Dotfiles

Personal configuration files managed with GNU Stow.

What's Included

• Neovim - Modern config with lazy.nvim, LSP, Telescope, Gruvbox theme
• tmux - Mouse support, vim-style navigation
• Bash - Aliases, history settings, PATH config
• Zsh - Aliases, history, completion, Catppuccin Mocha prompt
• i3 / i3blocks - Tiling window manager (Linux only)

How It Works

GNU Stow creates symlinks from this repo to your home directory:

~/dotfiles/.config/nvim  →  ~/.config/nvim
~/dotfiles/.bashrc       →  ~/.bashrc
~/dotfiles/.zshrc        →  ~/.zshrc
~/dotfiles/.tmux.conf    →  ~/.tmux.conf

Edit files anywhere - they're the same file. Commit and push to sync across machines.

---

Fresh Machine Setup

For a new laptop with no existing configs.

# 1. Install stow
brew install stow          # macOS
sudo apt install stow      # Ubuntu/Debian
sudo pacman -S stow        # Arch

# 2. Clone the repo
git clone [email protected]:michaelbarley/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles

# 3. Deploy symlinks
cd ~/dotfiles
stow .

# 4. Verify (should show -> arrows)
ls -la ~/.bashrc ~/.tmux.conf
ls -la ~/.config/nvim

Done. Open nvim and plugins will auto-install on first launch.

---

Existing Machine Setup

For a laptop that already has these configs installed (like migrating to stow).

# 1. Install stow
brew install stow          # macOS
sudo apt install stow      # Ubuntu/Debian
sudo pacman -S stow        # Arch

# 2. Clone the repo (skip if already cloned)
git clone [email protected]:michaelbarley/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles

# 3. Check what you currently have
ls -la ~/.bashrc ~/.tmux.conf 2>/dev/null
ls -la ~/.config/nvim 2>/dev/null

# 4. Preview what stow will do (dry run)
cd ~/dotfiles
stow -n -v .
# Shows conflicts for existing files - this is expected

# 5. Remove existing configs
# WARNING: Make sure they're already in the dotfiles repo first!
rm -f ~/.bashrc
rm -f ~/.zshrc
rm -f ~/.tmux.conf
rm -rf ~/.config/nvim
rm -rf ~/.config/i3        # Linux only
rm -rf ~/.config/i3blocks  # Linux only

# 6. Deploy symlinks
cd ~/dotfiles
stow .

# 7. Verify (should show -> arrows)
ls -la ~/.bashrc ~/.tmux.conf
ls -la ~/.config/nvim

---

Daily Usage

Syncing Changes

Any edits to your configs are automatically in the dotfiles repo (they're symlinks):

cd ~/dotfiles
git add -A
git commit -m "Update config"
git push

Pulling Updates

On another machine:

cd ~/dotfiles
git pull
# Changes apply immediately - symlinks point to the updated files

Adding New Configs

# Move config into dotfiles (preserve path structure)
mv ~/.config/newapp ~/dotfiles/.config/newapp

# Recreate symlinks
cd ~/dotfiles
stow -R .

# Commit
git add .config/newapp
git commit -m "Add newapp config"
git push

Removing Symlinks

cd ~/dotfiles
stow -D .

---

Neovim Details

Leader key: Space

Keybinding	Action
<leader>ff	Find files (Telescope)
<leader>fg	Live grep
<leader>fb	Find buffers
-	Open file explorer (Oil)
gd	Go to definition
K	Hover documentation
<leader>ca	Code action
<leader>fm	Format file
Tab / S-Tab	Cycle buffers
Ctrl+h/j/k/l	Navigate splits (works with tmux too)

LSP support: TypeScript, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, JSON, Lua, PHP

Dependencies:

# macOS
brew install neovim ripgrep node
npm install -g prettier
brew install stylua

---

tmux Details

Key	Action
Ctrl+h/j/k/l	Navigate panes (seamless with vim)
Mouse scroll	Scroll history
Mouse click	Select pane

---

Troubleshooting

"cannot stow ... existing target"

File already exists. Remove it first, then run stow .

Neovim plugins not loading

rm -rf ~/.local/share/nvim/lazy
nvim  # Reinstalls plugins

"shopt: command not found" when sourcing bashrc

You're using zsh (macOS default), not bash. This is fine - .bashrc only applies when running bash.