Companion repository template for chocolate-template Arch Linux install script.

Use it as a starter point for your own dots!

Make a new repository by using the template option in github instead of forking it.

Don't forget that this is a bare git repository. So you can't just git clone it.

work_tree="/path/to/folder"
git_dir="/path/to/folder/.config/dotfiles"
chocodots="/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$git_dir --work-tree=$work_tree"
mkdir -p "$git_dir"
git init --bare "$git_dir"
$dots config status.showUntrackedFiles no
$dots remote add origin https://urltoyourrepo.git
$dots branch -m main
$dots pull origin main

Create an alias named for example chocodots for /usr/bin/git --git-dir=/path/to/folder/.config/dotfiles --work-tree=/path/to/folder

Now always use chocodots instead of git when working on this bare repository.

These dots only contain the base shell profiles and stratup scripts as well as a zsh config with function helpers to load and manage plugins, no need for oh-my-zsh.

In an effort to clean up the home folder of lone dotfiles I copied Luke Smith's approach of having only two entry points into those various files you would expect to see in the home folder:

`~/.xprofile`  ->  `~/.config/X11/xprofile`
`~/.zprofile`  ->  `~/.config/shell/profile`

I suggest reading a very nice blog post on the subject.

How these dotfiles set it up:

              boot loader (grub)
             /                  \
         tty1                    display manager
          |                             |
   source ~/.zprofile    run the dm session wrapper script  
          |                             |
     startx xinitrc             source ~/.zprofile
          |                             |
source ~/.xprofile & start the window manager/desktop environment

The shell profile is handled by ~/.config/shell/profile.

If you want to use bash instead replace ~/.zprofile by a ~/.profile symlink to ~/.config/shell/profile.

This profile is only sourced by interactive login shell, ie when you login in a tty or through ssh.

It is in charge of setting up environment variables. They are all set by conf files in ~/.config/environment.d/ as recommended by the Arch wiki. It allows those variables to also be available to the user systemd services.

~/.config/shell/profile also has a little trick which makes your login tty1 prompt sort of a display manager:

[ "$(tty)" = "/dev/tty1" ] && ! pidof -s Xorg >/dev/null 2>&1 && exec startx "$XINITRC"

As soon as you login startx will run ~/.config/X11/xinitrc which will simply do part of the job of a display manager: source ~/.config/X11/xprofile and start your window manager/desktop environment.

~/.config/X11/xprofile should contain programs that needs to be auto started when your wm/de starts as well as initial configurations and settings that need to be set at each new x session. Only use the built in wm/de autostart functions for programs specific to it or that needs to be started after the wm/de starts.

A display manager is considered an interactive non-login shell so they use a session wrapper script to source the shell profile, but some like lightdm do not source ~/.zprofile. To solve this ~/.config/X11/xprofile can also source ~/.config/shell/profile if it hasn't been done already or change your session wrapper script so that it sources ~/.zprofile.

All subsequent interactive shells, such as opening your terminal, do not source ~/.config/shell/profile since they already have the environment variables set, but instead source ~/.config/zsh/.zshrc thanks to the ZDOTDIR environment variable.

With this setup you can easily go from using a display manager or not and keep a very clean home directory. If you dont plan to use a display manager, you can delete the ~/.xprofile symlink to clean up the home folder.

Thats the only strong opinion this template has, so a solid configuration is included.

Powerlevel10k is a very customizable prompt and you'll go through a configuration script when you first start it. These dotfiles ship with their customized font based on Meslo Nerd Font. The default system monospace font has been set to Meslo in ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf.

dotbare to help manage the dotfiles bare git repository.

~/.local/bin/zsh/zsh-plugins-update script to update all cloned plugins in ~/.config/zsh/plugins.

Various functions to handle plugins, much like a full fledge zsh plugin manager.

Warning: The first time you source ~/.config/zsh/.zshrc by opening a terminal it will download all plugins and build a fzf tab module for faster completions and suggestions, which can take a while.

chocolate-template extra.sh script will source if present ~/.config/cocoa/cocoa.sh and run the configuration function inside of it. If present it will also install all packages in ~/.config/cocoa/packages.csv.

That's how you can get a fully installed and configured system that matches your dotfiles setup. The example in this template will setup a bare bones suckless based environment with dwm, st, dmenu and surf.

• Luke Smith's Voidrice

• Christian Chiarulli's Machfiles