# Get started

# Terminal

This section assume you have used terminal in other platforms, if you are from windows, the biggest change is you don't see *** when typing password in prompt, just hit enter after you typed it.

# Install iTerm2

iTerm2 supports split panel and more customization than the built in app. To install, just download, unzip and drag it to application folder.

Now use command + space and type iterm to start it from spot light search, the system will ask you if want to trust app download from internt, chick open to continue. This alert will show up for all the other app you installed by drag drop downloaded .app file.

The default color is same as built in terminal app, it will look much nicer after we have oh-my-zsh, but first we need to install homebrew.

• command + d to split vertically
• command + shift + d to split horizontally

Make the font bigger permanently (otherwise just command + + for current session), when you have iterm open

• command + o to open profiles, or select it from menu bar
• choose Default in list and click Edit Profiles...
• chose Text tab and there is a Change Font button in the bottom

# Install Homebrew

brew is the package manager for mac.

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

When installing brew, it will spend some time download and install the XCode command line tool. It contains compiler tool chain, which is essential even for non Object-C/Swift development. Also you need to enter password for sudo.

Now let's try brew install git and ls -l /usr/local/bin you should see /usr/local/bin/git is linked to /usr/local/Cellar/git/2.20.1/bin/git.

And some other common tools

brew install vim # it will also install python3, ruby
brew install wget

# Install Zsh

Zsh has better autocomplete than bash, mac does ship with zsh by default, however we can use brew to install newer version

brew install zsh zsh-completions

Make zsh your default shell. NOTE: the following only works if you didn't install zsh using brew.

chsh -s $(which zsh)
# chsh: /usr/local/bin/zsh: non-standard shell

The reason for above error is chsh checks /etc/shells which only have /bin/zsh instead of our brew installed /usr/local/bin/zsh, one solution is to add it, another one is using dscl

# add /usr/local/bin/zsh to /etc/shells, or you can just sudo vi /etc/shells
echo $(which zsh) | sudo tee -a /etc/shells
chsh -s $(which zsh)
# now you should not see the old error, quit current terminal and open a new one
exit

After switching default shell, quit you current current terminal and open a new one, you should see a screen saying you don't have a ~/.zshrc, chose 0 to create an empty file, we will use the one provided by oh-my-zsh.

# Install oh-my-zsh

oh-my-zsh bundles many zsh theme and plugin, install is just a single line.

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

After install edit ~/.zshrc to update theme and enabled plugin, my favorite theme is pygmalion, you can pick yours based on screenshots.

ZSH_THEME="pygmalion"

# Add .env.sh

This is the biggest takeaway I had from the original mac setup, put all my PATH and alias config in one file ~/.env.sh and use it for both bash and zsh. Remember to add source ~/.env.sh in your ~/.bashrc and ~/.zshrc

# inside ~/.zshrc and ~/.bashrc
source ~/.env.sh

Following is part of my config.

# Add ~/app to path
export PATH=$HOME/app:$PATH

# Config Git
export GIT_EDITOR=vim

# Config Go
export GOROOT=$HOME/app/go
export PATH=$GOROOT/bin:$PATH
export GOPATH=$HOME/workspace
export PATH=$GOPATH/bin:$PATH

# Set common alias
alias cls='clear'

# Set typo alias
alias got='git'

# Git

Run brew install git to install latest version of git if you haven't done it previous sections.

# Config SSH

SSH can be used by git even if you don't need to access any server using ssh, although GitHub favors HTTPS over SSH.

First you need to generate a ssh key pair, this is based on GitHub's Guide. Make sure you don't have one already, just ls -al ~/.ssh you should not see id_rsa.pub and id_rsa (the private part of the pair).

# -t means type is RSA
# -b 4096 specify the length
# -C is just a comment, which normally is your email, i.e. luke@ge.com
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your_email@example.com"
# when asked for file location, default is fine as long as you don't have another one, just hit enter
# when asked for passphrase, enter something, do NOT hit enter and use empty passpharse

You can add your generated public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys so you can ssh localhost without password, this also test if you remembered you passphrase correctly.

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
ssh localhost

If you want to force git to use ssh even when https url is given

git config --global url."git@github.com:".insteadOf "https://github.com/"

# Config Git User

Git needs a username and email in commit, by default this is not verified in most pubic git host platform, verification is done by signing commit using GPG. You can set a global one and override them in individual repository, though I don't recommend developing personal side projects on company issued laptops and the opposite is illegal.

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "your_email@example.com"

GitHub shows avatar of commit based on email in the commit message, so if you didn't see your avatar, reset commit author using git commit --amend --rest-author and git push -f on you own fork when it's not too late.

# Config Global gitignore

Normally you put a .gitignore in each projects, you can also have a global one since mac has many temp file that is useless for other platforms, i.e. .DS_Store. In practice I only use the global ignore for some hacky shell script I have i.e. git-push-bypass-hook.sh

vi ~/.global_gitignore # be explicit, don't make it .gitignore
git config --global core.excludesFile ~/.global_gitignore

Check your current config by run git config -l in folder that is not a git repo.

git config -l

# Add your ssh pub key to GitHub

Just go to settings and copy and paste, GitHub's guide

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | pbcopy

# Download GitHub Desktop

GitHub Desktop is the UI built using electron, it works for local repository that is not hosted on public GitHub. I mainly used it for viewing diff.

There are other GUIs for git, many people use Sourcetree, which reminds me of enterprise agile software like Confulence and JIRA so I don't use it.

# Editors

I am not a vim/emacs user, I only use them in git commit message and editing files on servers.

# Jetbrains

Use toolbox to download and mange its wide range of IDEs. IDEA (the java one) actually can use plugins to support all the languages, but I prefer to use the IDE based on language, the subscription fee is not high compared to the productivity it brings.

# Atom

Atom is created by GitHub as a cross platform editor, it's relatively slow because it is actually running a chrome browser. However, it has a wide range of plugins and nice markdown preview, I use it as a document editor.

# VSCode

Visual Studio Code is faster than Atom, although they both use electron.

# Runtimes

I don't know how to call this section, 'virtualization'?

# Docker

You need to login in order to download it it's around 500MB because it's actually running a linux vm with docker inside. Download link and Direct download link without login

# VirtualBox

VirtualBOx is not the best virtual machine software on mac, but since most vagrant config are written for Virtualbox, there is no other choices. Download the 5.2 version would be a safe bet since many vagrant box have old guest addons.

You need to use installer and enter password since it is installing some extension

# Vagrant

Vagrant allows you to config virtual machine using a config file (actually it's ruby) so you don't need to figure out how to share folder and add host only network. Download version 2.22 and the install is same as virtualbox

After install all these, restart, this is the best way to avoid some first time usage issues ...

# What's next

Now you already have terminal environment, editors and runtime, you are ready to Go. I central my workspace using GOPATH regardless of language I am using and the fact that GOPATH is no longer mandatory after go mod.