dev-env

My Neovim and Zsh setups, wrapped into a docker container (automated build). Also includes other common dev tools such as the silver searcher (aka: ag). A full list is forthcoming since I'm still in the process of adding things to this project.

I did this because I've had to switch machines WAY too many times. Another reason though is because I wanted a similar development experience between my MacOS, Linux & Windows machines so I figured that docker was the way to go.

If you just want to run vim though, make should do everything for you.

This also includes my .zshrc and .hyper configs. So take a quick look at the Makefile before you start installing things.

Requirements

NEOVIM. Just use Neovim, it'll save you a lot of configuration trouble.

Required Plugins

Specific plugins require python. So make sure that you have python installed, along with pynvim or neovim via something like:

pip3 install pynvim neovim

You may need to use the specific executable of pip that your user has access to (e.g.: pip3.9 install --user pynvim)

Aliases

I personally like to have two separate aliases, only one of which directly uses this container. The first is the dex alias (short for docker exec). I like to use this as a shortcut for:

docker run -v $(pwd):/root/workspace --workdir /root/workspace --rm -ti "$@"

This allows me to mount my current working directory into /root/workspace for any arbitrary container. So for example if I am working on a python project and I'm in that project directory, I just use dex python:3.6 and I am automatically dropped into a shell environment that has all development tools necessary to work on that project (e.g.: python runtime, pip, etc).

However, because my VIM installation is a bit more involved and needs tools that may be separate from whatever language I'm working in I have the dvim alias (short for docker-vim). This alias uses dex in conjunction with this container.

Bash / Zsh

function dex {
  if docker version &> /dev/null; then
    docker run -v $(pwd):/root/workspace --workdir /root/workspace --rm -ti "$@"
  else
    echo "Docker isn't installed or has not been started."
  fi
}

function dvim {
    dex --entrypoint "vim" chr0n1x/dev-env
}

Powershell

function docker-enter-fx {
  Invoke-Expression "docker run -v $(pwd):/root/workspace --workdir /root/workspace --rm -ti $args"
}
Set-Alias dex docker-enter-fx

function docker-enter-vim {
  dex --entrypoint "vim" "chr0n1x/dev-env"
}
Set-Alias dvim docker-enter-vim

I would recommend using cmder on Windows for the sake of ease-of-use & portability.

To install you just have to copy & paste the script above into <CMDER INSTALLATION DIR>/config/profile.d/<script-name>.ps1 and cmder will auto-load it.

If instead you want to use the Windows Powershell (can be installed via the Windows Store App), you can add the powershell script above into C:\Users\<USERNAME>\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\profile.ps1. Then, after opening up Powershell, you may get an error:

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Try the new cross-platform PowerShell https://aka.ms/pscore6

. : File C:\Users\<USERNAME>\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\profile.ps1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled
on this system. For more information, see about_Execution_Policies at https:/go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135170.
At line:1 char:3
+ . 'C:\Users\<USERNAME>\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\profile.ps1'
+   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : SecurityError: (:) [], PSSecurityException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnauthorizedAccess

Kind of makes sense - Windows is blocking the arbitrary autoloading of scripts in your profile. To allow the autoloading of scripts for your account, you could run the following command (sourced from this StackOverflow answer - read to know what it's doing):

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

Notes

I recommend using this setup with your native docker settings maxed for memory (on MacOS the memory/cpu allowance for docker is only a fraction of what your system is capable of). I max out both CPU + Memory so that vim runs @ near-native speeds.

DISCLAIMER: autocmd spam and other VIM plugins like gitgutter severely slow this setup down just due to the file mount & virtualization overhead.