Dotfiles are a way to customize your developer environment according to your personal needs. To configure Gitpod to use your own dotfiles for all your workspaces, enter the URL of a dotfiles repository in your user preferences.

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Custom installation script

Gitpod will recognize and run one of the following install scripts from your dotfiles repository.
  • install.sh
  • install
  • bootstrap.sh
  • bootstrap
  • script/bootstrap
  • setup.sh
  • setup
  • script/setup
Note: Your installation script will be terminated if it exceeds 120 seconds. Make sure to make your installation script executable with chmod 755 <install-script-name>.sh before committing and pushing to your dotfiles repository. If there is no install script, your dotfiles will be symlinked into /home/gitpod. In that case Gitpod will not overwrite existing files in your $HOME directory. If you want to overwrite existing files you may use a custom install script.

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Example

You can refer this demo-dotfiles template to bring your dotfiles to Gitpod.
The example below has just one dotfile called .bash_aliases. If this file is present in a workspace home directory, it will be found by the ‘.bashrc’ startup script in the Gitpod default image, so no additional install script is required. .bash_aliases 
echo Hello Gitpod
echo Here is my .bash_aliases dotfile

alias gitsha='git rev-parse HEAD'

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Troubleshooting

The dotfiles repository installation logs are saved to /home/gitpod/.dotfiles.log and can be viewed via 
cat /home/gitpod/.dotfiles.log

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FAQs

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How to debug or test dotfiles changes inside an existing workspace without creating a new one each time?

If you want to quickly test out dotfiles inside an existing workspace created from your dotfiles repository, you can run the below command snippet in your terminal as a workaround: 
gitpod_evars="${!GITPOD_*}" gp_evars="${!GP_*}"; for k in ${gitpod_evars:-} ${gp_evars:-}; do dargs+=(-e "${k}"); done; docker run "${dargs[@]}" --net=host --rm -v $PWD:/home/gitpod/.dotfiles -v /workspace:/workspace -v /ide:/ide -v /usr/bin/gp:/usr/bin/gp:ro -v /.supervisor:/.supervisor -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock --privileged -it gitpod/workspace-full bash -c 'trap "echo -e \"=== Run \033[1;32mexit\033[0m command to leave debug workspace\"; exec bash -li" EXIT ERR; echo "PROMPT_COMMAND=\"echo -n \\\"[debug-workspace] \\\"; \$PROMPT_COMMAND\"" >> $HOME/.bashrc; eval "$(gp env -e)"; dot_path="${HOME}/.dotfiles"; for s in install setup bootstrap; do if p="${dot_path}/${s}" && test -x "${p}" || p="${p}.sh" && test -x "${p}"; then set +m; "$p"; set -m; exit; fi; done; while read -r file; do rf_path="${file#"${dot_path}"/}"; target_file="${HOME}/${rf_path}"; target_dir="${target_file%/*}"; if test ! -d "$target_dir"; then mkdir -p "$target_dir"; fi; ln -sf "$file" "$target_file"; done < <(find "${dot_path}" -type f);'
This will simulate a fake minimal workspace inside your existing Gitpod workspace using docker, where your dotfiles will be installed so you can easily test. For convenience, you can create a file called debug.sh in your dotfiles repository and paste the snippet there. You could then run bash debug.sh to use it. When you commit a custom script such as install.sh in your dotfiles repository, Gitpod will no longer auto symlink your dotfiles under $HOME for you. It is by design so that you can have full control of how your dotfiles gets installed. An example of setting up a symlinking step is described below:
  • Create a directory called home_files inside your dotfiles repository. You can place your .dotfiles in the home_files directory, that means you could put files like .zshrc, .tmux.conf, .config/nvim/ and etc. in there.
  • In your custom installation script (e.g. install.sh), use/append the below snippet:
current_dir="$(cd -- "$( dirname -- "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" &> /dev/null && pwd)"
dotfiles_source="${current_dir}/home_files"

while read -r file; do

    relative_file_path="${file#"${dotfiles_source}"/}"
    target_file="${HOME}/${relative_file_path}"
    target_dir="${target_file%/*}"

    if test ! -d "${target_dir}"; then
        mkdir -p "${target_dir}"
    fi

    printf 'Installing dotfiles symlink %s\n' "${target_file}"
    ln -sf "${file}" "${target_file}"

done < <(find "${dotfiles_source}" -type f)

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It it possible to cache the dotfiles installation?

If your dotfiles installation relies on some heavy dependencies, that can take some time to install by nature. So, everytime you start a workspace, you may have to wait for the dotfiles installation to complete before you can enter the workspace. For some cases, you can start the commands in background from your install.sh, by adding & disown at the end of a command: 
sudo apt install qemu-user-static & disown
This is a good workaround, so your workspace can start early and the long-running commands from your dotfiles installation script can happen in parallel. But it may not work if you are installing a SHELL (e.g. zsh) or a dependency of something else that has to start before your dotfiles can get installed. See #7592 for more info, please upvote and share your feedback on this issue.