macbook-playbook

Install all your applications and configure everything the way you like it with one command.

Table of Contents

• Table of Contents
• Tested on
• Bootstrap machine (make bootstrap)
  • Install Developer Tools (xcode-select)
  • Clone repository
  • Give Terminal/iTerm2/Emacs/etc. assistive access
  • Secrets
  • Prepare machine to run the Ansible playbooks
• Configure machine (make converge)
  • Provision machine
  • Manual steps post make converge
    • Change keyboard layout to U.S. international
    • iStat Menus
    • PDF Expert
    • BetterTouchTool
    • Terminal
      • Preferences > Profiles > Pro > Font
    • System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy >
    • System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Mission Control
• Roles
  • Installs
    • Desktop Applications
    • Text Editors
    • Configuration
    • Programming Languages
    • Multimedia
    • Fonts
    • Browser Plugins
    • Virtualization, Provisioning, Containers and System Tools
    • Package Managers and Build Tools
    • Shell
    • Programming Utilities
    • Data Systems
    • Configuration, Monitoring and Debugging
    • Document Processors and Plotting
    • Markup Tools
    • Command line tools
    • Security
    • GNU Command Line Tools
    • Miscellaneous
  • Configures
    • Makes Google Chrome the default browser
    • Passwordless sudo
    • Puts SSH keys in place
    • Remaps Caps-Lock to Control
• Author
• License

Tested on

I’ve been using macbook-playbook since 2013. I’ve used it on at least eight MacBook Pros with different macOS versions. As of May 2023 I use it on my personal 16” 2023 Macbook Pro with Ventura installed and on my work 16” 2019 Macbook Pro with Monterey installed.

Please open an issue if you’re trying this out and bump into anything.

Bootstrap machine (make bootstrap)

These are one-time steps that need to be done on machines that are running macbook-playbook for the first time.

Install Developer Tools (xcode-select)

Open the “Terminal” application, type git into the shell and follow the instructions to install the Apple Developer Tools.

Clone repository

Now your machine should have git and python3 installed.

git clone https://github.com/mpereira/macbook-playbook.git

Give Terminal/iTerm2/Emacs/etc. assistive access

Depending on your macOS version you will be queried or not for assistive access while make converge runs. This is required for example to remap caps lock to control.

In case that task fails, or if you want to do it beforehand just in case, go to “System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility” and add the application running macbook-playbook (Terminal/iTerm2/Emacs/etc.) to the list.

Secrets

I keep secrets encrypted in a file outside of this repository. I have a project (also outside of this repository) that will write all secrets required by this project’s roles to group_vars/localhost/vars.yml. This file is git-ignored in this project.

These are the roles that use secrets:

Description	Secret name	Role
AWS CLI credentials	aws_credentials_file_base64	awscli
BetterTouchTool license	better_touch_tool_license_file_base64	better-touch-tool
DaisyDisk license	daisydisk_registration_key_file_base64	daisydisk
Enviroment variables for dotfiles	dotfiles_environment_yml_file_base64	dotfiles
iStat Menus settings	istat_menus_settings_file_base64	istat-menus
Prey API key	prey_api_key_yaml_file_base64	prey
Private SSH key	mpereira_at_pluto_ssh_private_key_base64	ssh-keys
s3cmd configuration	s3cmd_cfg_file_base64	s3cmd

If a group_vars/localhost/vars.yml file with those secrets is absent running these roles will fail.

You have two choices: skip these roles, or write your group_vars/localhost/vars.yml.

To skip them, when you reach the provision machine step, make Ansible skip roles tagged with uses-secrets. You don’t need to run this now, the command below is just an example.

make converge ARGS='--skip-tags uses-secrets'

Prepare machine to run the Ansible playbooks

This will:

1. Set up passwordless sudo
2. Install a user Python3
3. Install Ansible

make bootstrap

Your machine should now be ready to be provisioned! You won’t need to run the above steps again.

Configure machine (make converge)

Now that the machine is bootstrapped, we can provision it.

Provision machine

This runs all non-disabled roles in =main.yml=.

make converge ARGS='--skip-tags disabled'

ansible-playbook arguments can be passed via the ARGS environment variable. For example, --tags can be passed so that only matching roles are run.

make converge ARGS='--tags google-chrome'

--skip-tags can also be passed to avoid running certain roles.

make converge ARGS='--skip-tags disabled,unity'

All role tags can be seen in =main.yml=.

Tasks may fail due to intermittent reasons like temporary server unavailability. When a task fails you can either disable its role via --skip-tags or use --start-at-task with the name value of some task to cause Ansible to start the playbook exactly there.

For example, if the “Install Emacs” task from the “build-emacs” role fails for what seems to be an intermittent issue, you can pick up provisioning from there so that previous tasks don’t have to re-run.

make converge ARGS='--skip-tags disabled --start-at-task "Install Emacs"'

Check the official Ansible documentation for more details.

Manual steps post make converge

These are steps that are currently not automated because:

• it would be difficult
• it would be impossible
• or I just didn’t have the time

Change keyboard layout to U.S. international

1. System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Input Sources
2. Click +
3. Select “English” on left column
4. Select “U.S. International - PC” on right column
5. Click “Add”
6. Remove other keyboard layouts from the left column

iStat Menus

1. Import license from roles/istat-menus/files/iStat Menus Settings.ismp

PDF Expert

1. Register license

BetterTouchTool

1. Register license

Terminal

Preferences > Profiles > Pro > Font

Set to Hack Regular 18 pt.

System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility

• BetterTouchTool.app
• Emacs-*.app
• MacGPT
• RescueTime
• Terminal
• VLC
• WhatsApp

System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Mission Control

Uncheck:

• Mission Control
• Move left a space
• Move right a space
• Switch to desktop 1

I use these keybindings on Emacs.

Roles

Installs

Desktop Applications

• Android File Transfer
• BitBar
• Cursorcerer
• DaisyDisk
• Dash
• Divvy
• Dropbox
• Elgato Dock
• Elgato Control Center
• f.lux
• Firefox
• Google Chrome
• Google Photos
• Grammarly
• iStat Menus
• LICEcap
• Maccy
• PDF Expert
• Persephone
• RescueTime
• Skype
• Slack
• Spotify
• Steam
• Teensy Loader
• ToggleDarkMode
• Unity
• Unity Hub
• VLC
• WhatsApp
• Wireshark
• XQuartz
• YNAB (disabled by default, I use the online version and the application binary isn’t available anymore)
• Zoom
• Zwift

Text Editors

• Emacs 28.2
• Emacs 29
• MacVim
• Neovim
• Rider
• Vim (disabled by default until I figure out why it isn’t compiling on macOS Big Sur with LLVM 12)
• VSCode

Configuration

• dotemacs
• dotfiles

Programming Languages

• Clojure
• GNU Octave
• Go
• Haskell
• Java (AdoptOpenJDK)
• Lua
• LuaJIT
• .NET
• Node.js
• PureScript (disabled by default until I figure out why stack install purescript is currently failing)
• Python 3
• R
• Ruby
• Rust

Multimedia

• Beets
• FFmpeg
• gifsicle
• ImageMagick
• mpc
• mpd
• mpdscribble
• mpg123
• mplayer
• shpotify
• TagLib

Fonts

• Consolas
• Hack

Browser Plugins

• Firefox Adblock Plus

Virtualization, Provisioning, Containers and System Tools

• Docker (using OrbStack instead)
• gcloud
• krew
• kubectl
• kubectl-tree
• OpenZFS (disabled by default until it works on macOS Big Sur)
• OrbStack
• Terraform
• Vagrant
• Vagrant vagrant-vbguest plugin
• VirtualBox

Package Managers and Build Tools

• bundler
• CMake
• GraalVM
• Homebrew
• leiningen
• MacPorts
• Make
• Maven
• pulp
• Yarn

Shell

• Babashka
• Bash
• fish
• fish-foreign-env
• iTerm
• tmux
• tmuxinator
• Zsh

Programming Utilities

• Black
• clojure-lsp
• Ctags
• YAPF
• zprint
• yq
• shfmt
• node-cljfmt
• gron
• ktlint
• Prettier
• Pyre
• rust-analyzer
• ShellCheck

Data Systems

• Apache Hadoop (disabled by default, it conflicts with the yarn JavaScript package manager)

Configuration, Monitoring and Debugging

• Apache JMeter
• Glances
• htop
• ngrep
• vtop

Document Processors and Plotting

• gnuplot
• MacTeX

Markup Tools

• Grip
• Hugo
• Markdown
• Pandoc
• wkhtmltopdf

Command line tools

• AWS CLI
• defaultbrowser
• delta
• delta
• git
• gh
• fd
• jq
• local-ssl-proxy
• p7zip
• parallel
• pgsanity
• pngpaste
• ripgrep
• s3cmd (disabled by default, I use the AWS CLI)
• scc
• stripe-cli
• tealdeer
• terminal-notifier
• tree
• vercel
• websocat
• wrk
• xz

Security

• Prey
• GnuPG
• vault

GNU Command Line Tools

• binutils
• coreutils
• diffutils
• ed
• findutils
• gawk
• gnu-indent
• gnu-sed
• gnu-tar
• gnu-which
• gnutls
• grep
• gzip
• screen
• watch
• wdiff
• wget

Miscellaneous

• Mutagen
• ChromeDriver
• FontForge
• Qt 5 (disabled by default)
• WordNet

Configures

Makes Google Chrome the default browser

Passwordless sudo

Puts SSH keys in place

Remaps Caps-Lock to Control

Author

Murilo Pereira

License

MIT