Dotfiles

Personal config files, tracked with a bare git repository whose work tree is $HOME. Used on both macOS and Linux (Omarchy/Arch).

There is no symlinking and no install script: the files live exactly where the programs expect them (~/.config/nvim/init.lua, ~/.bashrc, …), and git just tracks them in place. The repo data itself lives in ~/.dotfiles/ (a bare repo — not a normal .git directory).

Remote: git@github.com:erialbin/dotfilesv2.git (branch main)

The dotfiles command

Because the repo is bare and lives outside its work tree, every git command needs to be told where both are. That's what this alias does:

# fish — .config/fish/config.fish
alias dotfiles='git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME/'

# bash — ~/.bashrc
alias dotfiles='git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME/'

It is defined in both .config/fish/config.fish and .bashrc, so after the first install it's available in a new shell on either platform.

From then on, dotfiles behaves like git for anything under $HOME:

dotfiles status
dotfiles add .config/nvim/lua/plugins/telescope.lua
dotfiles commit -m "tweak telescope keymaps"
dotfiles push
dotfiles lola          # git aliases from .config/git/config work too

Important: dotfiles add only tracks files you name explicitly. Never run dotfiles add -A or dotfiles add . from $HOME — that would try to add your entire home directory.

What's tracked

Area	Path
Fish shell	.config/fish/config.fish, .config/fish/conf.d/, .config/fish/fish_variables
Bash	.bashrc (Omarchy/Linux machine)
Neovim	.config/nvim/ (lazy.nvim, plugin specs under lua/plugins/, snippets under lua/luasnippets/)
tmux	.config/tmux/tmux.conf (prefix C-Space, vi copy mode)
Git	.config/git/config (aliases, rebase-on-pull, rerere), .config/git/ignore
Prompt	.config/starship.toml
Terminal	.config/alacritty/alacritty.toml (Tokyo Night, JetBrainsMono Nerd Font)
Claude Code	.claude/settings.json
This file	README.md

Installing on a new machine

0. Install the programs first

Nothing here installs software; the configs assume it's present. Install at least git and fish before starting, and ideally the rest — config.fish calls starship, zoxide and fastfetch unconditionally at startup, so a missing one prints an error in every new shell.

macOS (via Homebrew):

brew install fish neovim tmux git starship zoxide fastfetch
brew install --cask alacritty font-jetbrains-mono-nerd-font

Arch / Omarchy:

sudo pacman -S fish neovim tmux git starship zoxide fastfetch alacritty ttf-jetbrains-mono-nerd

Omarchy already ships some of these (Alacritty, Neovim) — check before reinstalling.

Debian / Ubuntu:

sudo apt install fish neovim tmux git alacritty fonts-jetbrains-mono

starship, zoxide and fastfetch are old or absent in Debian/Ubuntu repos; prefer their own installers (e.g. curl -sS https://starship.rs/install.sh | sh). The fonts-jetbrains-mono package is not the Nerd Font patch — download JetBrainsMono from nerdfonts.com into ~/.local/share/fonts and run fc-cache -f, or icons in starship/nvim will render as boxes.

1. Clone the repo bare

Identical on both platforms:

git clone --bare git@github.com:erialbin/dotfilesv2.git $HOME/.dotfiles

(Use https://github.com/erialbin/dotfilesv2.git if SSH keys aren't set up on the machine yet.)

2. Define the alias for this shell session

The alias isn't available yet — it lives in a file that hasn't been checked out. Define it temporarily, in whatever shell you're currently in:

# bash / zsh — the login shell on a fresh macOS or Debian box
alias dotfiles='git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME/'

# fish
alias dotfiles='git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME/'

3. Check out the files into $HOME

dotfiles checkout main

If the machine already has some of these files (a stock .bashrc, a default config.fish), git refuses and lists the conflicting paths tab-indented. Back them up and retry — pick the snippet for your current shell:

# bash / zsh
mkdir -p "$HOME/.dotfiles-backup"
dotfiles checkout main 2>&1 | awk '/^\t/ {print $1}' | while read -r f; do
  mkdir -p "$HOME/.dotfiles-backup/$(dirname "$f")"
  mv "$HOME/$f" "$HOME/.dotfiles-backup/$f"
done
dotfiles checkout main

# fish
mkdir -p $HOME/.dotfiles-backup
for f in (dotfiles checkout main 2>&1 | awk '/^\t/ {print $1}')
    mkdir -p $HOME/.dotfiles-backup/(dirname $f)
    mv $HOME/$f $HOME/.dotfiles-backup/$f
end
dotfiles checkout main

Both use awk rather than grep -E '^\s+\.', because \s isn't supported by the BSD grep that ships with macOS and would silently match nothing there.

Or, if you're sure you want the repo's versions: dotfiles checkout -f main.

4. Silence untracked files

Without this, dotfiles status lists every file in your home directory. The setting is local to the clone, so it must be repeated on each new machine:

dotfiles config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no

5. Make fish the login shell

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
echo /opt/homebrew/bin/fish | sudo tee -a /etc/shells
chsh -s /opt/homebrew/bin/fish

# Linux
echo /usr/bin/fish | sudo tee -a /etc/shells
chsh -s /usr/bin/fish

Log out and back in. The dotfiles alias now comes from the checked-out config.

6. Fix up the machine-specific paths

See the table below — alacritty.toml and tmux.conf hardcode a fish path that is only correct on one of the two platforms.

7. Launch Neovim

lazy.nvim bootstraps itself and installs all plugins on first start. Run :checkhealth afterwards; some LSPs and formatters configured under lua/plugins/ need their language toolchains installed separately.

macOS vs Linux differences

	macOS (Apple Silicon)	Linux
fish binary	/opt/homebrew/bin/fish	/usr/bin/fish
Homebrew prefix	/opt/homebrew (Intel: /usr/local)	n/a
alacritty.toml → shell.program	/opt/homebrew/bin/fish ✅ as committed	needs editing to /usr/bin/fish
tmux.conf → default-shell	/bin/fish ✗ doesn't exist	/bin/fish — valid if fish is at /usr/bin/fish with a /bin symlink, else edit
.bashrc	sources Omarchy defaults that aren't there	✅ as committed
Font install	brew install --cask font-…	~/.local/share/fonts + fc-cache -f

The committed tmux.conf points default-shell at /bin/fish, which does not exist on macOS. tmux silently ignores the invalid path and falls back to $SHELL, so it works out as long as your login shell is already fish (step 5) — but it would drop you into /bin/sh if it isn't. The brew shellenv block in config.fish is already guarded by test -x /opt/homebrew/bin/brew, so it's a no-op on Linux.

Dependencies

Core: fish, neovim (0.10+), tmux, git, alacritty, JetBrainsMono Nerd Font.

Called unconditionally by config.fish at startup: starship, zoxide, fastfetch. Install them or delete the corresponding line.

Optional: uv (sourced from conf.d/uv.env.fish), cargo/rustup (sourced from .bashrc), try, Homebrew (macOS).

Notes and gotchas

• Not tracked, but referenced: tmux.conf binds prefix + f to ~/.local/scripts/tmux-sessionizer, which is not in this repo. Copy it over manually or the keybind is a no-op.
• Broken uv sourcing: conf.d/uv.env.fish sources ~/.local/bin/env.fish and .bashrc sources ~/.local/bin/env. Neither file exists unless uv was installed with its standalone installer, and fish prints an error on every shell start when it's missing. Install uv (curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh) or delete those lines.
• /usr/bin/fish in config.fish: the try block runs env SHELL=/usr/bin/fish, a Linux path, on both platforms. It only sets a string that try reads to pick its output syntax, so it works on macOS regardless — but it's misleading.
• Global gitignore: .config/git/ignore applies to all repos on the machine, not just this one. It currently excludes **/.claude/settings.local.json, compile_commands.json and .DS_store.
• Secrets: everything here is public. Don't track anything with credentials — .claude/settings.json is fine, but API keys, SSH keys and .env files are not.