Setting-up a Mac

Last updated on 04 December 2022

This note documents my setup for building a sane-ish (for me) software environment on macOS for work, development, and life.

Core tasks

• Rename the Mac (Settings -> General -> Name)
• Add home directory to Mac sidebar (from terminal run `open /Users` and then drag homedir to the sidebar)
• Add accounts to macOS Accounts (for mail, contacts, calendars)

Install desktop apps

From the App Store install and configure:

• Tailscale [1]

• Sorted [2]

• Reeder [3]

• Telegram [4]

From publisher websites, install and configure:

• Firefox [5]

• Nova [6]

• Hyper [7]

• Joplin [8]

• Nextcloud [9]

• Docker Desktop [10]

Configure apps

• Login to apps (e.g. Tailscale, Docker, Reeder, Telegram, Firefox, Nextcloud, Joplin).
• Make Firefox default browser

Install command line tools

• Install homebrew: `/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"` (and follow instructions)
• Install brew tools: `brew install fish python3 git s3cmd`
• Install python deps: `pip3 install poetry virtualenv`
• Install MongoDB: `brew tap mongodb/brew && brew update && brew install mongodb-community@6.0`
• Install fisher [11]: `curl -sL https://git.io/fisher | source && fisher install jorgebucaran/fisher`

• Install nvm: `fisher install jorgebucaran/nvm.fish`
• Install node: `nvm install latest`
• Install yarn: `npm install --global yarn`

Install configurations

Once Nextcloud is installed and synced, install dotfiles:

• `ln -s ~/Nextcloud/dotfiles/.config ~/.config`
• `ln -s ~/Nextcloud/dotfiles/.hyper.js ~/.hyper.js`
• `ln -s ~/Nextcloud/dotfiles/.vimrc ~/.vimrc`

Configure fish

• Add the shell: `echo /usr/local/bin/fish | sudo tee -a /etc/shells`
• Change default shell: `chsh -s /usr/local/bin/fish`

Configure Hyper

Open Hyper preference window, then:

• Set the `shell` param to: `/opt/homebrew/bin/fish`
• To the `plugins` array add `'hyper-solarized-light'`

Configuring `virtualenv`s in fish

Create a virtualenv in the usual way: `virtualenv -p python3.10 .venv`.

To use virtualenvs in fish start commands with: `.venv/bin/`, e.g.:

• `.venv/bin/pip install poetry`
• `.venv/bin/poetry install`
• `.venv/bin/flask run`

(As of writing `.venv/bin/activate.fish` does not work for me).

Run local MongoDB

For development.

• Create data dir: `mkdir ~/.mongo`
• Start in background: `mongod --fork --dbpath=/Users/will/.mongo --logpath /dev/null --bind_ip localhost`