Dotfiles

Portable GNU/Emacs¹ dotfiles. Built for Life, Liberty, and the Open Road.

• 100% Reproducible

• 100% Immutable

• 100% Literate

Setup

These is my personal configuration(s) for GNU/Linux², and GNU/Emacs¹ software. It enables a consistent experience and computing environment across all of my machines. The entire experience is controlled with GNU/Emacs¹, leveraging it's capabilities for Literate Programming³.

;; This file is controlled by README.org
;; Please make any modifications there.

Cleanup

Emacs creates a lot of files relative to user-emacs-directory. These files are not part of this immutable configuration and do not belong in the Emacs directory. To solve this issue, before most of the packages have loaded, I change the value, a method I detail in this post⁴.

;; The original value of `user-emacs-directory' prior to redirection.
(defconst dotfiles/home
  (or (getenv "DOTFILES_HOME")
      (expand-file-name user-emacs-directory)))

;; The redirection target of `user-emacs-directory' during initialization.
(defconst dotfiles/cache
  (or (getenv "DOTFILES_CACHE")
      (expand-file-name "~/.cache/emacs")))

;; Make sure `dotfiles/cache' is a valid directory.
(unless (file-exists-p dotfiles/cache)
  (make-directory dotfiles/cache t))

;; Redirect the value of `user-emacs-directory'.
(setq user-emacs-directory dotfiles/cache)

;; Remove the eln-cache subdirectory.
(delete (expand-file-name "eln-cache" dotfiles/home) comp-eln-load-path)

;; Add a new eln-cache folder.
(add-to-list 'comp-eln-load-path (expand-file-name "eln-cache" dotfiles/cache))

;; Disable error messages for packages that don't support native-comp.
(setq comp-async-report-warnings-errors nil)

;; Disable unwanted features.
(setq make-backup-files nil
      create-lockfiles nil)

Packages

Download and install packages using straight.el⁵, a fully functional package manager for Emacs that integrates with use-package, a popular way of installing packages for Emacs.

;; Apply the configurations prior to bootstrapping the package manager.
(setq straight-repository-branch "master"
      straight-use-package-by-default t
      package-enable-at-startup nil)

;; BUGFIX https://github.com/raxod502/straight.el/issues/757
(defvar native-comp-deferred-compilation-deny-list ())

Bootstrap the package manager by loading the bootstrap-file, downloading it when it doesn't exist on a new system. This operation may take some time on a new system.

;; Bootstrap the package manager.
(defvar bootstrap-version)
(let ((bootstrap-file
       (expand-file-name "straight/repos/straight.el/bootstrap.el" user-emacs-directory))
      (bootstrap-version 5))
  (unless (file-exists-p bootstrap-file)
    (with-current-buffer
        (url-retrieve-synchronously
         "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/raxod502/straight.el/develop/install.el"
         'silent 'inhibit-cookies)
      (goto-char (point-max))
      (eval-print-last-sexp)))
  (load bootstrap-file nil 'nomessage))

;; Integrate with `use-package' by installing it via `straight'.
(straight-use-package 'use-package)

;; Specify core package sources.
(straight-use-package 'no-littering)
(straight-use-package '(org :local-repo nil))

Options

All of the options are defined early in the config, this is for two reasons: The first being to allow the possibility of sharing between modules, the values which are set early in the configuration. The second reason, related to the first, is to allow machine specific overrides depending on the context where Emacs is running.

;; All of the modules available sorted in their default load order.
(defconst dotfiles/modules-p
  '(trash keys org evil dired magit shell
    emms mu4e elfeed eshell vterm gpg pass
    x11 exwm roam agenda spelling grammar
    reveal hugo capture projects docker
    lsp dap cc go uml conf python fonts
    nix ivy themes modeline dashboard))

;; All of the enabled modules.
(defvar dotfiles/modules dotfiles/modules-p)

;; The default system language.
(defvar dotfiles/language (getenv "LANG"))

;; Configure a unified system font.
(defvar dotfiles/font "Fira Code")

;; Default system font size.
(defvar dotfiles/font-size 96)

;; Delay time before offering suggestions and completions.
(defvar dotfiles/idle 0.0)

;; The all powerful leader key.
(defvar dotfiles/leader-key "SPC")

;; Global prefix for the leader key under X11 windows.
(defvar dotfiles/leader-key-global
  (concat "C-" dotfiles/leader-key))

;; The location on disk of source code projects.
(defvar dotfiles/projects
  (or (getenv "DOTFILES_PROJECTS")
      (expand-file-name "~/.local/source")))

;; The location on disk of the local copy of the password store.
(defvar dotfiles/passwords
  (or (getenv "DOTFILES_PASSWORDS")
      (expand-file-name "~/.password-store")))

;; The public GPG key to encrpyt files, and emails for / to / with.
(defvar dotfiles/public-key "37AB1CB72B741E478CA026D43025DCBD46F81C0F")

Methods

Define two methods that will be used in the next phase of startup: The first method will load a machine-specific (host) configuration file, and the second method will load a custom module definition.

;; Load a host configuration.
(defun dotfiles/load-host (host-name)
  "Load the host configuration file for the system `host-name'."
  (interactive)
  (let ((host-file (concat dotfiles/home "/hosts/" host-name ".org")))
    (when (file-exists-p host-file)
      (org-babel-load-file host-file))))

;; Load a module definition.
(defun dotfiles/load-modules (modules)
  "Load the `modules' in sequential order."
  (interactive)
  (dolist (m modules)
    (let ((mod-file (concat dotfiles/home "/modules/" (symbol-name m) ".org")))
      (when (file-exists-p mod-file)
	(org-babel-load-file mod-file)))))

Config

Once the early-init phase as completed, there are only two remaining tasks to complete before the system is fully initialized.

;; This file is controlled by README.org
;; Please make any modifications there.

Hosts

The first task involves loading a machine-specific (host) configuration file. This gives the oppertunity for a host to intervene in the module loading process, adding or removing modules before the next stage has begun. This is accomplished by modifying the list of modules in dotfiles/modules.

;; Load the host configuration.
(dotfiles/load-host system-name)

Modules

After the host configuration file has loaded, the value of dotfiles/modules is used to load all of the enabled modules. They're loaded in sequential order, and an error in any module will end this process.

;; Load the enabled modules.
(dotfiles/load-modules dotfiles/modules)

Footnotes

---

¹

https://gnu.org/software/emacs/

²

https://gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html

³

https://chrishayward.xyz/notes/literate-programming/

⁴

https://chrishayward.xyz/posts/immutable-emacs/

⁵

https://github.com/raxod502/straight.el