default shell

I find that systems that authenticate via LDAP, often don't allow customizing the login shell per user--there's only a global knob to do it. I work around this by putting the following into my ~/.bashrc:

# Fix the path to point to your etc working tree.
ETC_HOME="$HOME/.etc"

case $- in
    *i*)
        extra_args=
        if shopt -q login_shell
        then
            extra_args="$extra_args --login"
        fi

        if [ -e /usr/bin/zsh ]
        then
            SHELL=/usr/bin/zsh exec /usr/bin/zsh $extra_args
        elif [ -e /bin/zsh ]
        then
            SHELL=/bin/zsh exec /bin/zsh $extra_args
        else
            . "$ETC_HOME/bash/bashrc"
            echo "Running in BASH shell."
        fi
        ;;
    *)
        . "$ETC_HOME/bash/bashrc"
        ;;
esac

Then, when you login and start an interactive shell, it'll turn around and exec zsh, giving me the shell I really want, but not affecting scripts.

Prompt Configuration

The prompt in the shell configuration will provide some useful information about the status of your branch in a Git working tree or repository. However, some of what it provides can be expensive if you work in a large repository, or on a branch that is many commits behind master.

To turn of the status indicator (the red * that lets you know the working tree is dirty), simply create a file called .nostatus in the .git folder:

touch .git/.nostatus

Whenever you create a new branch, if there's no upstream branch configured or if there is no matching remote branch (in the case you have push.default set to current, matching, or simple), then the prompt will perform a comparison against master to let you know if you have real work hanging around on a local branch, and how much. To turn this off, create a file called .nomaster in the .git folder:

touch .git/.nomaster

Readline

Years ago, I got hooked on being able to type a few characters, hit up, and start scrolling through all commands that started with those characters. In fact, I feel disabled at the keyboard with out it. So I've captured my configuration in inputrc/inputrc. If you desire that feature, simply create a symbolic link to the file at ~/.inputrc:

cd ~
ln -s /path/to/etc/inputrc/inputrc .inputrc

You can reload the readline settings by typing Ctrl-X Ctrl-R, but I've had a few experiences where that didn't seem to work. You may need to logout and then back in again for it to take effect.

Editline

Some applications on the Mac use editline, which is similar to readline. I have the equivalent settings in editrc/editrc. Editline seems to be less capable, so it's not a perfect match but it's close enough. Set it up by doing:

cd ~
ln -s /path/to/etc/editrc/editrc .editrc

Git Configuration

I keep some common options that I configure in gitconfig/gitconfig. They make my git environment more usable for me. Simply cut and paste what you want from there, and put it in the appropriate section of ~/.gitconfig. At some point, I'm going to write a script to help automate this process more, but for now, cut-and-paste is it.

Note

Pay close attention to excludesfile in the [core] section. It references $HOME/projects/etc/gitconfig/gitignores. Change this to the correct path, if you have etc in a different location.

Python

Only on the Mac, I set up the PYTHONSTARTUP variable to point at $ETC_HOME/python/startup.py. This simply sets up readline, so you get a decent interpreter command line interface.

Nifty Features

I'm highly productive, but I'm also lazy. I don't like to type more than I need to, so I've set up shortcuts for many things.

Some of my favorite are:

• cdt - Stands for "change directory to top." This command will look for known directories, like .git or .svn, or for a file name .cdt-stop starting from the current directory and working its way up the tree. If it finds the required directory or file, it'll change to that folder. This is an excellent way to get to the top of git tree or a project folder.

• cd<x> - where <x> is a character set of your choosing. I have many, such as cdp to change to ~/projects. There are also pd<x> versions to push the current directory onto the stack and change to the designated folder. You can use _add_dir_shortcut to create these aliases:

  _add_dir_shortcut p ~/projects true
  

  Here the p is the character that should come after cd and pd. The ~/projects argument is the folder to change into. And the true is really for zsh users... it'll create a directory alias, ~p in this case, that you can use to reference that folder on the command line.

• _has_executable is a safe way to detect whether an executable is on the path. There's not a good POSIX portable way of doing this (each shell has it's own way), so _has_executable was developed to provide this since I bounce between both zsh and bash environments.

• md - Makes a directory and then changes into it.

• ssh-add - Automatically starts an SSH agent, if one is not running. Then adds the requested key.

• Command line completion for some included tools, such as git-ffwd.

• Auto-sourcing of virtualenvwrapper.sh, if found.

• update-common is a handy script for updating a series of repos that live at ~/.vim, ~/.vimuser, ~/.ssh, ~/.etc, and several other locations to help keep them up-to-date. You can create a ~/.update-commonrc file with a list of paths to update and the update-common script will update those paths too. You can use ~ in the paths as the shell will expand it.

• simple-http is handy for when you need a quick webserver to serve up a directory of files. It currently requires Python 2.

• gr - Used to open a file in an already running gvim instance (you have to start the original instance with gr too). If you create a .gr-name file with a name in it, it will use that name as the session to restore and the window name of the instance. This may require a special tool on some systems to help bring the instance into the foreground.

• chrome and firefox contain user stylesheets for making the browser show monospaced fonts in places, like GitHub comments, where you might be typing code or markdown.

• ssh has some configuration files that give you an idea about some settings to put in your own configuration to change port numbers, limit authentication, and pass environment variables.

• fonts contains some handy fonts that I like to have available on a system. In particular, I like the Hack font. The setup script will install these into the right location for your OS (Linux or macOS).

• The configuration will automatically detect ~/.etc-user and ~/.etc-local and use them to extend what is available in this configuration. This is good for user customization and for customizing things on the local machine. You can also do the latter by creating a ~/.etcrc. ~/.etc-user and ~/.etc-local also support interactive vs. non-interactive configuration through the use of interactive.sh and noninteractive.sh, respectively.

• And many, many, more features. This is the accumulation of over 20 years worth of configuration.