Anyone knows, yes, this is known all over the world. But let me say, shell script is such a powerful.

I have tried some ways of initial setup my linux environment like dotfiles repository, nix, chef.

All of them are not so bad, but not perfect to me.

For example,

• dotfiles repository is separated from system package installation.
  • I know that all I need is just preparing single install script.
• nix is easy but complex and too large to me, sometimes building package time is so long.
• chef is overspec for single host machine.

My requirements for setup are below.

• 100% for me
  • I don't need a general system.
• Basically oneshot
  • But I can setup as many times.
• Simple
  • All I needed is just 2 layers of install packages and user configuration for packages.
• On Linux
  • Use shell script, yeah.
• Always latest
  • Arch like rolling release provides me this spec.

So, now I have had a non-difficut (for me) shell script of bash.

Detail

I need 2 layers of install and configuration.

Install

I defined install as 2 type of standard install and custom install.

Standard install

Standard install is just package manager of OS built-in.
In Arch, via pacman. In Debian, via apt.

Custom install

On the other hand custom install is user-defined installation like using git, curl or make.

Configuration

I defined configuration is just configuration. No trick.

For example create a .bashrc symlink to ${HOME}, create a neovim config directory symlink to ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/nvim.

Picture

Constructure

So simple.
I put shell scripts for install and configuration and packages directory to detect my own necessary.

setup.sh
install_batch.sh
install_single.sh
configure_batch.sh
configure_single.sh
install_custom_batch.sh
install_custom_single.sh
configure_custom_batch.sh
configure_custom_single.sh
packages/

packages directories has subdirectory for each pacakges.

packages/
  bash/
    .bashrc
    .bash_profile
    configure.sh
    install.sh
  tmux/
    tmux.conf
    install.sh
    configure.sh
...    

And each implementations are like this. Basicly, I don't create functions intentinally for maintenance.

I decided that each shellscript files should be seemed as isolated module or namespace.

# setup.sh
sh "./install_batch.sh"
sh "./configure_batch.sh"
sh "./install_custom_batch.sh"
sh "./configure_batch.sh"

# install_batch.sh

pushd packages
for package in *
do
  sh "${package}/install.sh"
done
popd

# <pacakge name>/install.sh

sh "$(sh install_command.sh) ${1}"

About configure is as same as install.

This design allows me do install or configuration isolated for single package like sh ./install_single.sh podman. 100% for me.

Conclusion

Shell script is powerful to make modular system.

Though I don't write any tests, maybe I can write test easily.