Restore Dotfiles with yadm

Dotfiles for macOS and Linux, managed by yadm in $HOME on the master branch.

Install Git, yadm, zsh, tmux, and fzf 0.48.0+ with your system package manager. The commands below require GitHub SSH access. If using a fork, substitute its URL.

Choose one installation method below for a fresh account without a yadm repository.

Full Installation

yadm config yadm.auto-alt false
yadm clone -b master --no-bootstrap \
  git@github.com:JoverZhang/dotfiles.git

macOS and Linux are detected automatically. On a Linux desktop, also select the desktop configuration:

yadm config local.class Desktop

Create the platform-specific links and install dependencies:

yadm alt
yadm config yadm.auto-alt true
yadm bootstrap

This initializes all tracked submodules, installs Oh My Zsh if missing, and installs gdb-dashboard on Linux.

zsh and tmux Only

Use the Agent profile for terminal configuration with a simple prompt, without editor configurations or workstation-specific shell initialization.

yadm config yadm.auto-alt false
yadm init
yadm gitconfig sparse.expectFilesOutsideOfPatterns true
yadm remote add origin git@github.com:JoverZhang/dotfiles.git
yadm fetch origin master
yadm config local.class Agent
yadm config local.components 'zsh tmux'
yadm show origin/master:.config/yadm/sparse-shell |
  yadm sparse-checkout set --no-cone --stdin
yadm switch -c master --track origin/master
yadm alt
yadm config yadm.auto-alt true
yadm bootstrap

Use and Update

Keep machine-specific environment variables and aliases in ~/.config/zsh/local.zsh, a private regular file ignored by yadm. It is loaded after the shared and optional personal configuration. Create it if needed; yadm does not provide or synchronize it.

Start a new zsh session with exec zsh, then run tmux when needed. Antidote installs the zsh plugins on the first interactive startup. In tmux, press Ctrl-A, then I to install plugins with TPM. yadm status --short shows local changes and is empty after a clean installation.

To update dotfiles and synchronize their recorded framework versions:

yadm pull --ff-only
yadm bootstrap

Bootstrap uses the saved local.components selection, or all when unset. System packages are installed and updated separately.

Use dotfiles-submodules to manage framework versions:

dotfiles-submodules status
dotfiles-submodules update oh-my-tmux tpm   # fetch newer upstream versions

dotfiles-submodules pin NAME TAG_OR_COMMIT selects a specific version. dotfiles-submodules sync oh-my-tmux tpm restores the recorded versions. Names include oh-my-tmux, tpm, and antidote. Changes are left unstaged: review with yadm diff --submodule=log, then use yadm add and yadm commit to record the selected versions. Run dotfiles-submodules --help for usage from a normal Git checkout.

Oh My Zsh manages its own updates, prompting periodically by default; run omz update to update it manually. Bootstrap leaves an existing OMZ checkout alone. Update zsh plugins with antidote update --bundles; update tmux plugins with Ctrl-A, then u. Plugin versions are maintained by their plugin managers.