You can clone the repository wherever you want. (I like to keep it in ~/Projects/dotfiles, with ~/dotfiles as a symlink.) The bootstrapper script will pull in the latest version and copy the files to your home folder.

git clone https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles.git && cd dotfiles && source bootstrap.sh

To update, cd into your local dotfiles repository and then:

source bootstrap.sh

Alternatively, to update while avoiding the confirmation prompt:

set -- -f; source bootstrap.sh

Git-free install

To install these dotfiles without Git:

cd; curl -#L https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles/tarball/master | tar -xzv --strip-components 1 --exclude={README.md,bootstrap.sh,LICENSE-MIT.txt}

To update later on, just run that command again.

Specify the `$PATH`

If ~/.path exists, it will be sourced along with the other files, before any feature testing (such as detecting which version of ls is being used) takes place.

Here’s an example ~/.path file that adds /usr/local/bin to the $PATH:

export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"

Add custom commands without creating a new fork

If ~/.extra exists, it will be sourced along with the other files. You can use this to add a few custom commands without the need to fork this entire repository, or to add commands you don’t want to commit to a public repository.

My ~/.extra looks something like this:

# Git credentials
# Not in the repository, to prevent people from accidentally committing under my name
GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="Mathias Bynens"
GIT_COMMITTER_NAME="$GIT_AUTHOR_NAME"
git config --global user.name "$GIT_AUTHOR_NAME"
GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL="mathias@mailinator.com"
GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL="$GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL"
git config --global user.email "$GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL"

You could also use ~/.extra to override settings, functions and aliases from my dotfiles repository. It’s probably better to fork this repository instead, though.

Sensible OS X defaults

When setting up a new Mac, you may want to set some sensible OS X defaults:

./.osx

Install Homebrew formulae

When setting up a new Mac, you may want to install some common Homebrew formulae (after installing Homebrew, of course):

./brew.sh

Feedback

Suggestions/improvements welcome!

Author


Mathias Bynens

Thanks to…

@ptb and his OS X Lion Setup repository
Ben Alman and his dotfiles repository
Chris Gerke and his tutorial on creating an OS X SOE master image + Insta repository
Cătălin Mariș and his dotfiles repository
Gianni Chiappetta for sharing his amazing collection of dotfiles
Jan Moesen and his ancient .bash_profile + shiny tilde repository
Lauri ‘Lri’ Ranta for sharing loads of hidden preferences
Matijs Brinkhuis and his dotfiles repository
Nicolas Gallagher and his dotfiles repository
Sindre Sorhus
Tom Ryder and his dotfiles repository
Kevin Suttle and his dotfiles repository and OSXDefaults project, which aims to provide better documentation for ~/.osx
Haralan Dobrev
anyone who contributed a patch or made a helpful suggestion

README.md Unescape Escape

Mathias’s dotfiles

Installation

Using Git and the bootstrap script