Dotfiles (mitamae)

Inspired by K0kubun's dotfiles I transitioned to using mitamae to manage my dotfiles.

Usage

git clone git@github.com:eightbitraptor.com/dotfiles-mitamae ~/.dotfiles
cd ~/.dotfiles 
./install.sh

Debugging

EBR_LOG_LEVEL=debug ./install.sh

There's a Containerfile in the repo, so if you don't want to test on your local machine then you can build this using

podman build .

But bear in mind that systemd stuff won't work in a container.

Structure

base.rb

Contains glue code and custom definitions that make most of this structure work together. Also configures the prelude recipes - these are OS specific recipes that should run on every machine of a particular OS. They should do basic OS specific config that is guaranteed to be needed on every machine of that type.

As a general rule, try not to add new code to the preludes.

nodes

• senjougahara - Development Desktop, Fedora 37.
• fern - Personal Laptop, Thinkpad X1 Carbon gen 6, i7-8550U, Void Linux.
• miyoshi - Work laptop, Macbook Pro M3, macOS
• spin - A basic editing environment when used with Spin, Shopify's internal cloud dev env

recipes

Individual recipes go here, I try and keep them as single purpose as possible, hence sway, emacs, vim etc.

AUR Package Plugin (Arch Linux)

For Arch Linux systems, there's a custom aur_package resource that handles AUR (Arch User Repository) packages automatically. This replaces the old pattern of exiting with manual installation instructions.

Prerequisites:

• yay must be installed on the system (see installation instructions below)
• Must run as a non-root user (configured via node[:user])
• Arch Linux system with access to the AUR

Installing yay: If yay is not installed, you can install it manually:

# As a non-root user:
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay
makepkg -si

Usage:

# Include the plugin (only needed on Arch)
if node.distro == "arch"
  include_recipe File.expand_path("../recipes/plugins/aur_package.rb", __dir__)
end

# Install an AUR package
aur_package 'google-chrome'

# Remove an AUR package
aur_package 'outdated-package' do
  action :remove
end

# The resource supports notifications like other mitamae resources
aur_package 'visual-studio-code-bin' do
  action :install
  notifies :restart, 'service[code-server]'
end

Features:

• Automatic dependency resolution via yay
• Idempotent operations (safe to run multiple times)
• Comprehensive error handling with helpful messages
• Exit code translation for better debugging
• Validates package names and user permissions

Error Handling: The plugin provides clear error messages for common issues:

• Missing yay installation (with installation instructions)
• Build failures (with common causes)
• Dependency resolution failures
• Running as root (not allowed for AUR)

Limitations:

• No support for specific package versions (always installs latest)
• No support for custom PKGBUILD files
• Cannot specify makepkg flags or build options
• No parallel package installation
• No built-in caching of built packages
• Only supports yay as the AUR helper (not paru, trizen, etc.)
• Cannot handle interactive prompts (runs with --noconfirm)

Troubleshooting:

• If a package fails to build, check the yay output for specific errors
• For dependency issues, try updating the package database: yay -Sy
• For persistent failures, try installing the package manually with yay to see interactive prompts
• Ensure your user has sudo privileges for package installation

files

Associated with recipes, convention is to put files in a subdirectory according to their recipe, so files/git/gitconfig etc.

templates

Follow the same convention as files