dotfiles

My configs!

Managed entirely by mise. Tools ([tools]), dotfile symlinks ([dotfiles]), and macOS defaults ([bootstrap.macos.*]) live in mise/.config/mise/config.toml; system packages ([bootstrap.packages]) live in the platform files alongside it. This replaces the old GNU Stow + Brewfile setup.

System packages are split by platform. config.macos.toml holds all brew formulae, casks, and Mac App Store apps and loads only on macOS. config.linux.toml is currently empty: Linux hosts stay apt-managed as they were before, so this migration introduces no Homebrew on Linux. The split works because .miserc.toml sets auto_env = true, which makes mise auto-load platform config siblings (config.macos.toml, config.linux.toml, ...). To have mise manage Linux packages later, populate config.linux.toml with apt: entries.

Pre-requisites

• zsh
• mise (curl https://mise.run | sh)

Shims are put on $PATH directly (via zsh/.config/zsh/paths.zsh); mise activate is not used.

paths.zsh is sourced once, from .zshenv, so every shell gets the same $PATH, including non-interactive ones (zsh -c ..., git hooks, editor and agent subprocesses).

To make that work on macOS, .zshenv sets NO_GLOBAL_RCS. Otherwise /etc/zprofile runs path_helper for login shells only, and only after .zshenv, hoisting the system directories back to the front of $PATH. Instead paths.zsh reads the same inputs path_helper does, /etc/paths plus /etc/paths.d/* (and the manpaths equivalents), in a few lines of zsh, so /etc/paths.d drop-ins keep working with no subprocess. Login and non-interactive shells then end up with an identical $PATH.

Skipping the global rc files also skips /etc/zshrc, so what it contributed lives here now: disable log in .zshenv, since zsh's log builtin shadows /usr/bin/log in scripts too, and COMBINING_CHARS in options.zsh, since it only affects line editing.

Setup

git clone git@github.com:chancez/dotfiles.git ~/.dotfiles

# On a fresh machine ~/.config/mise/ doesn't exist yet. Link the config into mise's standard
# global location so it (and its platform siblings) are found. The dotfiles step converges
# these same links later, so this is idempotent.
#
# Don't use MISE_GLOBAL_CONFIG_FILE here: pointing mise at the config file directly disables
# discovery of config.macos.toml / config.linux.toml, so the platform split would be skipped.
mkdir -p ~/.config/mise
ln -sf ~/.dotfiles/mise/.config/mise/config.toml       ~/.config/mise/config.toml
ln -sf ~/.dotfiles/mise/.config/mise/config.macos.toml ~/.config/mise/config.macos.toml
ln -sf ~/.dotfiles/mise/.config/mise/config.linux.toml ~/.config/mise/config.linux.toml

cd ~/.dotfiles
mise trust
mise bootstrap --yes   # packages -> dotfiles -> macOS defaults -> installs [tools]

Preview first with mise bootstrap plan. Individual steps:

mise bootstrap dotfiles status          # verify everything is linked
mise bootstrap dotfiles apply           # symlink dotfiles (the old `stow` step)
mise bootstrap packages apply           # install brew/cask/mas system packages (macOS)
mise install                            # install [tools]

Residual Homebrew

A small brew/Brewfile holds the few things mise's built-in Homebrew support can't do (services, link: false, pkg/privileged casks). Apply it with:

brew bundle --file=~/.dotfiles/brew/Brewfile

macOS defaults

Most defaults write settings are declarative under [bootstrap.macos.*] and applied by mise bootstrap. The imperative leftovers (and a killall to apply them) are in macos-defaults-extras.sh, run by the post-defaults bootstrap hook.