dotfiles-Arch

The OS-native layer for Arch Linux. Core (zsh/tmux/nvim/git) is vendored under core/ from dotfiles-core; this repo adds only what is genuinely Arch — pacman, the AUR, multilib, mirror management — and leans on Arch's deep official repos so there are no curl | sh fallbacks.

Stamped from the dotfiles-Fedora template per the porting matrix.

Stage 0 — prerequisites on a fresh/minimal Arch box (bare metal)

Skip this if you used archinstall or ArchWSL — both already give you a user with sudo. But a manual install drops you at a root prompt with no user, no sudo, and no git, so bootstrap.sh (which calls sudo everywhere) can't run yet. Lay the groundwork first, as root:

timedatectl set-ntp true                  # correct clock so mirror TLS works
pacman -Syu                               # golden rule: full upgrade, never -Sy alone
pacman -S --needed git base-devel sudo    # git=clone, sudo=bootstrap, base-devel=AUR

# generate a UTF-8 locale — a minimal Arch ships NONE, so you land in the C
# locale and bash prints raw \Uxxxx escapes instead of glyphs (the tmux
# netspeed icons are the usual first casualty). Do this once.
sed -i 's/^#en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8/' /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen
echo 'LANG=en_US.UTF-8' > /etc/locale.conf   # read at next login (WSL: after Stage 3 restart)

useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash <you>    # bash for now; bootstrap switches to zsh
passwd <you>

# grant wheel sudo via a validated drop-in (no editor needed)
echo '%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL' > /etc/sudoers.d/10-wheel
chmod 440 /etc/sudoers.d/10-wheel
visudo -c                                 # must print "... parsed OK"

su - <you>                                # become your user, then Install below

Gotchas at this stage:

• Keyring/signature errors (old ISO): sudo pacman -Sy archlinux-keyring && sudo pacman -Syu, then retry.
• Private repo: HTTPS clone needs a PAT, or set up SSH first (ssh-keygen -t ed25519, add the .pub to GitHub) — Core's gitconfig pushes via SSH anyway.
• No network yet: iwctl (Wi-Fi) or systemctl enable --now systemd-networkd systemd-resolved (wired) before any pacman call.

Install (fresh Arch)

git clone <you>/dotfiles-Arch ~/dotfiles-Arch
cd ~/dotfiles-Arch
# one-time: vendor Core (skip if the repo already contains core/)
git subtree add --prefix=core <you>/dotfiles-core main --squash
./bootstrap.sh
exec zsh

Flags: --links-only (re-link without touching pacman), --no-flatpak.

Layout

bootstrap.sh          pacman provision + Core/OS symlink wiring (idempotent)
install/packages.txt  pacman package list (modern CLI stack)
os/arch.zsh           OS-native shell layer -> symlinked to ~/.config/zsh/os.zsh
os/arch.gitconfig     credential helper      -> ~/.config/git/os.gitconfig
os/arch.conf          tmux netspeed/battery  -> ~/.config/tmux/os.conf
ssh/config            hardened SSH client config -> ~/.ssh/config (keys never tracked)
wsl/wsl.conf          /etc/wsl.conf for ArchWSL (systemd + default user)
core/                 vendored from dotfiles-core (git subtree; do not hand-edit)

Load order in .zshrc: core/tools → core/aliases → core/functions → core/fzf → core/bindings → core/plugins → core/op → os/arch → local.

Arch specifics baked in

• Rolling release — never partial-upgrade. pacman -Sy <pkg> (refresh without -u) can pull a package built against newer libraries than your un-upgraded system, and break things. bootstrap.sh always does a full pacman -Syu before installing, and the shell layer only exposes pacu (full -Syu) — there is deliberately no -Sy <pkg> alias.
• Everything is in the official repos. eza/bat/fd/ripgrep/zoxide/fzf/delta/ btop/dust/procs/tealdeer plus starship, atuin, yazi, mise, and lazygit all live in core/extra. Fedora installs the last five from upstream; Arch just pacman -S's them. This is why the matrix calls Arch the cleanest distro for this stack.
• git subtree ships inside the git package on Arch — there's no separate git-subtree package to install (Fedora needs one).
• fd is named fd here (not fdfind as on Debian); core/zsh/tools.zsh resolves the name automatically, so nothing breaks across distros.
• The AUR is not automated. Arch ships no AUR helper. Build paru once and the aur/aurs/auru aliases in os/arch.zsh light up:

  sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git
  git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/paru.git && cd paru && makepkg -si

• multilib (32-bit / Wine tooling) is opt-in: uncomment the [multilib] section in /etc/pacman.conf, then sudo pacman -Syu. bootstrap.sh does not edit pacman.conf for you — it's a deliberate system change.
• Mirrors: reflector is installed; rank fresh mirrors with sudo reflector --latest 20 --protocol https --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.
• No transaction "undo". pacman has no dnf history undo; recover by reinstalling an older build from the cache — pacdowngrade <pkg> (in os/arch.zsh) lists the cached versions, then sudo pacman -U <file>.
• No SELinux. Arch is permissive by default (AppArmor is opt-in), so the Fedora se-* helpers are intentionally absent from os/arch.zsh.