Dotfiles Pt. I

sept_six.md

Dotfiles Pt. I - o/dotfiles-part-I

Follow-up on eng meeting talk

zsh

Plugins

• Context aware prompt - display context of current directory (e.g. git status, executable versions, virtual environments, etc.)
  • my config (note: color codes using the $FG variable depend on sourcing spectrum

  Install by adding the following line to ~/.zshrc - zplugin light romkatv/powerlevel10k

• Syntax highlighting - highlight your commands as you type them

  Install by adding the following lines to ~/.zshrc:

  zplugin ice wait lucid atinit"ZPLGM[COMPINIT_OPTS]=-C; zpcompinit; zpcdreplay"
  zplugin light zdharma/fast-syntax-highlighting

• History autocompletions - suggest previous commands from history as you type

  Install by adding the following lines to ~/.zshrc:

  zplugin ice wait lucid atload'_zsh_autosuggest_start'
  zplugin light zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions

  This plugin benefits from configuring a few shortcuts:

  # Ctrl-e accepts until end of line (same as right arrow)
  bindkey '^e' autosuggest-accept
  # Ctrl-Space accepts until end of line and immediately execute
  bindkey '^ ' autosuggest-execute
  # Ctrl-w accepts next word
  bindkey '^w' forward-word
  # count only alphanumeric characters as part of a word
  WORDCHARS=

• History substring search - trigger reverse search based on currently typed substring
  • my keybindings
• Sync zsh & system clipboard - allow zle actions (vi mode) to copy to/paste from the system clipboard

manydots

I have my own copy without the backward-delete-char because it didn't play well with my keymapping and I didn't find it necessary but YMMV.

Vi Mode

Use (n)vi(m) in your shell! Add the following line to ~/.zshrc:

bindkey -v

My keymap adds additional surround/inner motions and a few opinionated keybindings.

fzf

Keybindings/configuration

The keybindings section (same link as section header here) specifies the possible options to configure along with their default keybindings out of the box. Here's some additional tips. To view all possible options the README suggests man fzf.

Here's my config.

Previews

Previews allow you to run arbitrary shell commands on each item in the list and display the output.

Here is a simple example:

# {} is replaced to the single-quoted string of the focused line
fzf --preview 'cat {}'

Displaying the preview is synchronous so ideally preview commands should not be too expensive.

See this article for more advanced usage. I've incorporated the given commands into my own config with the functions here and the widget binding here.

fzf ❤ vim

I'll quickly demo some usage and can potentially discuss in more depth if people are interested.

Install fzf.vim extension via instructions in the README.

Here's my config.

Cut for time utilities

Skimmable list

• fasd - quickly access files and folders based on frequency and recency of access
• tldr - a cliff-notes man page
• tmux - a terminal multiplexer to replace endless terminal tabs
• trash - replacement for rm that moves files to the trash so you can recover them

Install all of these tools in a single command - brew install fasd tldr tmux trash

💨 fasd

Quickly access files and folders from anywhere on your machine based on frequency and recency of access ("frecency").

v def conf       =>     vim /some/awkward/path/to/type/default.conf
j abc            =>     cd /hell/of/a/awkward/path/to/get/to/abcdef
m movie          =>     mplayer /whatever/whatever/whatever/awesome_movie.mp4
o eng paper      =>     xdg-open /you/dont/remember/where/english_paper.pdf
vim `f rc lo`    =>     vim /etc/rc.local
vim `f rc conf`  =>     vim /etc/rc.conf

See the repo for more details including setup instructions! Note: the README doesn't mention using Homebrew but it's there - brew install fasd

📖 tldr

A cliff notes man page. Provides quick high-level documentation of a tool with some examples.

Run on tar:

🗑 trash

A replacement for rm. Files deleted with trash are moved to the system Trash folder so you can easily recover them if you accidentally delete something. Bonus, it works on files and directories (no need to ever type -r again).

🤹 tmux

Ripped shamelessly from the tmux README:

tmux is a terminal multiplexer.

It enables a number of terminals to be created, accessed, and controlled from a single screen. tmux may be detached from a screen and continue running in the background, then later reattached.

See any of these guides for a great primer on why you might want to use it and how to get started!

• A tmux crash course
• tmux for developers
• Tactical tmux

Today's new thing

🐚✓ shellcheck

An awesome static analysis tool for shell scripts to help you avoid shooting yourself in the foot! Brian has taken the initiative to add this to the code repo and is progressively applying it to all bash scripts there.

See the shellcheck FAQ for more details.