An Emacs base to build on.
basemacs is the (mostly) unopinionated start to an Emacs configuration – a base to build on. It contains some sane defaults and uses a minimal set of packages to get you started with your own config.
It is:
- Literate, all configuration is done in Org files
- Small, only 4 packages and their depeendencies
- Reproducable, automatically install specified package versions thanks to straight.el and use-package
- Hackable, no batteries included, hack up your own!
basemacs is meant to be simple, so fork it and hack away!
If you want to know a little bit more about why I created this project, see this blog post.
basemacs uses a small set of packages to get started.
- straight.el - package management
- use-package - package configuration
- general.el - configuring custom keys and hooks
- which-key - display key combos
The only requirements are:
- Emacs 27+
I have only tested it on OSX and Linux, but it should have no problems working in other environments.
Besides copying and pasting things from this config, here is how to use it:
The easiest way to get started is to fork this repository and use it as the start of your own configuration. There should be no real need to keep track of updates.
After that, there are a few ways of using this:
Backup your current config and clone this into ~/.emacs.d or ~/.config/emacs
After you backup your current config, clone this repo to ~/.emacs.d:
git clone https://github.com/<user>/basemacs.git ~/.emacs.dClone this repo to your preferred location and use chemacs.
For example, clone this repo to your preferred folder, e.g. ~/.config/basemacs:
git clone https://github.com/<user>/basemacs.git ~/.config/basemacsThen add the cloned location to ~/.emacs-profiles.el:
(("default" . ((user-emacs-directory . "~/.emacs.d")))
("basemacs" . ((user-emacs-directory . "~/.config/basemacs"))))Now that the config is in the right place, simply start up Emacs! The first time may take a little while as packages install, but subsequent startups will be much faster.
Customization is meant to be done by making changes in config.org and tangling, but it can also be done editing the elisp directly (or any other way you fancy).
To tangle, simply make changes in config.org and run the org-babel-tangle command, it is bound to C-c C-v t by default.
Ok, we’ve got a basic config, now what? Check out the modules! This contains a set of modules for basemacs that provide some extra features, such as: narrowing/completion frameworks (helm, ivy, etc.), making things look a little nicer with some themes, vim emulation, and more!
You can also check out basemacs-core.org which contains the basemacs setup and modify that if you find something you don’t like. (Don’t forget to tangle it!)
basemacs is intended to be smaller and simpler than the others. There are no “batteries” included. basemacs is meant as a starting point for an Emacs configuration, it can easily be modified to fit a users needs as there is no magic going on here.
This project was inspired by all these other great Emacs starter kits/configurations/distributions/whatever you want to call them: