LARBS/README.md

# Luke's Auto-Rice Bootstraping Scripts (LARBS)


## Installation:

On an Arch bash distribution as root, run the following:

```
curl -LO lukesmith.xyz/larbs.sh
bash larbs.sh
```

That's it.

## What is LARBS?

LARBS is a script that autoinstalls and autoconfigures a fully-functioning
and minimal terminal-and-vim-based Arch Linux environment.

LARBS was originally intended to be run on a fresh install of Arch Linux, and
provides you with a fully configured diving-board for work or more
customization. But LARBS also works on already configured systems *and* other
Arch-based distros such as Manjaro, Antergos and Parabola (although Parabola,
which uses slightly different repositories might miss one or two minor
programs).

Here are some of the things LARBS sets up:

- Installs i3-gaps, a tiling window manager, with my fully featured
  configuration along with dozens of lightweight and vim-centric terminal
  applications that replace the more over-encumbering
  programs on most machines.
- Massive documentation making use even for novices seamless. A help document
  with all bindings for the window manager accessible with `Super+F1` at all
  times, as well as commands such as `getkeys` which print the default bindings
  of terminal applications. You can even stream instructional videos on topics
  with `Super+Shift+E`.
- Installs [my dotfiles](https://github.com/lukesmithxyz/voidrice) giving as
  popularized on [my YouTube channel](https://youtube.com/c/Lukesmithxyz).
- Sets up system requirements such as users, permissions, networking, audio and
  an AUR manager.
- All done behind a `dialog` based user interface.

## Changes since first release

- More documentation in the `getkeys` program and `mod+shift-e`.
- Luke's build of st is now the default terminal, instead of urxvt. This
  includes:
  	- Full unicode compatibility
	- vim-like bindings
	- Scrollback with keys and mouse, clipboard use and other add ons to
	  the default st build
	- Xresources colors, allowing the use of wal/pywal
- i3status is the status bar instead of Polybar, which was bloated and failed
  to build on many machines. The new i3status includes the modules below, all
  of which are constructed to be as minimal and light on system resources as
  possible:
  	- Weather forecasts using `wttr.in`, with highs, lows and rain chance.
	- Current song information from `mpd`
	- Unread mail from Luke's `mutt-wizard`
	- Possible pacman updates
	- Status of torrents in transmission-daemon
	- Expected date, time, battery, internet and volume modules
- Switch from mocp to mpd/ncmpcpp for music.
- System is more minimalist/suckless.
- dmenu is used instead of rofi for simplicity's sake.
- Deployment of my new mutt-wizard for secure offline email configuration
  instead of config files for the user to manually edit.
- Firefox instead of qutebrowser for default browser (qutebrowser configs
  remain for qutebrowser afeccionados)
- A default profile of Firefox including some privacy features, an ad-blocker
  and VimVixen, for vim-based keyboard shortcuts.
- Extensive implementation of dmenu, including for mounting/unmounting drives,
  display selection, confirmation for shutdown and other crucial commands, link
  handling and screen/audio recording.
- Updates to config files can be pulled with git now.
- i3 window resize now intuitive directions
- Removal of a lot of brainlethood in the original design, where I relocated
  configs for alleged extensibility's sake. That's all been fixed now.
- Configs for the new versions of qutebrowser, newsboat/newsbeuter, neomutt,
  etc.
- Link handling scripts for mutt, newsboat and vim
- vi mode is now default in bash (with retention of emacs-mode ctrl-l)
- Caps lock functions both as a super key and escape key with xcape.
- Use of the much better, newer version of my shortcut-sync.
- And the repository is *significantly* smaller than it was before, meaning a
  faster download.
- A million and one other tweaks and bug fixes.

## Customization

By default, LARBS uses the programs [here in progs.csv](progs.csv) and installs
[my dotfiles repo (voidrice) here](https://github.com/lukesmithxyz/voidrice),
but you can easily change this by either modifying the default variables at the
beginning of the script or giving the script one of these options:

- `-r`: custom dotfiles repository (URL)
- `-p`: custom programs list/dependencies (local file or URL)
- `-a`: a custom AUR helper (must be able to install with `-S` unless you
  change the relevant line in the script

### The `progs.csv` list

LARBS will parse the given programs list and install all given programs. Note
that the programs file must be a three column `.csv`.

The first column is a "tag" that determines how the program is installed, ""
(blank) for the main repository, `A` for via the AUR or `G` if the program is a
git repository that is meant to be `make && sudo make install`ed.

The second column is the name of the program in the repository, or the link to
the git repository, and the third comment is a description (should be a verb
phrase) that describes the program. During installation, LARBS will print out
this information in a grammatical sentence. It also doubles as documentation
for people who read the csv or who want to install my dotfiles manually.

Depending on your own build, you may want to tactically order the programs in
your programs file. LARBS will install from the top to the bottom.

As it is now, don't include commas in your program descriptions since this is
a csv. LARBS will not parse it correctly (I think...). It won't crash, but the
dialog display will be truncated. You're welcome to pull a fix for this, but
please make the end result take csvs of consensus format, since I want my progs
file to be a true csv so it will display properly on Github (trust me it
counts!).

### The script itself

The script is broken up extensively into functions for easier readability and
trouble-shooting. Most everything should be self-explanitory.

The main work is done by the `installationloop` function, which iterates
through the programs file and determines based on the tag of each program,
which commands to run to install it. You can easily add new methods of
installations and tags as well.

Note that programs from the AUR can only be built by a non-root user. What
LARBS does to bypass this by default is to temporarily allow the newly created
user to use `sudo` without a password (so the user won't be prompted for a
password multiple times in installation). This is done ad-hocly, but
effectively with the `newperms` function. At the end of installation,
`newperms` removes those settings, giving the user the ability to run only
several basic sudo commands without a password (`shutdown`, `reboot`,
`pacman -Syu`).