Presentation Of My Dotfiles
22 Aug 2020My Dearest Mad-Readers,
I would like to share my personal configuration files with you (aka dotfiles). If you are not running GNU/Linux, it may give you an idea of what dotfiles are, but even if you are, beginners and some more advanced users may appreciate to find some model to inspire them. Of course, all my programs are not fully configured but some are riced to my liking and I am eager to present them to you !
What Are Dotfiles
Since this blog aspires to be as accessible as possible, I can hardly picture this article without some sort of definition making the word dotfiles more clear to non-initiates.
In a nutshell, it is not rocket science. Dotfiles are hidden configuration files for specific programs (which names begin with a dot). Your shell has its dotfiles (.zshrc for zsh, for instance), Thunderbird and Mozilla have their own too, to name but a few...
Do you need to have dotfiles ? Yes, but you don't have to be an expert if you don't want to have anything to do with them and still run Gnu/Linux. Some people use Linux as their main OS without being aware of their existence.
If you open a terminal and run ls --all, you will see dotfiles. If you see a directory called .config/, you now know it also contains dotfiles. All the files and directories beginning with a dot are dotfiles. Another example : .moc contains my config for my terminal music player (which happens to be called moc).
How They Can Help You
Dotfiles are essential to customizing your environment however you like it. Without dotfiles, Linux would not be synonym to freedom, but stone age. You should have a look at the video below, it should give you an idea of what you can do with such files. I have customized Qtile (a Window Manager : don't worry, I will explain what it is in a later post for those who are not familiar with those) as much as I could and it now reflects who I am much more than any others' configs.
Here is a link to my dotfiles on GitHub: https://github.com/Soimuen11/Dotfiles. You may find this link on my about page too, as well as several others redirecting you to my Good-reads profile or my professional email (madlibrarian@yahoo.com) if you wish to contact me.
Some of these dotfiles are configured in a very common way but you may still find a few gold nuggets.
My dmenu is more customized than some, yet less than many (I have a bigger border and it is centered in the middle of the screen, which I deem enough). Its center position may remind you of rofi :
I run zsh as my main shell and I am most happy with its config. I have kept it simple but it is already more than enough (so do check it out if you are curious). If you are looking for a pretty vim config, you are also looking in the right place (at least it looks pretty to me) !
My Scripts
There may not be much for you to take away, but I do have some nice scripts in .local/scripts (which I usually symbolically link to .local/share/ to be able to invoke them with a single command from anywhere I like). If you have ever had your mouse pad stuck when turning off sleep-mode, I have a script called mouse which turns it back on. I also have a mystery game, which I coded in bash for practice, as well as some others to mount devices or generate quotes. Many of my scripts are still on the work but some may turn out helpful, so I decided to make them more accessible to you and everyone else who may need them.
My WIKI
I maintain a wiki with issues I have had. In it, you will mostly find commands, since I have not thoroughly explained everything I have been doing in it (being its main user, it was not necessary up until now), but I am doing my best to keep it as crystal clear as possible. In the image below, the file you are looking for is wiki.md. It doesn't contain all the issues I have had in all the years I have been running Linux as my main OS, but it may already turn out helpful for many of you. It might give you ideas of programs to install (like game emulators?) or fix an issue you have no clue how to fix, or even provide you with some fancy commands to, who knows, film your screen and become a YouTuber...
Signing Off
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I am not yet a superstar on YouTube, but you may still subscribe to my channel to support me. I am working on some new content, which I hope you will enjoy. Also, I recently posted a short article about my future Q&A and that'd be so great if you took the time to participate in the comment section :-)
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Take care of yourselves,
Phil.
