dotfiles

This repo contains scripts to automatically install applications and configure both the desktop and terminal environment. The two main goals of this repo are:

To be able to install a fresh copy of Ubuntu and then simply run a single script to set everything up "the way it was before".
To backup configurations and sync them across multiple systems.

Additional Features

Automatic installation of all your apps.
easy support for host-specific configs.
debconf preconfiguration for apps requiring user input during installation.

NOTE: These dotfiles and scripts have only been tested on Ubuntu 16.04. It is possible that they no longer work for 14.04 or other versions.

Installation Instructions

If you wish start managing your own dotfiles immediately then I suggest the following:

Fork your own copy of this repo. (optional)*
Clone that fork to your PC using the following:

git clone git@github.com:icolwell/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles

(Change the icolwell to your account if you forked your own) 3. Run the initialization script:

bash ~/dotfiles/scripts/initialize_system.bash

All done! the apps are installed and configured according to the settings in this repo. You may now wish to customize your configs to your own preferences, see the following sections for short explanations on how things are arranged. It's really quite simple.

* You can simply clone my repo without forking if you just want to get up and running fast.

Customizing this dotfiles repo to your own preferences

If you want to use this repo for your own dotfiles feel free to fork or copy. You will most likely want to modify at least the following things although it is totally optional of course:

configs folder to contain your configs (or just use mine)
configure_desktop.bash
- PRIVATE_CONFIGS_DIR and SYSTEM_CONFIGS_DIR variables to point towards your private or system-specific configs directory (or just remove)
- Any app-specific config functions above the comment line
install_apps.bash
- All the APPS variables at the very top
- The repository_additions function
- The default_install function to add or remove custom installs

Folder Structure

I designed the folder structure to be as simple as possible. Since all user configs reside somewhere under your $HOME directory, the configs/home folder in this repo contains all configs relative to the $HOME directory. This means a script can simply loop over all the files found in the configs/home folder and know where to symlink them relative to your $HOME directory. System wide configs are handled the same way. These are stored in the configs/root folder and are symlinked relative to root (/).

Another benefit is that you can easily separate private configs (such as your .ssh/config) by simply storing them in another location with the same folder structure (Dropbox for example). System-specific configs can also be handled by providing a path based on an assumed unique hostname.

Scripts

See the scripts README for an explanation of the scripts.

Continuous Integration Testing

A docker image that emulates a typical Ubuntu 16.04 desktop installation is used to verify that all the installation scripts work as expected.