muh dotfiles (using caifs)

dotfiles using (caifs)https://github.com/caifs-org/caifs

Featuring:

• emacs - a custom emacs configuration, focusing on software projects per tab group
• git dev flow - a split work/private development flow with handy aliases for managing both
• bash - custom bash configuration
• editorconfig - a master editorconfig file that negates the need for per-project editorconfigs
• starship
• tmux

Everything else is standard in the caifs common repo https://github.com/caifs-org/caifs-common

Emacs

See init.el and early-init.el for the details. Lots of this config was lifted from other repos over the years, if I can remember them I will reference them.

The Major components of this setup are:

• eglot - Language Server Protocol (LSP) integrations
• project.el - git project management
• dirvish - replaces dired and also adds a sidebar file tree which is occasionally useful
• vim-tab-bar and one-tab-per-project (otpp) for grouping projects per tabgroup
• magit - of course...
• ivy, swiper, counsel - eventually will explore the new hotness for these
• doom-modeline - it just looks awesome
• tree sitter - for most things, barring YAML mode which seems to be very broken
• theme - spacemacs dark

OS level components like rassafrassum for eglot and the font and icon packs are handled by caifs hooks.

Git-dev Target

The git target will ensure the git binary is installed, it is handy for unattended installations that require git, but no extra configuration.

This git-dev target adds nice configuration, intended for a dev workflow

~/.gitconfig-work ~/.gitconfig-private

Workflow

After installing, instead of the usual git clone method, use the aliases git clone-work or git clone-private to clone the repositories into the correct base work directory. eg $DEFAULT_CODE_DIR/work or $DEFAULT_CODE_DIR/private

Updating the global ignore file

The currently used script for updating the ~/.config/git/ignore file is below It used to be a post-hook script, but it was too dynamic and not idempotent enough. Now it gets managed as config

GLOBAL_IGNORES="\
        Global/Ansible.gitignore \
        Global/JetBrains.gitignore \
        Global/Linux.gitignore \
        Global/Emacs.gitignore \
        Global/macOS.gitignore \
        Global/VisualStudioCode.gitignore \
        Global/VirtualEnv.gitignore \
        Global/Windows.gitignore \
        Dotnet.gitignore \
        Python.gitignore \
        Terraform.gitignore \
"

GLOBAL_IGNORE_FILE=config/.config/git/ignore

mkdir -p $(dirname ${GLOBAL_IGNORE_FILE})

# reset the file or create it
> ${GLOBAL_IGNORE_FILE}

echo "Downloading common gitignores from https://github.com/github/gitignore..."
for ignore_file in $GLOBAL_IGNORES; do
    echo "" >> ${GLOBAL_IGNORE_FILE}
    echo "## Start ${ignore_file}" >> ${GLOBAL_IGNORE_FILE}
    curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/gitignore/refs/heads/main/${ignore_file} >> ${GLOBAL_IGNORE_FILE}
    echo "## End ${ignore_file}" >> ${GLOBAL_IGNORE_FILE}
done

Dependencies

You should ensure that you have a $DEFAULT_CODE_DIR environment variable set, which by default is generated during caifs add bootstrap

Git'isms and DEFAULT_CODE_DIR

The git config provided prompts for a DEFAULT_CODE_DIR location, which is typically a directory where all your repos get cloned to. You do clone all your repos to a single directory right? And not to the desktop and all over the place??

This git config takes it a step further and separates "work" from "private" locations and includes username and email credentials based on this structure.

For example, if you take the default DEFAULT_CODE_DIR=~/code setting. Then this gitconfig will assume all your 'work' repos sit under ~/code/work and similarly all your private repos are under ~/code/private.

To take it another step further, the gitconfig supplied offers some nice function aliases to provide further organisation.

git clone-private and git clone-work will clone the supplied repository, with the full path, under the respective ~/code/private and ~/code/work directories.

For example, running the following on this repo (which is where the installer will put it by default)

git clone-private https://github.com/caifs-org/caifs-common.git

Will result in the dotfiles repo being located at ~/code/private/github.com/caifs-org/caifs-common

Is it a bit java and dotnetty namespace looking? Kinda. Does it make things easier when you are dealing with a lot of enterprise level repositories scattered all over the place? Absolutely!

To make it even easier to navigate, if you are using bash or zsh via this repo, you will get a nice interactive navigator via the alias, gitchooser

Note

The git target will generate two empty ~/.gitconfig-work and ~/.gitconfig-private files to populate after install