Managing Shell Configuration with CustomRC

shell zsh bash configuration dotfiles

Break down massive rc files into manageable modules with automatic caching.

Managing Shell Configuration with CustomRC

Managing shell configuration files (like .zshrc or .bashrc) can often become messy as they grow over time. CustomRC solves this by breaking down these monolithic files into manageable, modular scripts that are automatically sourced and cached for performance.

Before Starting

Ensure you have the following prerequisites:

  • Git installed on your system.
  • Bash or Zsh as your shell.

You can find the project repository here: CustomRC on GitHub.

Installation

To get started, clone the repository to your home directory and run the installation script.

git clone https://github.com/OnCloud125252/CustomRC.git ~/.customrc
~/.customrc/install.sh

This script will back up your existing configuration and set up CustomRC to load automatically when you open a new shell.

Understanding the Structure

CustomRC organizes your configurations into a dedicated directory: ~/.customrc/rc-modules/. Inside, you will find subdirectories that help categorize your scripts:

  • Global/: Scripts that run on any operating system.
  • Darwin/: Scripts specific to macOS.
  • Linux/: Scripts specific to Linux distributions.

Any shell script (.sh) placed in these directories will be automatically sourced based on your current OS.
Note that only files ending in .sh are loaded—directories and other file extensions are ignored. This allows you to place dependencies, binaries, or other assets anywhere within ~/.customrc/rc-modules/ without them being executed.

Basic Usage

Once installed, you can manage your modules using the customrc command.

Check the status of your configuration:

customrc status

List all available and active modules:

customrc modules list

If you add or remove modules manually, you can refresh the cache:

customrc sync

Showcase Modules

Here are some examples of how you can organize your tools using CustomRC. These files can be found in ~/.customrc/rc-modules/ after installation or added manually.

Global Modules

These are useful regardless of your OS:

p10k.sh

Configure Powerlevel10k theme settings.

[[ ! -f ~/.p10k.zsh ]] || source ~/.p10k.zsh

macOS (Darwin) Modules

Specific optimizations for Mac users:

brew.sh

Set up Homebrew environment variables.

export HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE=1
export HOMEBREW_NO_ENV_HINTS=1
export PATH=/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH
 
# Use a function instead of alias to avoid subshell evaluation at definition time
# Also runs upgrades in parallel for better performance
brew-full-update() {
  brew update
  brew upgrade --cask --greedy &
  brew upgrade $(brew outdated | awk '{ print $1 }') &
  wait
  brew cleanup
}

trash-cli.sh

Setup trash-cli environment.

export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/trash-cli/bin:$PATH"

finder.sh

Add aliases to interact with the macOS Finder.

alias finder="open"

Finishing

After setting up your modules, restart your terminal or run source ~/.zshrc (or ~/.bashrc) to apply the changes. Run customrc status one last time to verify everything is loaded correctly.

Happy customization!