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Laptop
Laptop is a script to set up a macOS laptop for web and mobile development.
It can be run multiple times on the same machine safely.
It installs, upgrades, or skips packages
based on what is already installed on the machine.
Requirements
We support:
macOS Tahoe (26.x) on Apple Silicon and Intel
macOS Sequoia (15.x) on Apple Silicon and Intel
macOS Sonoma (14.x) on Apple Silicon and Intel
macOS Ventura (13.x) on Apple Silicon and Intel
Older versions may work but aren't regularly tested.
Bug reports for older versions are welcome.
Install
Download the script:
curl --remote-name https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thoughtbot/laptop/main/mac
Review the script (avoid running scripts you haven't read!):
less mac
Execute the downloaded script:
sh mac 2>&1 | tee ~/laptop.log
Optionally, review the log:
less ~/laptop.log
Optionally, install thoughtbot/dotfiles.
Debugging
Your last Laptop run will be saved to ~/laptop.log.
Read through it to see if you can debug the issue yourself.
If not, copy the lines where the script failed into a
new GitHub Issue for us.
Or, attach the whole log file as an attachment.
What it sets up
macOS tools:
Homebrew for managing operating system libraries.
Unix tools:
fzf for better command history searching
Universal Ctags for indexing files for vim tab completion
Git for version control
OpenSSL for Transport Layer Security (TLS)
RCM for managing company and personal dotfiles
The Silver Searcher for finding things in files
Tmux for saving project state and switching between projects
Watchman for watching for filesystem events
Zsh as your shell
Heroku tools:
Heroku CLI and Parity for interacting with the Heroku API
GitHub tools:
GitHub CLI for interacting with the GitHub API
Image tools:
ImageMagick for cropping and resizing images
Programming languages, package managers, and configuration:
asdf-vm for managing programming language versions
Bundler for managing Ruby libraries
Node.js and npm, for running apps and installing JavaScript packages
Ruby stable for writing general-purpose code
Yarn for managing JavaScript packages
Rosetta 2 for running tools that are not supported in Apple silicon processors
Databases:
Postgres for storing relational data
Redis for storing key-value data
It should take less than 15 minutes to install (depends on your machine).
Customize in ~/.laptop.local
Your ~/.laptop.local is run at the end of the Laptop script.
Put your customizations there.
For example:
#!/bin/sh
brew bundle --file=- <<EOF
brew "Caskroom/cask/dockertoolbox"
brew "go"
brew "ngrok"
brew "watch"
EOF
default_docker_machine() {
docker-machine ls | grep -Fq "default"
}
if ! default_docker_machine; then
docker-machine create --driver virtualbox default
fi
default_docker_machine_running() {
default_docker_machine | grep -Fq "Running"
}
if ! default_docker_machine_running; then
docker-machine start default
fi
fancy_echo "Cleaning up old Homebrew formulae ..."
brew cleanup
if [ -r "$HOME/.rcrc" ]; then
fancy_echo "Updating dotfiles ..."
rcup
fi
Write your customizations such that they can be run safely more than once.
See the mac script for examples.
Laptop functions such as fancy_echo and
gem_install_or_update
can be used in your ~/.laptop.local.
See the wiki
for more customization examples.
Contributing
Thank you, contributors!
By participating in this project,
you agree to abide by the thoughtbot code of conduct.
Edit the mac file.
Document in the README.md file.
Update the CHANGELOG.
Follow shell style guidelines by using ShellCheck and ALE or deprecated Syntastic.
brew install shellcheck
Testing your changes
Test your changes by running the script on a fresh install of macOS.
You can use the free and open source emulator UTM.
Tip: Make a fresh virtual machine with the installation of macOS completed and
your user created and first launch complete. Then duplicate that machine to test
the script each time on a fresh install that's ready to go.
License
Copyright © 2011 thoughtbot, inc.
It is free software,
and may be redistributed under the terms specified in the LICENSE file.
About thoughtbot
This repo is maintained and funded by thoughtbot, inc.
The names and logos for thoughtbot are trademarks of thoughtbot, inc.
We love open source software!
See our other projects.
We are available for hire.
Read the full README on GitHub