dotfiles

My dotfiles for Mac and Ubuntu setup.

Highlights

• Minimal efforts to install everything, using a Makefile
• Mostly based around Homebrew, Caskroom and Node.js, latest Bash + GNU Utils
• Fast and colored prompt
• Updated macOS defaults (including Caps Lock → Control remap for tmux)
• Well-organized and easy to customize
• The installation and runcom setup is tested weekly on real Ubuntu and macOS machines using a GitHub Action

Packages Overview

• Homebrew (packages: Brewfile)
• homebrew-cask (packages: Caskfile)
• Node.js + npm LTS (packages: npmfile)
• Latest Git, Bash 4, Python 3, GNU coreutils, curl, Ruby
• Mackup (sync application settings)
• $EDITOR (and Git editor) is GNU nano

Installation

macOS

On a sparkling fresh installation of macOS:

sudo softwareupdate -i -a
xcode-select --install

The Xcode Command Line Tools includes git and make (not available on stock macOS). Now there are two options:

1. Install this repo with curl available:

bash -c "`curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/daniel-trevino/dotfiles/master/remote-install.sh`"

This will clone or download, this repo to ~/.dotfiles depending on the availability of git, curl or wget.

1. Alternatively, clone manually into the desired location:

git clone https://github.com/daniel-trevino/dotfiles.git ~/.dotfiles

Use the Makefile to install everything listed above, and symlink runcom and config (using stow):

cd ~/.dotfiles
make

Linux (Ubuntu/Debian)

On a fresh Ubuntu installation, git and make are needed first:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y git make

Then clone and install:

git clone https://github.com/daniel-trevino/dotfiles.git ~/.dotfiles
cd ~/.dotfiles
make

This will install system packages via apt, set up Homebrew for Linux, install all Brewfile packages (macOS-only packages are skipped automatically), Node.js, Oh My Zsh, Zinit, Rust/Cargo, Atuin, Vim, and switch the default shell to Zsh.

Note: GUI cask apps are not installed on Linux. A few Brewfile formulae (dockutil, terminal-notifier, wifi-password) are macOS-only and will be skipped.

Installation Profiles

Running make will prompt you to choose between two profiles:

	Full (default)	Light
Shell config (zsh, oh-my-zsh, zinit, starship)	Yes	Yes
Core CLI tools (~23 packages)	Yes	Yes
Dev runtimes (Node.js, Python, Go, Rust)	Yes	Yes
Claude Code	Yes	Yes
Cloud CLIs, databases, GUI apps, extras	Yes	No

To skip the prompt, use the shortcut targets:

make light-macos   # Light profile on macOS
make light-linux   # Light profile on Linux

Or pass the PROFILE variable directly:

make macos PROFILE=light
make linux PROFILE=full   # (default)

The installation process in the Makefile is tested on every push and every week in this GitHub Action.

Quick Package Updates

After the initial installation, you can quickly install or update individual package lists without running the full setup:

make brewfile   # Install/update Homebrew packages from Brewfile
make caskfile   # Install/update cask apps from Caskfile
make npmfile    # Install/update npm packages from npmfile

This is useful when you've added new packages to the install files and want to apply just those changes.

Post-Installation

1. Close that terminal that you are using and open a new one. Then you can run the following commands
2. Compile zinit via zinit self-update

• dotfiles dock (set Dock items)
• dotfiles macos (set macOS defaults, including Caps Lock → Control remap for tmux)
• Mackup
  • Log in to Dropbox (and wait until synced)
  • ln -s ~/.config/mackup/.mackup.cfg ~ (until #632 is fixed)
  • mackup restore
• Remove Spotlight and add setup Alfred command
• Set Aerial screen saver. Open System Preferences -> Desktop & Screen Saver -> Screen Saver

The dotfiles command

$ dotfiles help
Usage: dotfiles <command>

Commands:
    clean            Clean up caches (brew, npm, gem, rvm)
    dock             Apply macOS Dock settings
    edit             Open dotfiles in IDE (code) and Git GUI (stree)
    help             This help message
    macos            Apply macOS system defaults
    test             Run tests
    update           Update packages and pkg managers (OS, brew, npm, gem)

Customize

You can put your custom settings, such as Git credentials in the system/.custom file which will be sourced from .bash_profile automatically. This file is in .gitignore.

Alternatively, you can have an additional, personal dotfiles repo at ~/.extra. The runcom .bash_profile sources all ~/.extra/runcom/*.sh files.

Additional Resources

• Homebrew
• Homebrew Cask
• Bash prompt
• Solarized Color Theme for GNU ls

FAQ

• * existing target is not owned by stow: .bash_profile You might have done the make command without having this repository on ~/.dotfiles location. To fix it you have to move this repository to ~/.dotfiles and manually remove the symlinks for those files that have that error using rm -f symlink_to_dir/. Then run make again.

• warning: setlocale: LC_CTYPE: cannot change locale (UTF-8): No such file or directory You might have spelled the locale wrong. Check how the format of the locale is supposed to be written.

• How to add new mac software? Add the name of it on /install/Caskfile. Look at the names at: Homebrew Cask

Credits

Many thanks to the dotfiles community. Code structure and inspiration by: webpro