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General Computer Setup

This document describes best-practices how to setup your work-machine or laptop for a nice software-development workflow.

Creating a development setup can be tedious. Especially when you install and configure programs and do not want to redo things again in the future. Therefore it makes sense to versionize configuration files and use a dotfile management setup.

tip

For advanced users, using NixOS can simplify these steps, as NixOS uses a functional language to describe the whole system.

Package Manager​

MacOS​

On macOS brew is a powerful and easy to use package manager.

Linux​

Use the Linux distribution package manager. You can also install brew on Linux which does not hinder at all. See here.

Windows​

Install chocolately.

Git & Git LFS Setup​

The most important tool is Git. Git LFS manages large-files (e.g. binary blobs, pictures etc.) and is needed to store data files in git repositories. It comes with most git installations.

To install it do the following:

  • MacOS: brew install git git-lfs
  • Windows: Installer. Use all defaults.
  • Linux: Use the package manager of your OS. Make sure git-lfs is installed.
warning

It is recommended to use a dotfile manager setup where Git LFS is configured already. If you do not, you need to run the following in a terminal:

git lfs install

which sets up Git LFS into global ~/.gitconfig.

GNU Privacy Guard​

Using GPG (GNU Privacy Guard) with Git allows you to sign commits and tags, verifying your identity as the author.

  1. Install it with:

    • MacOS: brew install gpg.
    • Windows: choco install gnugpg .
    • Linux: Use the package manager of your OS.

  2. Generate a GPG key with

    gpg --default-new-key-algo ed25519 --gen-key

  3. Get the key id <your-key-id> of your key with

    gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format=long

  4. Add it to the Git config with

    git config --global user.signingkey <your-key-id>

  5. Copy the public key and add it to your Github/Gitlab account.

Githooks​

Git hooks are callbacks in Git which happen on certain events. The pre-commit hooks is for example is useful to assert certain things before git commit (checking everything is formatted etc.). Because Git hooks are a bit hard to manage, different Git hooks managers exist which facilitate the use of Git hooks (e.g. Githooks, pre-commit(not recommended)) in a Git repository.

Its recommended to install Githooks for enabled projects (e.g. containing a .githooks. folder). If Githooks is installed, it will automatically manage Git hooks.

Essential Packages​

Some systems come without some proper utilities. MacOS, by default, has its own out-dated zsh and bash and not all GNU utilities which are essential to have installed to not be prone to strange incompatibility issues.

MacOS​

Install the following tools.

brew install \
    binutils \
    coreutils \
    findutils \
    git git-lfs \
    bash \
    grep \
    gnu-sed gnu-tar gnu-time

Linux​

Depending on the distribution its still good to have binutils, coreutils and findutils installed.

Windows​

If you use git-bash.exe all GNU utilities are available.

Essential Fonts​

For programming and terminal navigation, it is recommended to have a proper mono-spaced font installed on your system. The archive nerdfonts.com has fonts which come with all emojis and other symbols which also work as a Terminal font. Install the downloaded fonts in your operating system:

  • MacOS: Select the font files, right-click -> Open with -> FontBook.
  • Windows: Select the font files, right-click -> Install.
  • Linux: Use the distribution specific workflow or read here. On Ubuntu, right-click -> Open with -> Font Viewer -> Install.
tip

We recommend the JetBrainsMono Nerd Font as it's a very well designed programming font.

Terminal​

On every system its important to configure your terminal correctly. We recommend the following open-source terminals to have installed:

Setup the terminal font to match the fonts downloaded above.

tip

Wezterm is platform independent and recommended because of this.

A configuration setup can be found here: wezterm.lua

note

The shell (e.g. zsh or bash etc.) is not the same as the terminal. The terminal hosts the shell of your choice and renders the output with the fonts configured.

Shell​

Every developer needs a proper shell setup. This improves visibility and avoiding errors. Setting up a shell with a nice prompt and proper fonts is not that easy.

On macOS and Linux systems we recommend to use zsh with some plugins:

  • macOS: brew install zsh (always do that as macOS zsh is out-dated.)
  • Linux: Install zsh over your package manager or with brew.
tip

A properly structured Shell setup which gives you a nice prompt is directly available with the dotfiles setup and works out of the box.

Prompt

Dotfiles​

The dotfile setup manages dotfiles with chezmoi and sets up zsh and git for your work. Its a template repository to use for your own maintained dotfiles. Imagine having the same setup on your home machine and your work machine 🥳.

Utilities​

The following powerful utilities are recommended to be installed since they improve development by a lot. All utilities come with some learning-curve from steep (📗), moderate (📘) to flat (📙).

  • direnv (📗) is an utility to augment your shell per-project. E.g. in a Nix enabled project its often used to directly put you into a development shell when you enter the Git repository. The dotfiles setup already includes the setup to hook direnv into zsh and bash.

  • zoxide (📗) is a smarter cd command which remembers where the working directories. Enable you to jump to a directory with a few key-strokes like z <fuzzy-pattern>. The dotfiles setup already includes the setup to hook direnv into zsh and bash.

  • lazygit (📗) is a terminal UI utility to quickly do git commit & git push and more.

  • tmux ( 📘 - 📙) is a terminal multiplexer which lets you have multiple sessions (with split windows/panes) which persist when you accidentally close the terminal. You can also achieve this by using wezterm with its workspace feature.

  • chezmoi (📗) or home-manager (for advanced users using Nix already, 📙) which both let you manage configuration files across machines. The template setup in this section is build with chezmoi.

tip

All utilities also have some config setup which are not part in dotfiles. Maintained examples can be found here.

Nix Package Manager​

Having the Nix package manger on your system gives you the flexibility to work in Nix-enabled projects without having the toolchain/requirements installed on your system manually but through Nix shells which maintain software in an unprecedented and stable way.

See instructions here..

Integrated Development Environment (IDE)​

If you don't have your preferred editor setup, we suggest the following