This content originally appeared on DEV Community 👩💻👨💻 and was authored by Alexsandro Souza
This document describes how I set up my developer environment on a new MacBook. We will set up popular programming languages (for example Node (JavaScript), Python, and Java). You may not need all of them for your projects, although I recommend having them set up as they always come in handy.
The document assumes you are new to Mac, but can also be useful if you are reinstalling a system and need some reminder. The steps below were tested on macOS Monterey (12.03), but should work for more recent versions as well.
Contributing: If you find any mistakes in the steps described below, or if any of the commands are outdated, do let me know!
- System update
- Apple M1 chips
- System preferences
- Security
- iTerm2
- Install oh-my-zsh
- Create ssh key
- Show all hidden files
- Homebrew
- Git
- Visual Studio Code
- Docker
- Vim
- Python
- Node.js
- Java
- PostgreSQL
- Redis
- Elasticsearch
- Projects folder
- Apps
System update
First thing you need to do, on any OS actually, is update the system! For that: Apple Icon > About This Mac then Software Update....
Apple M1 chips
Install the Rosetta2 emulator for the new ARM silicon (M1 chip). Install Rosetta2 using the terminal:
softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license
System preferences
If this is a new computer, there are a couple of tweaks I like to make to the System Preferences. Feel free to follow these, or to ignore them, depending on your personal preferences.
In Apple Icon > System Preferences:
- Trackpad > Tap to click
- Trackpad > Tracking speed > Fast (all the way to the right)
- Mouse > Tracking speed > Fast (all the way to the right)
- Keyboard > Key Repeat > Fast (all the way to the right)
- Keyboard > Delay Until Repeat > Short (all the way to the right)
- Dock > Automatically hide and show the Dock
Security
I recommend checking that basic security settings are enabled. You will be happy to have done so if ever your Mac is lost or stolen.
In Apple Icon > System Preferences:
- Users & Groups: If you haven't already set a password for your user during the initial set up, you should do so now
- Security & Privacy > General: Require password immediately after sleep or screen saver begins (you can keep a grace period of a couple minutes if you prefer, but I like to know that my computer locks as soon as I close it)
- Security & Privacy > FileVault: Make sure FileVault disk encryption is enabled
- iCloud: If you haven't already done so during set up, enable Find My Mac
iTerm2
Since we're going to be spending a lot of time in the command-line, let's install a better terminal than the default one. Download and install iTerm2.
In Finder, drag and drop the iTerm Application file into the Applications folder.
You can now launch iTerm, through the Launchpad for instance.
Install oh-my-zsh
ZSH is already preinstalled in the latest versions of macOS. I also install https://ohmyz.sh/ as it allows for more configuration and is required in some cases.
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"
Install the Oh My Zsh plugins below
brew install zsh-autosuggestions
brew install zsh-syntax-highlighting
To activate the plugins, add the following at the end of your .zshrc:
source /usr/local/share/zsh-autosuggestions/zsh-autosuggestions.zsh
source /usr/local/share/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh
Add the source ~/.bash_profile to .zshrc, this way you will leverage the configuration from that file
You will also need to force reload of your .zshrc:
source ~/.zshrc
Create ssh key
Execute the command below to begin the key creation. Press enter all the way to the end
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your_email@example.com"
Add the new SSH key to the local SSH agent.
ssh-add -K /Users/YOUR_USER/.ssh/id_rsa
Get the generated public key
cat /Users/alexsouza/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
Show all hidden files
Use the command line to show all hidden files as the files you are searching for are going to be hidden by default.
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles true
killall Finder
Homebrew
Package managers make it so much easier to install and update applications (for Operating Systems) or libraries (for programming languages). The most popular one for macOS is Homebrew.
Install
An important dependency before Homebrew can work is the Command Line Developer Tools for Xcode. These include compilers that will allow you to build things from source. You can install them directly from the terminal with:
xcode-select --install
Once that is done, we can install Homebrew by copy-pasting the installation command from the Homebrew homepage inside the terminal:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"
Follow the steps on the screen. You will be prompted for your user password so Homebrew can set up the appropriate permissions.
Once installation is complete, you can run the following command to make sure everything works:
brew doctor
Usage
To install a package (or Formula in Homebrew vocabulary) simply type:
brew install <formula>
To see if any of your packages need to be updated:
brew outdated
To update a package:
brew upgrade <formula>
Homebrew keeps older versions of packages installed, in case you want to rollback. That rarely is necessary, so you can do some cleanup to get rid of those old versions:
brew cleanup
To see what you have installed (with their version numbers):
brew list --versions
Homebrew Services
A nice extension to Homebrew is Homebrew Services. It will automatically launch things like databases when your computer starts, so you don't have to do it manually every time.
Homebrew Services will automatically install itself the first time you run it, so there is nothing special to do.
After installing a service (for example a database), it should automatically add itself to Homebrew Services. If not, you can add it manually with:
brew services <formula>
Start a service with:
brew services start <formula>
At anytime you can view which services are running with:
brew services list
Git
macOS comes with a pre-installed version of Git, but we'll install our own through Homebrew to allow easy upgrades and not interfere with the system version. To do so, simply run:
brew install git
When done, to test that it installed fine you can run:
which git
The output should be /usr/local/bin/git.
Let's set up some basic configuration. Download the .gitconfig file to your home directory:
cd ~
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nicolashery/mac-dev-setup/master/.gitconfig
It will add some color to the status, branch, and diff Git commands, as well as a couple aliases. Feel free to take a look at the contents of the file, and add to it to your liking.
Next, we'll define your Git user (should be the same name and email you use for GitHub and Heroku):
git config --global user.name "Your Name Here"
git config --global user.email "your_email@youremail.com"
They will get added to your .gitconfig file.
On a Mac, it is important to remember to add .DS_Store (a hidden macOS system file that's put in folders) to your project .gitignore files. You also set up a global .gitignore file, located for instance in your home directory (but you'll want to make sure any collaborators also do it):
cd ~
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nicolashery/mac-dev-setup/master/.gitignore
git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore
Visual Studio Code
With the terminal, the text editor is a developer's most important tool. Everyone has their preferences, but if you're just getting started and looking for something simple that works, Visual Studio Code is a pretty good option.
Go ahead and download it. Open the .dmg file, drag-and-drop in the Applications folder, you know the drill now. Launch the application.
Note: At this point I'm going to create a shortcut on the macOS Dock for both for Visual Studio Code and iTerm. To do so, right-click on the running application and select Options > Keep in Dock.
Just like the terminal, let's configure our editor a little. Go to Code > Preferences > Settings. In the very top-right of the interface you should see an icon with brackets that appeared { } (on hover, it should say "Open Settings (JSON)"). Click on it, and paste the following:
{
"editor.tabSize": 2,
"editor.rulers": [80],
"files.insertFinalNewline": true,
"files.trimTrailingWhitespace": true,
"workbench.editor.enablePreview": false
}
Feel free to tweak these to your preference. When done, save the file and close it.
Pasting the above JSON snippet was handy to quickly customize things, but for further setting changes feel free to search in the "Settings" panel that opened first (shortcut Cmd+,). When you're happy with your setup, you can save the JSON to quickly restore it on a new machine.
If you remember only one keyboard shortcut in VS Code, it should be Cmd+Shift+P. This opens the Command Palette, from which you can run pretty much anything.
Let's open the command palette now, and search for Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH. Hit enter when it shows up. This will install the command-line tool code to quickly open VS Code from the terminal. When in a projects directory, you'll be able to run:
cd myproject/
code .
VS Code is very extensible. To customize it further, open the Extensions tab on the left.
Let's do that now to customize the color of our editor. Search for the Atom One Dark Theme extension, select it and click Install. Repeat this for the Atom One Light Theme.
Finally, activate the theme by going to Code > Preferences > Color Theme and selecting Atom One Dark (or Atom One Light if that is your preference).
Vim
Although VS Code will be our main editor, it is a good idea to learn some very basic usage of Vim. It is a very popular text editor inside the terminal, and is usually pre-installed on any Unix system.
For example, when you run a Git commit, it will open Vim to allow you to type the commit message.
I suggest you read a tutorial on Vim. Grasping the concept of the two "modes" of the editor, Insert (by pressing i) and Normal (by pressing Esc to exit Insert mode), will be the part that feels most unnatural. Also, it is good to know that typing :x when in Normal mode will save and exit. After that, it's just remembering a few important keys.
Vim's default settings aren't great, and you could spend a lot of time tweaking your configuration (the .vimrc file). But if you only use Vim occasionally, you'll be happy to know that Tim Pope has put together some sensible defaults to quickly get started.
Using Vim's built-in package support, install these settings by running:
mkdir -p ~/.vim/pack/tpope/start
cd ~/.vim/pack/tpope/start
git clone https://tpope.io/vim/sensible.git
With that, Vim will look a lot better next time you open it!
Python
macOS, like Linux, ships with Python already installed. But you don't want to mess with the system Python (some system tools rely on it, etc.), so we'll install our own version using pyenv. This will also allow us to manage multiple versions of Python (ex: 2.7 and 3) should we need to.
Install pyenv via Homebrew by running:
brew install pyenv
When finished, you should see instructions to add something to your profile. Open your .bash_profile in the home directory (you can use code ~/.bash_profile), and add the following line:
if command -v pyenv 1>/dev/null 2>&1; then eval "$(pyenv init -)"; fi
Save the file and reload it with:
source ~/.bash_profile
Before installing a new Python version, the pyenv wiki recommends having a few dependencies available:
brew install openssl readline xz
We can now list all available Python versions by running:
pyenv install --list
Look for the latest 3.x version (or 2.7.x), and install it (replace the .x.x with actual numbers):
pyenv install 3.x.x
List the Python versions you have locally with:
pyenv versions
The star (*) should indicate we are still using the system version, which is the default. I recommend leaving it as the default as some Node.js packages will use it in their installation process.
You can switch your current terminal to another Python version with:
pyenv shell 3.x.x
You should now see that version when running:
python --version
In a project directory, you can use:
pyenv local 3.x.x
This will save that project's Python version to a .python-version file. Next time you enter the project's directory from a terminal, pyenv will automatically load that version for you.
For more information, see the pyenv commands documentation.
pip
pip was also installed by pyenv. It is the package manager for Python.
Here are a couple Pip commands to get you started. To install a Python package:
pip install <package>
To upgrade a package:
pip install --upgrade <package>
To see what's installed:
pip freeze
To uninstall a package:
pip uninstall <package>
virtualenv
virtualenv is a tool that creates an isolated Python environment for each of your projects.
For a particular project, instead of installing required packages globally, it is best to install them in an isolated folder, that will be managed by virtualenv. The advantage is that different projects might require different versions of packages, and it would be hard to manage that if you install packages globally.
Instead of installing and using virtualenv directly, we'll use the dedicated pyenv plugin pyenv-virtualenv which will make things a bit easier for us. Install it via Homebrew:
brew install pyenv-virtualenv
After installation, add the following line to your .bash_profile:
if which pyenv-virtualenv-init > /dev/null; then eval "$(pyenv virtualenv-init -)"; fi
And reload it with:
source ~/.bash_profile
Now, let's say you have a project called myproject. You can set up a virtualenv for that project and the Python version it uses (replace 3.x.x with the version you want):
pyenv virtualenv 3.x.x myproject
See the list of virtualenvs you created with:
pyenv virtualenvs
To use your project's virtualenv, you need to activate it first (in every terminal where you are working on your project):
pyenv activate myproject
If you run pyenv virtualenvs again, you should see a star (*) next to the active virtualenv.
Now when you install something:
pip install <package>
It will get installed in that virtualenv's folder, and not conflict with other projects.
You can also set your project's .python-version to point to a virtualenv you created:
pyenv local myproject
Next time you enter that project's directory, pyenv will automatically load the virtualenv for you.
Anaconda and Miniconda
The Anaconda/Miniconda distributions of Python come with many useful tools for scientific computing.
You can install them using pyenv, for example (replace x.x.x with an actual version number):
pyenv install miniconda3-x.x.x
After loading an Anaconda or Miniconda Python distribution into your shell, you can create conda environments (which are similar to virtualenvs):
pyenv shell miniconda3-x.x.x
conda create --name mycondaproject
conda activate mycondaproject
Install packages, for example the Jupyter Notebook, using:
conda install jupyter
You should now be able to run the notebook:
jupyter notebook
Deactivate the environment, and return to the default Python version with:
conda deactivate
pyenv shell --unset
Known issue: gettext not found by git after installing Anaconda/Miniconda
If you installed an Anaconda/Miniconda distribution, you may start seeing an error message when using certain git commands, similar to this one:
pyenv: gettext.sh: command not found
The `gettext.sh' command exists in these Python versions:
miniconda3-latest
If that is the case, you can use the following workaround:
brew install gettext
Then add this line to your .bash_profile:
# Workaround for: https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv/issues/688#issuecomment-428675578
export PATH="/usr/local/opt/gettext/bin:$PATH"
Node.js
The recommended way to install Node.js is to use nvm (Node Version Manager) which allows you to manage multiple versions of Node.js on the same machine.
Install nvm by copy-pasting the install script command into your terminal.
Once that is done, open a new terminal and verify that it was installed correctly by running:
command -v nvm
View the all available stable versions of Node with:
nvm ls-remote --lts
Install the latest stable version with:
nvm install node
It will also set the first version installed as your default version. You can install another specific version, for example Node 10, with:
nvm install 10
And switch between versions by using:
nvm use 10
nvm use default
See which versions you have install with:
nvm ls
Change the default version with:
nvm alias default 10
In a project's directory you can create a .nvmrc file containing the Node.js version the project uses, for example:
echo "10" > .nvmrc
Next time you enter the project's directory from a terminal, you can load the correct version of Node.js by running:
nvm use
npm
Installing Node also installs the npm package manager.
To install a package:
npm install <package> # Install locally
npm install -g <package> # Install globally
To install a package and save it in your project's package.json file:
npm install --save <package>
To see what's installed:
npm list --depth 1 # Local packages
npm list -g --depth 1 # Global packages
To find outdated packages (locally or globally):
npm outdated [-g]
To upgrade all or a particular package:
npm update [<package>]
To uninstall a package:
npm uninstall --save <package>
Yarn
Is a alternative package manage to npm
brew install yarn --without-node
Java
The recommended way to install Java is to use SDKman (Software development kit Management) which allows you to manage multiple versions of Java on the same machine and
Install
curl -s "https://get.sdkman.io" | bash
Usage
The following command will show you which versions of Java are available to install:
sdk list java
You can find the latest version in that list and install it with (replace .x.x with actual version numbers):
sdk install java 19.x.x
Select the version you want to use
sdk use java 11.x.x
Managing Java tools
Check all Java softwares available here
Install Maven
sdk install maven
Install VisualVM
sdk install visualvm
Docker
Docker is a set of platform-as-a-service (PaaS) products that use OS-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers. Containers are isolated from one another and bundle their own software, libraries and configuration files; they can communicate with each other through well-defined channels. All containers are run by a single operating-system kernel and are thus more lightweight than virtual machines.
Install
Download the version of docker for osx you want, check here
Create an account here
Then you can download here
Follow all the steps and congrats!You should have downloaded docker
GUI
From the docker ps you can access to the containers that are running,logs,volumes etc. But you can install portrainer to have a GUI to check whats running and get some logs etc.
For install you can run this:
docker volume create portainer_data
docker run -d -p 8000:8000 -p 9000:9000 -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -v portainer_data:/data portainer/portainer
Then you can go to localhost:9000 to see the web interface
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL is a popular relational database, and Heroku has first-class support for it.
Install PostgreSQL using Homebrew:
brew install postgresql
It will automatically add itself to Homebrew Services. Start it with:
brew services start postgresql
If you reboot your machine, PostgreSQL will be restarted at login.
GUI
You can interact with your SQL database by running psql in the terminal.
If you prefer a GUI (Graphical User Interface), Postico has a simple free version that let's you explore tables and run SQL queries.
Redis
Redis is a fast, in-memory, key-value store, that uses the disk for persistence. It complements nicely a database such as PostgreSQL. There are a lot of interesting things that you can do with it. For example, it's often used for session management or caching by web apps, but it has many other uses.
To install Redis, use Homebrew:
brew install redis
Start it through Homebrew Services with:
brew services start redis
I'll let you refer to Redis' documentation or other tutorials for more information.
Elasticsearch
Elasticsearch is a distributed search and analytics engine. It uses an HTTP REST API, making it easy to work with from any programming language.
You can use elasticsearch for things such as real-time search results, autocomplete, recommendations, machine learning, and more.
Install
Elasticsearch runs on Java, so check if you have it installed by running:
java -version
If Java isn't installed yet, dismiss the window that just appeared by clicking "Ok", and install Java via Homebrew:
brew cask install homebrew/cask-versions/java8
Next, install Elasticsearch with:
brew install elasticsearch
Usage
Start the Elasticsearch server with:
brew services start elasticsearch
Test that the server is working correctly by running:
curl -XGET 'http://localhost:9200/'
(You may need to wait a little bit for it to boot up if you just started the service.)
Elasticsearch's documentation is more of a reference. To get started, you can also take a look at Elasticsearch: The Definitive Guide.
GUI
You can interact with the Elasticsearch server using curl, or anything that can send an HTTP request.
However, if you prefer a graphical interface, you can take a look at Dejavu. You can easily install it via the Dejavu Chrome Extension.
Projects folder
This really depends on how you want to organize your files, but I like to put all my version-controlled projects in ~/Projects. Other documents I may have, or things not yet under version control, I like to put in ~/Dropbox (if you have Dropbox installed), or ~/Documents if you prefer to use iCloud Drive.
Apps
Here is a quick list of some apps I use, and that you might find useful as well:
- 1Password: Securely store your login and passwords, and access them from all your devices. ($3/month)
- Dropbox: File syncing to the cloud. It is cross-platform, but if all your devices are Apple you may prefer iCloud Drive. (Free for 2GB)
- Postman: Easily make HTTP requests. Useful to test your REST/gRPC/GraphQL APIs. (Free for basic features)
- Rectangle: Move and resize windows with keyboard shortcuts. (Free)
This content originally appeared on DEV Community 👩💻👨💻 and was authored by Alexsandro Souza
Alexsandro Souza | Sciencx (2022-11-06T19:20:12+00:00) macOS Dev Setup. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2022/11/06/macos-dev-setup/
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