dotfiles

My macOS dotfiles managed by Nix, home-manager and nix-darwin. Works on M1 Pro, macOS Sequoia 15.1.

Overview

Nix enables reproducible builds. It manages all the packages (and those on Homebrew), and nix-darwin sets up the environment for macOS. Some custom scripts are included for those settings that are not supported by nix-darwin.

Some shell features worth mentioning:

• Declarative macOS with nix-darwin
• zsh with p10k
• tj/n instead of nvm
• gpakosz/.tmux
• fzf-tab for completion
• Integration of fzf, fd, bat and lsd
  • ^T: interactively select files in cwd recursively
    • ? to toggle preview
    • ^S ^D: page up/down
  • ^O to open in $VISUAL (VS Code on macOS)
  • ^R to fuzzy search command line history
  • Alt-C: interactive cd
• Interactive git operations with forgit

Usage

On a new macOS machine w/o Nix installed:

xcode-select --install

# Install nix
bash <(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install) --daemon --yes --no-modify-profile

# Propagate /run
printf 'run\tprivate/var/run\n' | sudo tee -a /etc/synthetic.conf
/System/Library/Filesystems/apfs.fs/Contents/Resources/apfs.util -t

# Build the dotfiles
mkdir $HOME/.config
git clone https://github.com/birkhofflee/dotfiles $HOME/.config/nix
nix build "$HOME/.config/nix#darwinConfigurations.AlessandroMBP.system" --extra-experimental-features "nix-command flakes"

./result/sw/bin/darwin-rebuild switch --flake "$HOME/.config/nix#AlessandroMBP"

After first successful deployment, use the following command to switch:

darwin-rebuild switch --flake "$HOME/.config/nix#AlessandroMBP"

To update packages:

cd $HOME/.config/nix
nix flake update .
nix flake update
darwin-rebuild switch --flake "$HOME/.config/nix#AlessandroMBP"

After a major macOS update:

1. Upgrade Xcode CLI tools
2. Uninstall nix: https://nix.dev/manual/nix/2.18/installation/uninstall.html#macos
3. A system restart may be required
4. Review CHANGELOG of nix-darwin

# Install nix
bash <(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install) --daemon --yes --no-modify-profile

# Propagate /run
printf 'run\tprivate/var/run\n' | sudo tee -a /etc/synthetic.conf
/System/Library/Filesystems/apfs.fs/Contents/Resources/apfs.util -t

# Fix certs (the uninstallation of nix breaks a symbolic link)
# https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/2899#issuecomment-1669501326
# https://discourse.nixos.org/t/ssl-ca-cert-error-on-macos/31171/1
sudo rm /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
sudo ln -s /nix/var/nix/profiles/default/etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

nix build "$HOME/.config/nix#darwinConfigurations.AlessandroMBP.system" --extra-experimental-features "nix-command flakes"

./result/sw/bin/darwin-rebuild switch --flake "$HOME/.config/nix#AlessandroMBP"

Appendix: iTerm2 Profile Configuration

I use iTerm2 as my terminal emulator. Here are some settings that I've been using for years:

• Command: Login Shell
• Font
  • Menlo, Regular, 15
  • Anti-aliased
  • Use a different font for non-ASCII text
• Non-ASCII Font
  • Hack Nerd Font Mono, Regular, 15
  • Use ligatures
  • Anti-aliased
• Settings for New Windows - 144, 41
• Enable mouse reporting
• Silence bell
• Left Option Key: Esc+
• Right Option Key: Normal

Key Mappings (included in Terminal.itermkeymap):

I use the built-in Natural Text Editing preset, with the following custom key mappings:

Key	Send Hex Codes	Description
⌘Z	0x1f	undo
⇧⌘Z	0x18 0x1f	redo
⌥Del→	0x17	delete word
⌘←	0x2	go to beginning of line
⇧⌘↵	0x1 0x7a	maximize pane in current window
⌃⌘F	0x1 0x2b	move pane to new window
⇧⌘D	0x1 0x2d	splits the current pane vertically
⌘D	0x1 0x5f	splits the current pane horizontally
⇧⌘R	0x1 0x72	reload tmux config
⇧⌘←	0x1 0x68	navigate to the pane on the left
⇧⌘↓	0x1 0x6a	navigate to the pane on the bottom
⇧⌘↑	0x1 0x6b	navigate to the pane on the top
⇧⌘→	0x1 0x6c	navigate to the pane on the right
⌥⌘←	0x1 0x8	switch to previous window
⌥⌘→	0x1 0xc	switch to next window

TODOs

• enable pam_reattach in /etc/pam.d/sudo
  • https://gist.github.com/smunix/02d7a208a8478ebb4cbc4afe47e5ea8d
  • https://github.com/fabianishere/pam_reattach
• manage python versions/dependencies with nix
• manage nodejs with nix
• https://xyno.space/post/nix-darwin-introduction
• https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html
• https://github.com/ahmedelgabri/dotfiles/blob/main/config/zsh.d/.zshrc
• https://github.com/kornicameister/dotfiles/
• https://github.com/Aloxaf/dotfiles/tree/master/zsh/.config/zsh
• https://github.com/finnurtorfa/zsh/blob/master/completion.zsh
• https://github.com/paulmillr/dotfiles
• https://github.com/marlonrichert/.config/tree/main/zsh
• https://github.com/mashehu/dotfiles/blob/master/zshrc

Articles

Here are some reads you might find interesting:

• Faster and enjoyable ZSH (maybe)
• Comparison of ZSH frameworks and plugin managers
• fzf examples (fzf wiki)
• p10k git status symbols

License

This project is released under The Unlicense.