Setting up a Mac in 2024

I had to reset my old mac from scratch today. Here I am going to document the steps to reproduce my environment.

The main plan is as follows:

1. Configure MacOs to my preferred defaults
2. Install Homebrew
3. Install basic tools
4. Install my dotfiles from https://github.com/korya/dotfiles
5. Install all required tools
6. Install Tailscale
7. Other configurations

Configure MacOS

Change MacOS hostname

By default, MacOS sets the hostname to a ridiculous value based on your name. Something as "Dmitri's MacBook Pro". I prefer to name my machines after latin or greek gods. Easy to remember and easy to identify them in the office network.

NEW_HOSTNAME="mercury"
sudo scutil --set ComputerName "${NEW_HOSTNAME}"
sudo scutil --set LocalHostName "${NEW_HOSTNAME}"

MacOS UI Settings

The only changes I make to the default settings are:

• Trackpad:

  • Enable Tap to click. I just cannot work with a trackpad when this option is disabled. Pressing the trackpad make me feel weird.

• Dock:

  • Move the dock to the left. The real estate at the center of the screen is very precious and hence, I try to free it up for the content that requires my attention at this current moment. Dock is very useful and should be available fast when needed. But not that important to be at the bottom of the screen.

  • Turn on magnification effect on the Docker and set it to the mid level.

  • Auto-hide the dock. I don't need to see it all the time.

  • Clean it up. Remove all these stock apps from the dock. Keep Finder, Launchpad, Safari (later will be replaced with Chrome) and Notes.

• Desktops:

  • Disable Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use. I don't want to be distracted by the changes in the desktops order.

In the past (over 5 years ago), I had some magic CLI commands for doing these changes. But it used to break with almost every major OS ugprade.

It would be great to get these magic CLI commands for the latest MacOS. Need to check whether ChatGPT can help with that.

Install Homebrew

Homebrew is my default package manager in MacOS.

Follow the instructions at https://brew.sh/. At this moment, they are:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Install Basic Tools

Basic tools (GBU core utils and other CLI utils):

brew install coreutils binutils diffutils ed findutils moreutils \
  gawk gnu-indent gnu-sed gnu-tar gnu-which gnutls grep gzip gpg2 \
  watch wdiff gpatch m4 make cmake file-formula \
  bash bash-completion@2 less wget curl socat git openssh python \
  rsync svn unzip tree rename jq \
  macvim nvim

Install my dotfiles

Now that the basic tools are installed (including git), the dotfile can be installed from Github.

My dotfiles are available at https://github.com/korya/dotfiles

cd ~
git init .
git remote add origin https://github.com/korya/dotfiles
git pull origin master

Unfortunately, all conflicts need to be resolved manually.

Install All Required Tools

Install AWS CLI:

brew install awscli

Install Rerquired Tools

Configure Homebrew temporarily:

eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"

Producivity Tools

fzf is an interactive Unix filter for command-line that can be used with any list; files, command history, processes, hostnames, bookmarks, git commits, etc. fzf stands for fuzzy finder.

There are infinite ways to use it. Read https://github.com/junegunn/fzf?tab=readme-ov-file#examples for some insights. The most essential use is the integration in your shell:

• Use <CTRL-R> to search command history.
• Use <CTRL-T> to find a file.
• Use [PATTERN]**<TAB> to run fuzzy completion.

brew install fzf
# To install useful key bindings and fuzzy completion:
$(brew --prefix)/opt/fzf/install --all

zellij is a modern alternative to GNU screen and tmux:

brew install zellij

iTerm2

iTerm2 is the best terminal emulator available for MacOS for now.

brew install --cask iterm2

Configure iTerm2:

1. Copy profiles JSON to Downloads folder

   cp ~/.korya.d/iTerm2-Profiles.json ~/Downloads/
   

2. Import it:
   1. Open Settings
   2. Select Profiles tab
   3. Click Other Actions... dropdown
   4. Then Import JSON Profiles
   5. Select the file from Downloads folder
   6. Set the imported Default profile as default
   7. Delete the old default profile

Docker

Docker Desktop Docker is the easiest and the most reliable way to ship reproducible software:

brew install --cask  docker
brew install docker docker-credential-helper

VSCode

MS VSCode is used by a lot of people and has a lot of plugins. This is the mainstream IDE today.

brew install --cask visual-studio-code

Here is a list of great extensions I use (excluding language specific ones):

• VSCodeVim is a vim emulator
• Error lens highlights errors in the code. I am not really sure why this is not part of the core VSCode.
• Remote SSH allows to develop on a remote server via SSH.
• Modelines allows to configure VSCode via modelines in the files.
• Github Copilot is a great tool for generating code. It is not perfect but it is a great help.
• GitLens is a nice tool for previewing changes inside VSCode. It is also great for making basic commits. Unfortunately, I was not able to use it for more advanced scenarios requiring rebasing.
• Jupyter is a great tool for working with Jupyter notebooks.

Bitwarden

I use Bitwarden as my password manager. Migrated to it recently from LastPass and it is great!

brew install --cask bitwarden

Install Tailscale

Tailscale is one of the best software I've discovered in the recent years. I've been using it for a very long time. I think that I've discovered it in some newsletter early on after they made their product available. I gave it a try and it just worked, and it just made my life so much easier. I recommend everyone to try it out. It is an amazing product that just works!

Configuration:

1. Grant all required permissions:
   1. Unblock the app in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General
   2. Grant Sharing permissions in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy
2. Login to Tailscale
3. Enable run on start up
4. Configure password-less SSH; e.g.

   cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh '<YOUR IP>' tee ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
   

Other Configurations

Git

Recommended default settings for Git:

• credential.helper=osxkeychain uses the MacOS KeyChain for storing Git credentials.
• pull.rebase=true uses git rebase instead of the default git merge when pulling from a remote.
• fetch.prune=true runs git remote prune on every fetch and will automatically delete inaccessible Git objects in your local repository that aren’t on remote. In short, all branches and their commits that are merged into master on Github gets deleted automatically in your local repo.
• diff.colorMoved=zebra uses a different color in git diff for code that just moved within a file. This makes it easier to distinguish moved code from other changes.

git config --global credential.helper osxkeychain
git config --global pull.rebase true
git config --global fetch.prune true
git config --global diff.colorMoved zebra

Vim

vim +PlugInstall +PlugUpgrade +PlugUpdate

SSH Key for Github

Generate SSH key for the machine:

   ssh-keygen -o -a 256 -t ed25519 -C "${USER}@$(hostname -s)-$(date +'%d-%m-%Y')"

Then upload it to Github:

1. Open * Settings / SSH and GPG keys* in Github: https://github.com/settings/keys
2. Create a new SSH key:
   1. Click New SSH key
   2. Enter a title for the new key:

      awk '{ print "Developer key for " $3 }' ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub | pbcopy
      

   3. Paste the public key from ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub:

      pbcopy <~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
      

   4. Click Add SSH key

Last Words

That is it. This environment should be good enough to start.

Something I need to look into in the future:

• Try using zsh. I had a couple of failed attempts in the past. Maybe, it is worth giving it another try.
• Try using neovim instead of macvim. I really like its performance but the lack of time required to configure it blcoks me every time when I want to switch to it compltely. There is just always some minor feature I've got used to that is missing.