linux-bootstrap

Bootstrap an Ubuntu/Debian based system effortlessly. This script is idempotent, allowing you to re-run it at any time. Existing changes are detected and ignored, and you are only prompted for uninstalled changes.

Why?

When you first login to a new linux box, you have many default packages you typically install:

Your dotfiles
nodenv
Standard utilities like git, midnight commander, jq, direnv (here's my article on it), etc

I've experimented with multiple ways to do this (and there are many). This seems to be the easiest way to maintain and expand as your preferences change.

Adapting to Your Needs

Fork the repo (natually)
Install bashing
If you want to use some/all of my defaults:
- Remove whatever packages you don't want out of src/tasks/all.sh (and delete those files in src/tasks/___.sh)
If you would like to start from scratch:
- Setup my repo as a remote: git remote add drmikecrowe https://github.com/drmikecrowe/linux-bootstrap.git
- Checkout the blank branch: git checkout -b blank drmikecrowe/blank
- Make your changes
- Push your changes back to your master: git push origin blank:master
- If you get a blank -> master (non-fast-forward) message:
  - Force-push your update: git push origin blank:master --force

NOTE: Make sure to read the Default GUI Packages section below

Adding New Items

The genius of this system is how easy it is to add new items:

Run the ./stub.sh abc to add abc as src/tasks/abc.sh
Edit src/tasks/abc.sh:
- Add a test to determine if abc is already installed
- Add the code to install it
Build using ./build.sh and push to your repo
If you use the cat <<EOF >>somefile in the install function, you need to use EOF to terminate your block of lines (see How it works below)

Default GUI Packages

Whenever I find a new GUI package that I always want on any system, I add it to src/tasks/default_gui_packages.sh as follows:

Add the package on line 11 to the end of the sudo apt install
Use that packages executable to in the test in line 6 so it's missing the next time you run

Usage

Bootstrap a system

Download the main script and make it executable:

prefix=~/.local/bin
curl -Lo ${prefix}/bootstrap.sh https://github.com/corriander/system-bootstrap/releases/latest/download/bootstrap.sh
chmod +x ${prefix}/bootstrap.sh
bootstrap.sh all

You can see all the options as follows:

bootstrap.sh

You can also install a single item like this:

./bootstrap.sh pyenv

Build and run locally

Assuming you want the option to install everything (bootstrap.sh all:

./build.sh
./target/bootstrap.sh all

Demonstration

Key concepts

This script uses Bashing to create the executable.

The key things I like to install are:

My dotfiles
Bash-it
Node via nodenv
Go via goenv
Python via pyenv
xonsh
docker
AWS cli
etckeeper
Increase fs.inotify.max_user_watches by increasing to 524288
Remove password prompt when executing sudo

If it's a GUI based system:

Install my favorite GUI packages like glogg meld synaptic kupfer remmina
Visual Studio Code
Opera
Spotify
TerraForm
Peek gif recorder
google-chrome
copyq
wavebox
etc.

How it works

Each task you answer (Y)es to writes the install steps from each install function (such as install_dotfiles) to ~/_todo.sh
All the commands in ~/_todo.sh are run to install your choices
This system takes advantage of the bash type command. Each install script has this line:

type install_goenv | sed '1,3d;$d' | sed 's/^\s*//g' >> $RUNFILE

This line essentially prints the install function, then I use sed to remove the function declarations and leading spaces
I like using the cat <<EOF >>somefile when writing lots of lines. Unfortunately, Bashing indents the code when it builds the target/bootstrap-1.0.0.sh, so my ./build.sh makes sure that any EOF on a line by itself has no leading spaces

corriander / system-bootstrap