dotfiles

My macOS dotfiles managed by nix-darwin and home-manager, powered by Nix.

Works on M1 Pro, macOS Sequoia 15.5 (24F74).

Overview

• nix-darwin sets up the macOS system environment.
  • Nix enables reproducible builds.
• home-manager manages the user environment, including Homebrew packages.
  • Most GUI apps are managed by Homebrew due to the conflicting nature of Nix and their self-updating capabilities

Key features:

• Ghostty as the terminal emulator, config: ghostty.nix
• zsh with powerlevel10k
  • Prompt theme is p10k Lean style. Git status symbols docs can be found here.
• Helix keymap with Multirious/zsh-helix-mode
• Terminal Multiplexer:
  • Zellij Unlock-First (non-colliding) preset with minor customization
  • tmux configuration from gpakosz/.tmux
• atuin for shell history
• A number of handy aliases and functions
• fzf shell integration
  • CTRL-T - Paste the path of selected files and directories onto the command-line
  • ALT-C - cd into the selected directory
• fzf-tab for zsh completion, including a smart preview window:
  • fd for file search
  • bat for file preview
  • eza for directory listing
• automatically propagated shell proxy settings
• Sets a beautiful wallpaper from Raycast
• git utilities include lazygit and forgit because I'm lazy
  • a quick starter video about lazygit
• zsh-you-should-use to remind me using shell aliases
• nix-index-database to locate the Nix package of a command, and comma to run the command without installing it.

Usage

On a new macOS machine without Nix installed:

```console xcode-select --install

Clone the dotfiles

mkdir $HOME/.config git clone https://github.com/birkhofflee/dotfiles $HOME/.config/nix

Install nix with Determinate Systems installer

Choose "no" to use the upstream nix instead of their own one

curl -fsSL https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install

Source the nix daemon so that the nix command is available immediately

. /nix/var/nix/profiles/default/etc/profile.d/nix-daemon.sh

Build the dotfiles

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

Apply the dotfiles

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

Optionally, delete the build artifacts

rm -rf ./result ```

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

```console

This only switchs to the latest config

nh darwin switch --hostname AlexMBP "$HOME/.config/nix"

This updates all flake inputs and switches to the latest config

nh darwin switch --update --hostname AlexMBP "$HOME/.config/nix"

This updates one flake input and switches to the latest config

nh darwin switch --update-input --hostname AlexMBP "$HOME/.config/nix" ```

To clean up:

console nh clean all

[!IMPORTANT] The following steps were applicable to installations with the original Nix installer. It is unknown whether they are needed to follow for a Determinate Systems installation.

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

```console

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.AlexMBP.system" --extra-experimental-features "nix-command flakes"

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

TODOs

• File completion
  • List directories first like this
  • When completing with fzf-tab, there's the slash in file names which i dont like
• Home Manager: dotfiles management
• Use XDG Base Directory Specification to ensure consistency across different platforms

Some other dotfiles worth looking into:

• https://github.com/malob/nixpkgs
• https://github.com/ahmedelgabri/dotfiles
• https://github.com/kornicameister/dotfiles/
• https://github.com/Aloxaf/dotfiles/tree/master/zsh/.config/zsh
• https://github.com/paulmillr/dotfiles
• https://github.com/marlonrichert/zsh-launchpad
• https://github.com/mashehu/dotfiles/blob/master/zshrc

Some completions setups:

• https://github.com/finnurtorfa/zsh/blob/master/completion.zsh

Articles

Here are some reads you might find interesting:

• Declarative macOS Configuration Using nix-darwin And home-manager
• Faster and enjoyable ZSH (maybe)
• Comparison of ZSH frameworks and plugin managers
• fzf examples (fzf wiki)

License

This project is released under The Unlicense.