Dotfiles

Personal dotfiles managed with GNU Stow. Each top-level directory is a stow package whose contents mirror the target paths under $HOME. Running stow creates symlinks from $HOME into the package; restow refreshes them.

Supported Systems

• macOS — full support
• Ubuntu/Debian — full support (Homebrew on Linux for CLI tools)
• Fedora Atomic — host stays minimal (rpm-ostree layering for tmux, stow, syncthing); user-space host tools (starship, devpod, docker-compose v2) install to ~/.local/bin and ~/.docker/cli-plugins/; per-project dev environments via devpod (devpod up <repo>)
• Arch — partial: bootstrap works, but some CLI/GUI names in install.sh are brew/cask names that don't map cleanly to AUR

Plain Fedora (non-Atomic) is not supported.

Installation

Fresh Install (New System)

Requires curl. Install first if missing:

• Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt install -y curl
• Arch: sudo pacman -S curl

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/arjenbloemsma/dotfiles/trunk/bootstrap.sh)

Manual Install (Already Cloned)

Assumes git and stow are already installed — install.sh aborts if either is missing. For a clean machine, use the bootstrap one-liner above instead.

git clone git@github.com:arjenbloemsma/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles
cd ~/dotfiles
./install.sh

Notes Vault Only (Standalone)

For a temp/exploration machine — installs syncthing via the native package manager, creates ~/notes-vault, starts the service, pairs with the always-on anchor node, and shares the notes-vault folder with it. No full dotfiles install. Works on bare macOS (requires brew), Debian/Ubuntu, Arch, Fedora.

The script needs the anchor's device ID — supplied via either a config file or an env var. Device IDs leak IPs through the public discovery server, so do not commit them; scripts/notes-mesh.conf.local is gitignored.

One-liner (no clone) — env var:

NOTES_MESH_PEERS_ENV="DEVICE_ID|anchor-node" \
  bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/arjenbloemsma/dotfiles/trunk/scripts/join-notes-mesh.sh)

Multiple peers (anchor plus optional direct P2P) — comma-separate them: "ID1|anchor,ID2|peer-2".

Repo already cloned — config file:

cp ~/dotfiles/scripts/notes-mesh.conf.template ~/dotfiles/scripts/notes-mesh.conf.local
# edit notes-mesh.conf.local with the anchor's device ID + name
~/dotfiles/scripts/join-notes-mesh.sh

After running on the new box: open the anchor's web UI from a machine that already has SSH access to it (e.g. the primary workstation, not the new box itself). Accept the two prompts — "New Device" for the new hostname, then "New Folder" to share notes-vault back. Sync starts automatically.

If the anchor's GUI binds to localhost (default), reach it via SSH tunnel from that primary machine — pick a free local port to avoid clashing with the local syncthing on 8384:

ssh -L 8385:127.0.0.1:8384 anchor-host
# then http://127.0.0.1:8385 in the browser

Fedora Atomic

On first run, bootstrap layers minimal host packages (tmux, stow, syncthing) via rpm-ostree and exits. The layered packages are only available after reboot, so the rest of the install (stow) can't proceed yet. After reboot, install.sh provisions the devpod runtime: starship, devpod, and Docker Compose v2 land in ~/.local/bin and ~/.docker/cli-plugins/; the rootless podman user socket is enabled; devpod's docker provider is configured to use podman.

# First run: layers packages, then exits
bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/arjenbloemsma/dotfiles/trunk/bootstrap.sh)

sudo systemctl reboot

# Second run: detects layered packages on PATH and continues through install.sh
bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/arjenbloemsma/dotfiles/trunk/bootstrap.sh)

Per-project dev environments live in each repo's .devcontainer/devcontainer.json and run via devpod up <repo>. No host-level dev tooling needed beyond what bootstrap provisions.

Post-install

• Edit ~/.config/git/config.local with name and email
• Create ~/.config/shell/local.sh for machine-specific env exports (sourced first by both shells)
• Press prefix + I in tmux to install plugins

Manage Packages

Run from inside the dotfiles dir. Always pass --target to be explicit about where symlinks land, regardless of where the repo is cloned:

stow --target="$HOME" --restow <package-name>   # update
stow --target="$HOME" --delete <package-name>   # remove
./install.sh --dry-run                          # preview changes

Structure

See install.sh for the full list of stow packages, CLI tools, and GUI apps. Shared package lists live in scripts/lib/ and are sourced by install.sh.

Notes

• Shell: macOS uses zsh, Linux uses bash (system defaults). Both source shared config from ~/.config/shell/: env.sh, aliases.sh, functions.sh, plus a per-OS file (e.g. macos.sh, fedora.sh).
• First-time install on Linux: the OS's default ~/.bashrc and ~/.bash_profile conflict with the stowed versions. install.sh prints the diff and asks Replace? [y/N] for each one. Always review the diff. The OOTB Fedora .bashrc behaviour (system /etc/bashrc sourcing, $HOME/.local/bin on PATH) is already covered by shell/fedora.sh; for other distros or hand-edited files, port anything useful into the right shell/<distro>.sh first.
• Machine-local overrides: ~/.config/shell/local.sh — sourced first by both shells, not tracked
• DNS (Linux): bootstrap.sh runs scripts/setup-system-dns.sh to switch the host to Quad9 + Mullvad and ignore DHCP-supplied DNS. Idempotent.
• Secrets: Git user details go in ~/.config/git/config.local (not tracked)
• Tmux plugins: Managed by TPM, not tracked in git