dev-env

A WIP attempt to better manage personal development enviornments with AlmaLinux9

Created while using AL9 within WSL, but the less agnostic aspects to this are limited to steps 1, 2 & 3 of the subsection "Preparation". This should generally work for any linux OS that leverages dnf/yum for package utilities.
- If not using WSL to run AlmaLinux, consider whether you want to install a nerd font (recommended; see preparation step 4) and skip to (preparation step 5)
This repo is (or has been) inspired by:
- github.com/mtrudel/dotfiles
- github.com/Griffun/dotfiles (Chris Butler)
- chezmoi.io/
- github.com/bertvv/cheat-sheets/blob/master/docs/Bash.md
- chat.openai.com
so-far, this is a proof of concept. While it has worked for me to configure fresh AlmaLinux installs on a few of my personal machines, it is very much a WIP, and is subject to quite a few changes going forward.

A snapshot from `fastfetch` illustrating my WSL configuration in `Windows Terminal`

Some comments on WIN package management

The winget package manager is a really good option for managing most windows app/package installations, and seems to be what will eventually become the default package management tool for the windows OS in the future. You'll find that it is pre-installed on your machine by default.

Understand that winget looks at both msstore as well as it's own package repositories; so sometimes you will see more than one version of a desired package show up when using winget search. As the winget ecosystem is now--even if it isn't true for all cases--it would be pragmatic to take the default assumption that anything not listed as coming directly from the msstore package repo will not receive automatic updates once you have it installed. This isn't necessarily bad, but worth noting.

There is also the chocolatey (choco) package manager, which works well, but is not pre-installed on windows OS by default. To use it, you will have to install it with a few simple powershell commands found within their well-documented online guide.

Preparation

1. Install WSL2 (admin required)

See learn.microsoft.com

Run wsl --install from an elevated PowerShell

2. Install AlmaLinux9

See wiki.almalinux.org

Install AlmaLinux9 from the Microsoft Store
- Using winget: winget install "AlmaLinux 9"
Open the AlmaLinux9 app. A terminal should open and run stuff. When complete, AlmaLinux9 will be a profile option in Windows Terminal (or Windows Terminal Preview).

3. Install Windows Terminal Preview from the Microsoft Store

Not required, but highly recommended

Using winget: winget install "Windows Terminal Preview"

4. Install a NerdFont

Not required, but highly recommended. I've never tried using a nerdfont with another terminal in windows, either

Install a NerdFont as explained here: learn.microsoft.com (I like FiraCode NF)
- if using chocolatey: choco install firacodenf (unsure if there's a winget option I'm not seeing)
Select the installed nerdfont in your Windows Terminal App (as default, or for your AlmaLinux Profile)

5. Initial Steps w/ AlmaLinux

I prefer to run both my WSL distros and Powershell/Powershell Preview from the Windows Terminal Preview app, but you can run it in the default terminal offered by the AlmaLinux WSL package or pick from other terminal apps available in either msstore, winget, or chocolatey repos

Open AlmaLinux in the terminal of your choice, and run the following commands before using dev-env's install scripts.
dnf check-update && sudo dnf update
sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled crb
sudo dnf install epel-release
dnf check-update && sudo dnf update
sudo dnf upgrade (update to AlmaLinux 9.2)
sudo dnf install git
TODO: Add note about a fermi-specific group-install

Using this repo to setup a development environment

1. Clone dev-env.git locally

These URLs can be seen on the github page under the green 'code' dropdown button. The below lines use https, but using ssh is preferred.

git clone https://github.com/crispd/dev-env.git, or...
git clone https://ghe-pip2.fnal.gov/dcrisp/dev-env.git

2. Decide what you want to install. Using `./install.sh` to do so.

running install.sh withought args will install some basic tools, inspect the file to see which.
install.sh can also be passed args for selective installation of things like neovim (nvim)

Note: some installations require that code get added to your dotfiles

these scripts will add a ~/.profile dotifle to your home directory that will iterate through a new ~/.profile.d/ directory in which any new dotfile-like code will live
this process does not remove any existing ~/.profile dotfile you may have, the existing file will become ~/.profile.bak before placing the new one
in order for this to work, the user will have to source the ~/.profile dotfile from whatever existing dotfiles their shell is using (i.e. ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc). The needed line is simply the following:
- . ~/.profile

Again, this is a work in progress... todo.md is where I've offloaded ideas for future improvement (this repo is not my current focus, but I do tend to tweak it occasionally).

License

MIT

crispd/dev-env