My Mac From Scratch

Written on March 11, 2017
[ macbook  misc  ]

I’ve spent nearly a decade honing my .bash_profile, .vimrc, and other startup files on my personal laptop. But can’t say that I think about them too much. It’s set-and-forget for long periods of time. To be clear, taking things for granted goes far beyond startup files: XCode, HomeBrew and hordes of brew-installed software, R and Python libraries, general preferences and customizations all around!

In this post, I attempt to lay out how to build my old MacBook Pro from scratch. It’s really for me, but hey–it could be for you too! Also, be warned: I make no claims that any of this represents the best way to do anything! So if you know a better way, please let me know in the comments.

Starter Moves

  1. Update OS X
  2. Get XCode 
    sudo xcode-select --install 
sudo xcodebuild -license
  3. Get HomeBrew 
    /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
# Also get Brew Cask (manage software other than CLI stuff)
brew tap caskroom/cask
  4. Set up Git (brush up on your Git w/ this tutorial, or this no-deep-git guide) 
    brew install git
# Optional Stuff: Not necessary if you already have a 
#   ~/.gitconfig file on your old Mac (see next section 
#   on startup files)
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "yourEmail"
git config --global color.ui true  # Colored Output
git config --global core.editor vim # For cool people
  5. Bash Completions! 
     brew install bash-completions 
 brew tap homebrew/completions
 #  Make sure this is in your .bash_profile (see next section)
 [ -f /usr/local/etc/bash_completion ] && .  /usr/local/etc/bash_completion


Startup Files

  1. Round up all your startup files on your old Mac into new directory: 
    cd ~
mkdir .startupfiles
cp .bash_profile .startupfiles/
cp .vimrc .startupfiles/
cp .tmux.conf .startupfiles/
cp .gitconfig .startupfiles/
# ...and so on.
  2. Make ~/.startupfiles a Git repository: 
    cd .startupfiles/
git init
git add .
git commit . -m "Startup files on my old Mac as of yyyy-mm-dd."
  3. Create a new GitHub repository called .startupfiles
  4. Push ~/.startupfiles/ to GitHub’s .startupfiles: 
    git remote add origin https://github.com/userName/.startupfiles
git push -u origin master
  5. Clone .startupfiles onto new Mac 
    git clone https://github.com/userName/.startupfiles
  6. Optional/Convenient: Create .update bash function in .bash_profile to easily update startup files in home directory with latest versions in .startupfiles, e.g., something like: 
    .update() {
  cp `ls -lrtF -d -1 .startupfiles/{,.*} | grep "[a-z]$"` ~
}
  7. Optional/Helpful: design your .bash_profile such that each computer can have customizations. 
    if [ `hostname` = 'yourHostNameForComp1' ]; then
  # custom stuff;
fi

Beware: On my work computer, the hostname is different when I’m actually at work vs when I’m remotely logged in through a VPN.

R

  1. First, we want to brew install R, and related software that R depends on. 
    brew install Caskroom/cask/xquarts 
brew cask install java 
brew tap homebrew/science 
brew install R 
brew cask install mactex
  2. If you have an R environment on the old computer that you already like, then take it with you. First, make sure R and Java are friends: 
     R CMD javareconf

    This is important! Otherwise, the installation of the rJava package will fail, followed by all other that depend on it, e.g., RPostgreSQL. Now let’s go ahead and get a record of your beloved R environment on your old Mac:

     r.pkgs <- 
   installed.packages()[is.na(installed.packages()[ , "Priority"]), 1]
 save(r.pkgs, file="r-pkgs.Rdata")

    Then get r-pkgs.Rdata on your new Mac, start an R session, and create your library:

     load("r-pkgs.Rdata")
 install.packages(r.pkgs)
  3. Get RStudio 
     brew install Caskroom/cask/rstudio
  4. RStudio Settings:
    I wanted to figure out a cool command line way of doing this, but couldn’t figure it out. Two important directories on my Mac seemed important, but amounted in no discovery of the “preference file” I was looking for: 
     ~/.rstudio-desktop 
 /Applications/RStudio.app/Contents

    Ultimately, I just had to set my preferences manually:

    • RStudio > Preferences > Code > Keybindings > Vim
    • RStudio > Preferences > Appearance > Editor Theme > Material


Python

  1. Get Anaconda 
     brew cask install Caskroom/cask/anaconda

    Homebrew will advise you to put this in .bash_profile:

     export PATH=~/anaconda3/bin:"$PATH"

    You might already have that taken care of though since we transferred over all the startup files from the old Mac.

  2. Make conda environment files from your environments on the old Mac. Use them to create those environments on the new Mac. At the very least, make sure to have matplotlib, pandas, numpy, sklearn, tensorflow, etc.


PostgreSQL / Amazon Redshift

  1. TO ACCESS FROM TERMINAL: 
     # Make sure you have psql
 brew install postgres
 # If first time, create your user db
 brew services start postgres
 createdb `whoami`
 psql  # log in w/ user account
 brew services stop postgres
 # Head to Redshift!
 psql \
   --host=<DB instance endpoint> \
   --port=<port> \
   --username <master user name> \
   --password \
   --dbname=<database name>
  2. TO ACCESS IN R: 
     library(RPostgreSQL)
 drv=dbDriver("PostgreSQL")
 host='yourRedShiftInstance.redshift.amazonaws.com'
 con = dbConnect(drv, host=host_production, 
        port='5439',
        dbname='dbName', 
        user='yourUserName', 
        password='yourPassword')
 dbExecute(con,query_to_affect_something)
 dbGetQuery(con,query_something_to_return_results)
  3. TO ACCESS IN PYTHON: 
     from sqlalchemy import create_engine
 import pandas as pd
 from pandas import read_sql_query as query
 db='dbName'
 host='yourRedShiftInstance.redshift.amazonaws.com'
 user='yourUserName'
 psswd='yourPassword'
 conStr='postgresql://'+user+':'+psswd+'@'+host+':5439/'+db
 con = create_engine(conStr)
 df = query(query_whatever,con)


VIM:

  1. Install Tim Pope’s Pathogen (basically a Vim package manager) 
     mkdir -p ~/.vim/autoload ~/.vim/bundle && \
 curl -LSso ~/.vim/autoload/pathogen.vim https://tpo.pe/pathogen.vim
 echo "execute pathogen#infect()" >> ~/.vimrc

    Go to the bundle directory and start git cloning the not-so-bare essentials!

     cd ~/.vim/bundle
  2. SENSIBLE: If you don’t have a .vimrc file already, you can kick off with Tim Pope’s (note2self: I should go through his file and see if I’ve missed anyting in my .vimrc) 
     git clone git://github.com/tpope/vim-sensible.git

    Alternatively, you might go with The Ultimate Vim Configuration

  3. NERDTree: Make Vim more IDE-Like w/ Directory Tree sidebar 
     git clone https://github.com/scrooloose/nerdtree.git ~/.vim/bundle/nerdtree
  4. TEX-9: Simple, vimmy LaTeX functionality 
     git clone https://github.com/vim-scripts/TeX-9

  5. And so on: Surround, Syntastic, <whatever>…

  6. Include VimPlugIns help in Vim environment: 
    :helptags ~/.vim/bundle/vim-surround
:helptags ~/.vim/bundle/nerdtree
:helptags ~/.vim/bundle/syntastic


Jekyll (GitHub Blog)

  1. Ruby: OS X already has it, but for some reason it sucks. Brew it! 
     brew install ruby # neccessary, despite OS X having ruby.. otherwise, errors
  2. Get Github Pages and Jekyll 
     sudo gem install github-pages
 sudo gem install jekyll
  3. How to Use It: 
     cd path/to/local/copy/of/youUserName.github.io
 jekyll serve
 open http://0.0.0.0:4000/


Misc HomeBrew Installations

Other stuff I use from time to time.

brew install imagemagick
brew install ffmpeg
brew install tmux
brew install wget
brew install pandoc
brew install Caskroom/cask/rodeo


Default printer

I noticed this file on my work computer, so I’m assuming if you wanted to set a default printer, this is how you do it.

mkdir .cups
echo "Default printer_name" > .cups/lpopoptions


Make Keyboard Less Annoying

  1. When I hold on j in RStudio vim mode, I just want the cursor to move left and keep on doing so… Unfortunately, by default, Mac has a special key palette come up.
    This is how you fix that: 
     defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

    If you ever wanted to undo this (don’t know why)

     defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true
  2. SPEED
    • Apple > System Preferences > Keyboard > Key Repeat (Fast)
    • Apple > System Preferences > Keyboard > Delay Until Repeat (Short)