You can clone the repository wherever you want. (I like to keep it in ~/Projects/dotfiles, with ~/dotfiles as a symlink.) The bootstrapper script will pull in the latest version and copy the files to your home folder.

git clone https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles.git && cd dotfiles && source bootstrap.sh

To update, cd into your local dotfiles repository and then:

source bootstrap.sh

Alternatively, to update while avoiding the confirmation prompt:

set -- -f; source bootstrap.sh

To install these dotfiles without Git:

cd; curl -#L https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles/tarball/master | tar -xzv --strip-components 1 --exclude={README.md,bootstrap.sh,LICENSE-MIT.txt}

To update later on, just run that command again.

If ~/.path exists, it will be sourced along with the other files, before any feature testing (such as detecting which version of ls is being used) takes place.

Here’s an example ~/.path file that adds ~/utils to the $PATH:

export PATH="$HOME/utils:$PATH"

If ~/.extra exists, it will be sourced along with the other files. You can use this to add a few custom commands without the need to fork this entire repository, or to add commands you don’t want to commit to a public repository.

My ~/.extra looks something like this:

# Git credentials
# Not in the repository, to prevent people from accidentally committing under my name
GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="Mathias Bynens"
GIT_COMMITTER_NAME="$GIT_AUTHOR_NAME"
git config --global user.name "$GIT_AUTHOR_NAME"
GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL="mathias@mailinator.com"
GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL="$GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL"
git config --global user.email "$GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL"

You could also use ~/.extra to override settings, functions and aliases from my dotfiles repository. It’s probably better to fork this repository instead, though.

When setting up a new Mac, you may want to set some sensible OS X defaults:

./.osx

When setting up a new Mac, you may want to install some common Homebrew formulae (after installing Homebrew, of course):

brew bundle ~/Brewfile

You could also install native apps with brew cask:

brew bundle ~/Caskfile

Suggestions/improvements welcome!

Mathias Bynens

• @ptb and his OS X Lion Setup repository

• Ben Alman and his dotfiles repository

• Chris Gerke and his tutorial on creating an OS X SOE master image + Insta repository

• Cãtãlin Mariş and his dotfiles repository

• Gianni Chiappetta for sharing his amazing collection of dotfiles

• Jan Moesen and his ancient .bash_profile + shiny tilde repository

• Lauri ‘Lri’ Ranta for sharing loads of hidden preferences

• Matijs Brinkhuis and his dotfiles repository

• Nicolas Gallagher and his dotfiles repository

• Sindre Sorhus

• Tom Ryder and his dotfiles repository

• Kevin Suttle and his dotfiles repository and OSXDefaults project, which aims to provide better documentation for ~/.osx

• Haralan Dobrev

• anyone who contributed a patch or made a helpful suggestion