dotfiles

This is my dotfiles repo to quickly clone and get started on a new computer and to hold my settings in case I lose anything or my computer dies. There is void-installer.sh (or installer.sh in other branches) to simplify the install process and make it less manual.

Environment

• Void Linux distro
• i3 window manager
• Fish shell (intuitive, with vim-keys support)
• Dvorak keyboard layout
• Neovim editor
• ulauncher for app launching (Ctrl-Space)
• Kitty terminal (Ctrl-Enter)
• Thunderbird for email
• Document Reader aka evince PDF reader. Small, intuitive, supports vim bindings.
• Files aka nautilus file manager (Ctrl-N)
• Firefox browser (http) and amfora client (gemini)
• lxdm display manager

Void linux + i3. on left: neovim in Terminology. neofetch in kitty. on right, Falkon browser

Screenshot of Terminology terminal, showing this document being edited, with :Goyo focuswriter on

Void

I run this same system on my laptop, my studio alienware desktop, and on my test raspberry pi, which is a testament to Void Linux's flexibility, efficiency and stability. The i3 config and installed software could be dropped in to another Linux distro. For example, I previously ran Regolith Linux, a Ubuntu + Gnome + i3 spin of Ubuntu, until I found it too difficult to make customizations. Also, I wanted a stable rolling release distro. For newbies to Linux, I do recommend Ubuntu/Debian. I run alpine linux on iOS in a VM. But everything else I run Void.

Fish Shell notes

• Autocomplete on by default. Tab/press right to accept.
• fish_config to launch web browser to select Terminal fonts, colors, prompts, functions, etc.
• I'm using the fisher plugin manager, primarily to install z jump command. Also useful installing various powerline bars, prompts.
• Built-in syntax highlighting of commands.
• I have vimkeys on in Fish option. Fish shows what mode you are in and works well with autocomplete. Set fish_vi_key_bindings inside config.fish
• Any newly opened terminal will autostart inside the last used directory. See .config/fish/conf.d/starting_dir.fish for details.

Essential command line programs

• nvim the Neovim text editor.
• z directory jumping navigation. I use this instead of cd much of the time. info
• tldr command line helper which lists how to use most command line software. info
• vimwiki which I use to create and edit a huge personal wiki file for notes, brainstorming, copying down info, listing movies to watch, books I've read, etc etc. info
• pyradio which I use to stream music. See my article.
• git version control system. I use GitHub, Tildegit and Keybase Git.
• vpm - the "void package manager" which wraps around xbps

PATH

The PATH tells your computer where your custom software is located, so that you can launch it by typing its name instead of having to execute it from its specific directory. (i.e. You can type my-program instead of ./my-program.sh for example.

In fish, you add to your PATH in config.fish, located at ~/.config/fish/config.fish, not in your bashrc or .bash_profile. Custom programs can be placed in the bin folder, which is in the path.

Aliases / Fish Functions

Rather than bash aliases, fish shell uses functions, stored in ~/.config/fish/functions/

Current-ish list:

• ansiweather - simplifies the command to grab the weather and display a 5 day local weather forecast one-liner
• backitup - wrapper around rsync for backing up my computers
• bandcamp - specify url of bandcamp album to play on the commandline via player. no error handling at this point. PgUp/PgDown to navigate tracks.
• battery - current battery state and percentage
• calm - plays some brown noise with sox, sounds like calm ocean waves
• clockywock - analog CLI clock
• copy <filename> - Copies contents of file to the computer's clipboard
• dirsize - Lists current directory size and size of any enclosed sub-directories
• dither <filename> - Resizes, converts to grayscale, and turns image into a dithered gif
• dvorak - switches keyboard map to dvorak
• img <image_file> - opens specified image file in the CLI using w3m-img, inspired by fff
• epubmobile url - downloads specified article (html link) to Bookmobile's epubs folder and saves in proper format
• filecount - basically a one-liner that uses wordcount to count the number of files in your current folder.
• filesize - lists size of all files in current directory
• fisher - installed when you install fisher Fish package manager. fisher add [packagename]. Find packages here. fisher ls to list installed.
• newbackground - change desktop to random background image, via feh
• open - mimics the Mac open command. Essentially just an alias to Linux equivalent xdg-open.
• pdfsplit <input.pdf> <starting-page-num> <ending-page-num> <output.pdf> - Using ghostscript, this oneliner can excerpt any subsection out of a pdf doc.
• qwerty - switches keyboard map to qwerty
• rm - this adds a "are you sure?" prompt when I try to delete anything in the Terminal. Can be over-ridden with rm -rf if I'm really surely surely sure.
• vim - remap so instead launches Neovim.
• weather - runs curl to pull down the weather from wttr.in - location i think determined via ip address?
• wolfeyes - plays random 'radio' station of Wolf Eyes tracks
• z [directory] - this essential function is actually installed through fisher. It lets you type z homework and it auto cd jumps you into the proper folder, based on recency.

Config files

The config files in this repo are inside config, but should be titled .config with the dot and located at ~/.config.

Neovim

Instead of vim's vimrc I have an init.vim (update: I converted my viml script to lua) init.lua file at ~/.config/nvim. The file is fairly minimal and fully commented. I am using the Plug plugin manager. I set neovim (nvim) as my $EDITOR in the .fish_config file. I have a function that launches nvim when I type vim.

Rather than tmux multiplexer or properly managing buffers in Vim/Neovim I just open new tabs in my terminal, switch between them with the Alt keys, and can copy and paste between them using the normal y/ank and p/aste because of a setting I added to my Neovim config that lets me paste text from anywhere on my computer inside Neovim now. This relies (on my computer) on the installed program xclip.

I type in Dvorak on my computer and I've found Dvorak is fine for Vim without any need for remapping keys. Have used this setup for 9+ years and have no complaints.

Plug-ins

• Goyo - minimalist writing app. :Goyo to toggle it on/off.
• Vimwiki - a vim-based personal wiki / knowledge repository. I use this extensively but it's for internal use only on my own machine. \ww (aka 'leader-w-w') to turn on, or my shortcut function vimwiki to jump into it.
• vim-sensible - provides sensible basic defaults in vim. Includes: backspace in insert mode, begin search while typing out match string, make whitespace prettier, show at least one line above cursor, autoload file changes, improve finding matching open and close tags
• Nerd-Tree - make vim work more like an IDE with left-side file view. I added a shortcut so Control-N toggles the filetree open and closed. Without that you have to type NERDTreeToggle (case-sensitive).
• Markdown Preview - Runs very fast. Starts a local server and opens your browser to preview Markdown as you're writing it live. As you move in your markdown file it scrolls to your location in the browser. :MarkdownPreview to begin or end.
• Prettier - Auto tidy up my code
• fff - use fff as a file opener

When I want to add a new plugin I simply add a single line to my init.lua, then run :PlugInstall and it downloads into the proper folder.

lxdm

lxdm is the default display manager on Void, though can be switched. To edit the login display, run sudo lxdm-config.

TLDR

Can't remember how to do something in the terminal but know the name of the app? Then use TLDR.

Example: tldr ls

Lists the most common uses for a command.

Dvorak-specific

i3

i3 is a nice window manager but there's a trick to configuring it for use on Dvorak. I compiled a short walkthrough to setup i3 with Dvorak. My config file is in i3 directory. Adds keyboard volume controls, muting, tap to click, Dvorak.

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/dvorak.conf

My Dvorak input settings and remapping of caps-lock to escape are here.