My P(ersonal) C(omputer) Settings

I'm documenting this primarily for personal use. This reposity contains shell configs, vim configs, emacs configs, a list of commonly used applications, and other items.

The overall goal of this repository is to reduce the time it takes to adopt a new computer and equip it with the necessary tooling to do meaningful work.

Ironically, I prefer to use a Mac or a Linux as my personal computer, so hopefully the connotation associated with "PCs" as Windows boxes isn't misleading.

SSH

Here are a few useful tips for working with SSH.

ssh_config

Instead of creating shell aliases and functions for conveniently accessing remote nodes over SSH, edit your ~/.ssh/config file.

Instead of doing this...

$ alias ec2='ssh -i /path/to/identity_file.pem ubuntu@<ec2-instance-public-ip>'

...edit your ~/.ssh/config:

Host ec2
 User ubuntu
 HostName <ec2-instance-public-ip>
 IdentityFile /path/to/identity_file.pem

# Host * configuration below...

sshfs

SSHFS enables seamless file transfers from your local machine to a remote machine.

To install, run:

$ brew cask install osxfuse
$ brew install sshfs

Assuming your remote machine is configured in your ~/.ssh/config (see above), you can mount your remote machine's home directory on your local machine like so:

$ mkdir ~/ec2
$ sshfs ec2:/home/ubuntu ~/ec2 -o reconnect,follow_symlinks

Now your remote machine's home directory can be accessed using the ~/ec2 directory. This directory can be transparently treated as if it were an ordinary local directory. To illustrate how easy it is to use, let's install Vundle, a Vim package manager, on our remote machine.

$ git clone https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim.git ~/ec2/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim

Voila! We now have Vundle installed on our ec2 instance without needing to SSH into that machine ourselves. That's all there is to it.

GnuPG

1. Download public key from keyserver
2. Transfer backed-up private key information from secure disk
3. Create [E] encrypting and [S] signing subkeys for personal computer

Commentary

By default gpg2 interfaces with gpg-agent. gpg does not unless --use-agent is specified. I suggest using gpg2, but if you must use gpg, add the following entry to ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf:

GnuPG + Git

1. Register newly created [S] signing subkey as signingkey
2. Enforce commit-signing
3. Opt into gpg2 usage

$ git config --global user.signingkey <SIGNING_KEY>
$ git config --global commit.gpgsign true
$ git config --global gpg.program gpg2

GnuPG + GPG-Agent

Setup gpg-agent to use password caching by adding the following entries to ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf:

Neovim

The following snippet fixes the <C-h> issue in neovim on macOS.

$ infocmp $TERM | sed 's/kbs=^[hH]/kbs=\\177/' > $TERM.ti
$ tic $TERM.ti

True Color and Italics in tmux and vim

TrueColor

Note: make sure that the terminal you are using supports TrueColor (hint: recent version of iTerm2 do). Also make sure that the tmux version you are using supports TrueColor (hint: versions north of 2.2 should).

At each step of the way, test TrueColor using the following shell pipeline (hint: the gradients should be smooth):

$ curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JohnMorales/dotfiles/master/colors/24-bit-color.sh | bash

• Terminal: recent versions of iTerm 2 should support TrueColor
• Tmux: versions 2.2 and after should support TrueColor
• NeoVim: recent versions of NeoVim should support TrueColor

Enable TrueColor in your ~/.vimrc (already done in this repository):

set termguicolors

Enable TrueColor in your ~/.tmux.conf (already done in this repository):

Note: This may conflict with the setting for italics. Need to verify to confirm / disconfirm this (pending).

set -ga terminal-overrides ",xterm-256color-italic:Tc"

Italics

In the file /configs/shared/.tmux.conf there is a line to add italics support to tmux:

set -g default-terminal "tmux-256color-italic"

The $TERM entry, tmux-256color-italic, will be unavailable until you add the file, tmux-256color-italic, to your terminal database. You can do this with the following command:

$ tic ~/pc_settings/tmux-256color-italic

Powerline

Install Powerline...

$ pip install powerline-status

Install the Powerline fonts...

$ hub clone 'powerline/fonts'
$ cd fonts && ./install.sh && cd ../ && rm -rf fonts

Lastly, ensure that the line in .tmux.conf that sources the powerline.conf is uncommented:

run-shell "powerline-daemon -q"
source "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/powerline/bindings/tmux/powerline.conf"

Commonly used applications (Mac)

Thankfully brew cask simplifies the installation of many of my commonly used applications:

$ brew cask install alfred dash slack 1password slack emacs dropbox iterm2 flux docker

The following applications need to be downloaded / installed manually:

• oh-my-zsh: a full suite of z-shell extensions
• homebrew: CLI for procuring third-party applications
• slate.js: resize and move your windows with keyboard shortcuts

Commonly used fonts

• Install Hasklig for ligature support in Elm, Elixir, etc
• Install Operator Mono for expressive monospaced font
• Install powerline fonts
• Install Adobe Source Code Pro font for shell and text editors

Ligature Support

To support ligatures make sure Hasklig is installed (link at the bottom). Ensure that you are using an terminal emulator that supports ligatures. With both of these tasks completed, ligatures should function in Neovim.

Miscellaneous notes

• Map <CAPS_LOCK> key to <ESC>
• Increase key-repeat rate
• Decrease key-repeat-delay
• Increase mouse speed