dotfiles

Personal dotfiles for a consistent shell/terminal environment across a macOS host and several Linux servers reached over SSH. Managed with GNU Stow — all configs live under ~/.config/ (plus ~/.zshrc) as plain symlinks into this repo.

This repo installs nothing. There is no install script and no automated package management. It only contains config files and a Stow layout. Every tool it assumes (zsh, tmux, oh-my-zsh, Stow itself, ...) is something you install yourself, once, by hand — see Prerequisites below.

What's Included

• zsh - oh-my-zsh based shell config: exports, completions, keybindings, aliases, functions
• tmux - Catppuccin Mocha theme, vi-style copy mode, OSC 52 clipboard passthrough for SSH sessions
• git - global config with common aliases
• ghostty - terminal emulator config (macOS only — the GUI terminal runs on your Mac, not on a remote box, so this package is only meaningful there)

Structure

dotfiles/
├── zsh/.zshrc                 # → ~/.zshrc
├── zsh/.config/zsh/           # → ~/.config/zsh/  (loaded by .zshrc)
├── tmux/.config/tmux/         # → ~/.config/tmux/
├── git/.config/git/           # → ~/.config/git/
├── ghostty/.config/ghostty/   # → ~/.config/ghostty/
├── README.md
└── TUTORIAL.md

Each top-level directory is a Stow package. Stowing mirrors the package's internal path structure onto $HOME, so zsh/.zshrc becomes ~/.zshrc and zsh/.config/zsh/01-exports.zsh becomes ~/.config/zsh/01-exports.zsh.

Prerequisites

Install these yourself, on whichever machine needs them. Nothing here is run automatically — copy the command you need.

Required everywhere

• git and zsh
  • macOS: brew install git zsh
  • Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install git zsh
• GNU Stow (used to symlink this repo into $HOME)
  • macOS: brew install stow
  • Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install stow
• oh-my-zsh — the zsh config assumes it's installed at ~/.oh-my-zsh:

  sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)" "" --unattended --keep-zshrc

  --keep-zshrc stops the installer from overwriting the ~/.zshrc this repo provides; stow it after installing oh-my-zsh (or re-stow with -R if you stowed first).
• zsh-autosuggestions and zsh-syntax-highlighting (referenced by plugins=(...) in zsh/.zshrc; oh-my-zsh looks for them under its custom plugins directory):

  git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions
  git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting

• tmux
  • macOS: brew install tmux
  • Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install tmux
• TPM (tmux plugin manager):

  git clone https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tpm ~/.tmux/plugins/tpm

  After stowing the tmux package and starting tmux, press prefix + I to install the plugins listed in tmux.conf.
• Catppuccin for tmux — loaded directly (not via TPM) because of a name conflict with TPM's own naming:

  git clone https://github.com/catppuccin/tmux.git ~/.tmux/plugins/tmux

Optional

• fzf — oh-my-zsh's fzf plugin (already in plugins=(...)) wires up Ctrl-R/Ctrl-T/Alt-C automatically if fzf is on your PATH, and is a no-op if it isn't.
  • macOS: brew install fzf
  • Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install fzf
• A vim plugin manager + vim-tmux-navigator — for seamless Ctrl-h/j/k/l pane navigation between vim splits and tmux panes (see TUTORIAL.md). vim configuration itself is not managed by this repo.
• Ghostty + a Nerd Font (macOS only) — the ghostty package assumes the Ghostty terminal app is installed, and its config sets a Nerd Font for glyph rendering (icons in tmux, etc.):

  brew install --cask ghostty font-jetbrains-mono-nerd-font

Install

git clone https://github.com/shadyeip/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles
cd ~/dotfiles
stow -t ~ zsh tmux git

On macOS, also stow the terminal config:

stow -t ~ ghostty

Stow will refuse to overwrite a file that already exists and isn't a symlink into this repo (e.g. a pre-existing ~/.zshrc). Back up or remove any conflicting file yourself before stowing — nothing does that for you automatically. To re-stow after a conflict is resolved, or after pulling new files, use stow -R -t ~ <package>.

Git identity

git/.config/git/config includes ~/.config/git/config.local, which isn't part of this repo (it's per-machine and untracked). Create it yourself:

mkdir -p ~/.config/git
cat > ~/.config/git/config.local <<'EOF'
[user]
    name = Your Name
    email = you@example.com
EOF

Update

Pull the latest changes and reload your shell:

dotup

This is a zsh function (~/.config/zsh/05-functions.zsh, aliased to dotup/update_dotfiles) that runs git pull in this repo and re-sources ~/.zshrc. If a new file or package was added, re-run stow -R -t ~ <package> yourself afterward.

Uninstall

cd ~/dotfiles
stow -D -t ~ zsh tmux git ghostty

Remote copy/paste over SSH

Yanking in tmux copy mode (prefix + [, select with vi keys, y) sends the selection to the terminal via an OSC 52 escape sequence — tmux itself emits this (set-clipboard on in tmux.conf), so it works regardless of what editor or program is running in the pane. allow-passthrough on lets the escape sequence travel through tmux even when tmux itself is the thing running inside an SSH session, so:

• SSH from your Mac into a Linux box, start/attach tmux there, yank text — it lands in your Mac's clipboard.
• This requires the local terminal (the one actually drawing pixels on your Mac — Ghostty, in this repo's config) to support OSC 52. It does not depend on any tool running on the remote box beyond tmux.

Zsh Load Order

~/.zshrc sets up oh-my-zsh, then sources everything in zsh/.config/zsh/ in alphabetical order via number prefixes, before finally sourcing oh-my-zsh.sh itself:

1. 01-exports.zsh — env vars, PATH
2. 02-completions.zsh — completion styling (compinit itself runs inside oh-my-zsh.sh, sourced last)
3. 03-keybindings.zsh — key bindings
4. 04-aliases.zsh — aliases
5. 05-functions.zsh — functions

Tmux Keybindings

Splits

• prefix - — horizontal split
• prefix | — vertical split

Pane Sync

• prefix s — toggle synchronized input to all panes

vim-tmux-navigator

• Ctrl-h/j/k/l — seamless navigation between vim splits and tmux panes (requires the matching plugin in your vim config — see Prerequisites)

tmux-yank

• Enter copy mode: prefix + [
• Select text (vi keys), then y to yank to clipboard

tmux-resurrect

• prefix + Ctrl-s — save session
• prefix + Ctrl-r — restore session

extrakto

• prefix + tab — fuzzy-find text from scrollback

Zsh Plugins

Configured via plugins=(...) in zsh/.zshrc, loaded by oh-my-zsh. See Prerequisites for how to install the ones oh-my-zsh doesn't bundle.

• git — oh-my-zsh's bundled git aliases/helpers
• fzf — Ctrl-R history, Ctrl-T file path, Alt-C cd (no-op if fzf isn't installed)
• zsh-autosuggestions — fish-like inline suggestions (right arrow to accept)
• zsh-syntax-highlighting — colorizes commands as you type

For a detailed walkthrough of keybindings and vim motions, see TUTORIAL.md.