Notes on dotfiles in general and tweaks specific to [[Omarchy]]; my dotfiles repository is: https://github.com/dubinsky/dotfiles.

  • TOC {:toc}

Motivation

Around year 2000, I heard, saw, and - I vaguely recall - used myself a bare repository approach to store my configuration files. Since I change my desktop computer only every 6-7 years on the average, it did not make sense to formalize it.

Now that I use [[Omarchy]] on both my [[Framework Laptop 13]] and [[Desktop 2024]], maybe it is time to try again ;)

Approach

The options I see are:

  • GNU stow: although recommended in the Omarchy Manual, its symlink-based approach does not appeal to me;
  • bare GIT repository: there are many guides, but I'd like something that helps with creating and maintaining the dotfiles repository;
  • yadm seems to be a thin enough wrapper around a GIT repository which does help with routine tasks;
  • chezmoi gets a lot of praise for better templating than yadm, but since I don't even understand what templating is, let alone need it, I am going to go with yadm for now :)

yadm arranges for the home directory to be the work tree of the dotfiles repository stored in .local/share/yadm/repo.git.

Installation

To install yadm on Omarchy:

$ sudo pacman -S yadm
$ yadm init
$ yadm remote add origin "git@github.com:dubinsky/dotfiles.git"
$ yadm add <file>
$ yadm commit -m "<message>"
$ yadm push

Bootstrap

After checkout, yadm runs .config/yadm/bootstrap executable; it can also be run explicitly with

$ yadm bootstrap

I use a script copied from the yadm manual which runs all the executables in .config/yadm/bootstrap.d/.

Readme

There are ways to add README to the yadm repository without polluting the home directory: use sparse checkout or put README under .github.

My README is the note you are reading ;)

Secrets

If I decide to store secrets in my dotfiles repository (Cloudflare API tokens, Google Cloud Platform keys etc.), yadm provides its own way of doing that, but there are approaches that are not yadm -specific:

yadm supports transcrypt and git-crypt directly.

Clone

On the new machine, run:

$ yadm clone --bootstrap https://github.com/dubinsky/dotfiles.git

yadm does not change pre-existing files; they can be overwritten with

$ yadm checkout <file>

Manual Tweaks

IntelliJ IDEA

Enable native Wayland support: in Help | Edit custom VM options add

-Dawt.toolkit.name=WLToolkit

(see JetBrains support ticket)

  • to increase font size of both the user interface that the editor, set:
    • Settings | Editor | Font | Size to 22
    • Settings | Appearance & Behavior | Appearance | Use custom font and Size to 22
    • Setting | Tools | Terminal | Font Settings | Size to 22

Obsidian

  • open the vault in Podval/dub.podval.org
  • change Omarchy theme (this makes Omarchy theme available in Obsidian)
  • set theme to Omarchy so that Obsidian follows Omarchy theme changes
  • enable community plugins
  • to increase font size of both the user interface that the editor, set:
    • Settings | Appearance | Advanced | Zoom level to 150% and
    • Settings | Appearance | Font size to 16

Zotero

Chromium

  • TODO what theme should I use to be able to change font size?