Dotfiles

Personal dotfiles for macOS and Linux development environments. Manages shell configuration, Git settings, prompt theming, and development tool defaults through a single idempotent installer.

What's Included

Category	Tools / Configs
Shell	Zsh (.zshrc, .zprofile) with OS-specific variants
Prompt	Oh My Posh powerline theme (Starship fallback)
Git	Global config with delta pager, VS Code diff/merge tools, aliases, rebase workflow
Aliases	Cross-platform + OS-specific (macOS BSD / Linux GNU)
Languages	pyenv (Python), NVM (Node), Bun, PHP 8.3
Ruby	Rails generator defaults, RSpec options
Secrets	Template-based private_env.zsh (never committed)

Quick Start

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/boutquin/dotfiles.git ~/Developer/dotfiles

# Run the installer
cd ~/Developer/dotfiles
chmod +x install.zsh
./install.zsh

The installer will:

1. Detect your OS (macOS or Linux)
2. Back up any existing config files (as .bak-<timestamp>)
3. Create symlinks from the repo to your home directory
4. Copy private_env.zsh.template to private_env.zsh if it doesn't exist
5. Secure private_env.zsh with chmod 600

After installation, restart your terminal or run source ~/.zshrc.

Prerequisites

• Zsh (default on macOS; sudo apt install zsh on Ubuntu)
• Oh My Posh — brew install oh-my-posh (macOS) or see docs for Linux
• Nerd Font — brew install --cask font-meslo-lg-nerd-font (set as terminal font)
• delta — brew install git-delta (for improved git diffs)

Folder Structure

dotfiles/
├── README.md
├── LICENSE
├── .gitignore
├── install.zsh                    # Idempotent installer (backup + symlink)
├── private_env.zsh.template       # Template for API keys / secrets
├── zsh/
│   ├── macos/
│   │   ├── .zshrc                 # macOS interactive shell config
│   │   ├── .zprofile              # macOS login shell config
│   │   └── zsh_aliases.zsh        # macOS-specific aliases (BSD tools)
│   ├── linux/
│   │   ├── .zshrc                 # Linux interactive shell config
│   │   ├── .zprofile              # Linux login shell config
│   │   └── zsh_aliases.zsh        # Linux-specific aliases (GNU tools)
│   ├── zsh_aliases_shared.zsh     # Cross-platform aliases
│   └── oh-my-posh.json            # Prompt theme (powerline segments)
└── config/
    ├── git/
    │   ├── config                 # Global Git configuration
    │   └── ignore                 # Global gitignore
    ├── rails/
    │   └── railsrc                # Rails generator defaults
    └── rspec/
        └── options                # RSpec global options

Symlink Map

The installer creates the following symlinks:

Repo Source	Machine Target
zsh/{os}/.zshrc	~/.zshrc
zsh/{os}/.zprofile	~/.zprofile
zsh/zsh_aliases_shared.zsh	~/.config/zsh/zsh_aliases_shared.zsh
zsh/{os}/zsh_aliases.zsh	~/.config/zsh/zsh_aliases.zsh
zsh/oh-my-posh.json	~/.oh-my-posh.json
config/git/config	~/.config/git/config
config/git/ignore	~/.config/git/ignore
private_env.zsh	~/.config/private_env.zsh
config/rails/railsrc	~/.config/rails/railsrc
config/rspec/options	~/.config/rspec/options

Secrets Management

API keys and credentials are stored in private_env.zsh, which is:

• Never committed (matched by private_env.* in .gitignore)
• Permissioned to owner-only read/write (chmod 600)
• Sourced by .zprofile on login (with .zshrc fallback for non-login shells)

To set up secrets:

1. The installer copies private_env.zsh.template to private_env.zsh on first run
2. Fill in your actual values in private_env.zsh
3. The template is tracked in Git; the actual file is not

Customization

• Machine-specific config: Create ~/.config/extra.zsh for settings that shouldn't be in the repo (sourced by .zshrc if present)
• New aliases: Add to zsh_aliases_shared.zsh (cross-platform) or zsh/{os}/zsh_aliases.zsh (OS-specific)
• Git aliases: Edit config/git/config — additional aliases are available as commented examples

License

Apache License 2.0 — Copyright 2025-2026, Pierre G Boutquin