dotfiles: Configuration Files for Terminal Applications

This repository includes the configuration files I use for terminal applications like VIM, tmux and others.

Fonts and Icons

In order to use the VIM plug-in vim-devicons and avoid icon/font display issues while decorating the tmux status bar, one needs to install Nerd Fonts. For macOS users, installation via Homebrew is simple:

brew tap homebrew/cask-fonts
brew install font-hack-nerd-font

Linux users should consult the Nerd Fonts repository for installation details.

iTerm2 Notes

I use a fairly simple iTerm2 profile that re-defines some useful key mappings from Mac's own Terminal.app. It also makes Hack Regular Nerd Font (see above) the default terminal font.

Common Terminal Utilities

I use the lsd utility instead of the default one. For macOS users, installation via Homebrew is as follows:

brew install lsd

Python

I use a virtual environment, pyenv, to manage Python versions and packages and avoid cluttering system Python installations. To set up the virtual environment, use

python -m venv ~/pyenv

Do not forget to upgrade the virtual environment after upgrading Python:

python -m venv --upgrade ~/pyenv

VIM Notes

Plug-in Management

I use vim-plug for managing VIM plug-ins. The .vimrc file should take care of bootstrapping vim-plug if it isn't there already. However, if you run into issues you can manually set it up via:

curl -fLo ~/.vim/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs \
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim

If vim-plug is installed manually, you will also need to issue the VIM command :PlugUpdate manually to fetch and install the actual plug-ins.

Ctags

Be aware that macOS does not ship with a vim-gutentags compatible ctags binary. To use vim-gutentags on macOS, one needs to install Ctags through Homebrew.

LSP-Based Code Completion and Syntax Checking via ALE

Out of the box, ALE tries to auto-detect and enable as many tools as it can, so one does not need to do extra configuration. For Python, I recommend pyls and my .vimrc chooses it as the sole Python tool if the executable pyls is in ${PATH}. As of this writing, I couldn't get clangd to work in ALE, so my .vimrc defaults to clang or gcc for linting. Syntax checking does not yet work in C/C++.

FZF

I generally use FZF for searching. I also use ag, which the FZF plug-in also supports. Fellow macOS users can use Homebrew to install ag via:

brew install the_silver_searcher

TMux Notes

I use a custom script (scripts/tmux-select-pane) to facilitate seamless movements between TMux and VIM panes.