Archived Repo - because I went back to a mac 😜 after 6 months with WSL2

Julie's Bash on Windows

When a mac developer codes on a Windows...

Highlights

• Ubuntu - Linux Subsystem on Window (WSL)
• Oh My ZSH
• Spaceship Prompt - with minimalist ui
• Hyper.js Terminal - for tabs and styling
• Node.js and n for version management
• git
  • login with encrypted .netrc
  • sign commits by default

Setting up Linux on Windows

1. Enable feature. Inside Powershell (right click windows symbol), type:

   Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux
   

2. Install Ubuntu from Windows App Store. Note: you will be prompted to create a separate user and password for the linux subsystem.

3. Update Ubuntu - install latest versions of dependencies, etc.

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt upgrade
   

4. Install essential developer tools incl. gcc and make, which are required later.

   sudo apt install build-essential
   

5. Install git

   sudo apt install git
   

Installing Node.js

1. Install Node Version Manager

   We will use n to manage versions of node.js. To install, we need to run:

   curl -L https://git.io/n-install | bash
   

   Note: this may fail if build-essential tools are not installed in previous step.

2. Install latest Node.js LTS version:

   n lts
   

3. Check everything works:

   npm --version
   node --version
   

   If it doesn't check that ~/n/bin is in your $PATH.

Customizing the Shell

1. Install Oh My ZSH

   sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"
   

2. Install the Hyper.js Terminal
3. Install Powerline Fonts per these instructions:
   1. Download fonts from github.com/powerline/fonts and navigate to the folder in Powershell.
   2. Inside Powershell: Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass
   3. Run .\install.ps1 to install all fonts at once. Might take a few minutes
   4. Inside Powershell: Set-ExecutionPolicy Default
4. Install Spaceship prompt

   npm install -g spaceship-prompt
   

Customize Hyper.js

Open the Hyper app. Then open up preferences via the Hamburger menu or by pressing Ctrl + , (comma)

Copy the contents of the .hyper.js file in this repository, which changes the shell to C:\\Windows\\System32\\bash.exe

and adds the following plugins

• verminal color scheme
• hyper-tabs-enhanced
• hyper-hide-scroll

The other customizations are cosmetic.

Note: Hyper.js is not installed in your linux home, but rather at your Windows home: /mnt/c/Users/<username>

Install custom dotfiles

Copy these files into your home directory, aka ~, which should be /home/<username>:

• .bash_aliases
• .zshrc, which also configures spaceship prompt
• .gitconfig

Setup GPG, save GitHub Credentials

1. Create .netrc

   Inside your ~ home directory, create a .netrc file with the following contents (password is plain text):

   machine github.com
   login <USERNAME>
   Password <PASSWORD>
   

2. Generate GPG Key

   gpg --gen-key
   

   which will prompt you for name, email and secret.

3. Encrypt .netrc

   Now encrypt it using the gpg key, where <EMAIL> is the address you used when creating the key

   gpg -e -r <EMAIL> ~/.netrc
   

4. Add credential Helper

   Inside your ~ home folder, create a new folder

   mkdir ~/bin
   

   and then download the credential helper:

   curl -o ~/bin/git-credential-netrc https://raw.githubusercontent.com/git/git/master/contrib/credential/netrc/git-credential-netrc
   

   give it executable permissions:

   chmod 755 ~/bin/git-credential-netrc
   

   Verify the following is in your .zshrc:

   export PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH
   export GPG_TTY=$(tty)
   

5. Configure git to use credential helper

   git config --global credential.helper "netrc -f ~/.netrc.gpg -v"
   

6. Configure git to automatically sign commits

   git config --global commit.gpgsign true
   

   For details about adding the public key to your GitHub.com profile, see:

   • GitHub Help: Generating a new GPG key
   • GitHub Help: Signing Commits

References

• Webdev on Windows with WSL and VS Code
• Hyper.js + Oh My ZSH as Ubuntu on Windows (WSL) Terminal