Kick start your development environment while making a cup of coffee.

About • Disclaimer • Getting Started • Download • How To Use • Executing Commands • FAQ

Useful Tips • Changelog • Roadmap • Contributing • Security Vulnerabilities • Credits • License

About

There are many things developers will need to get familiar with when joining a new development team. Developers are sometimes thrown in at the deep end when joining a new organization, expected to teach themselves any parts of the codebase and architecture they don't know. Developers are also required to set up their local environments quickly and start coding as soon as they can.

YouTuber Frying Pan has a humorous video on Software Engineer interns' first day and what they can expect.

DEV.env is a lightweight command-line interface that provides developer-friendly commands to automate parts of the setup process that developers are expected to perform. This includes local development environments and projects (git-based repositories).

Disclaimer

Please note: DEV.env was developed to help onboard developers in new teams that have multiple projects with a complex setup process.

It should not be used to manage projects on any testing/production environments or setting up those environments. Please only run DEV.env in your local environment.

Getting Started

You will need to make sure your system meets the following prerequisites:

• Git >= 2.0.0

DEV.env is a CLI tool that utilizes Git to clone your repositories. So, before using the CLI commands, make sure you have Git installed on your system, set up SSH credentials and have access to the repositories you are cloning in advance.

Download

You can clone the latest version of DEV.env repository for macOS and Linux.

# Clone this repository.
$ git clone git@github.com:luisaveiro/dev.env.git --branch main --single-branch

How To Use

By default, DEV.env commands are invoked by using the path/dev.env/bin/dev script.

# Setup development environment.
$ bash path/dev.env/bin/dev env:setup

Configuring A Bash Alias

Instead of you repeatedly typing bash path/dev.env/bin/dev to execute DEV.env commands, you can configure a Bash alias in ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc that allows you to execute the commands more easily:

alias dev='bash path/dev.env/bin/dev'

Once the Bash alias has been configured, you may execute DEV.env commands by simply typing dev. The remainder of this readme's examples will assume that you have configured this alias:

# Setup development environment.
$ dev env:setup

Executing Commands

The dev script provides convenient CLI commands for automating the set up of your development environment, as well as cloning and setting up your project repositories. The following commands are available for you to manage your environment and repositories.

#	Commands	Description
1	dev help	List of all available commands.
2	dev self-update	Update DEV.env to the latest version.
3	dev env:config	Add development environment setup file to DEV.env.
4	dev env:list	List available development environment setup files.
5	dev env:setup	Setup development environment.
6	dev repos:config	Add repositories YAML file to DEV.env.
7	dev repos:publish	Publish repositories YAML file to a project directory.
8	dev repos:setup	Setup Git Repositories from repositories YAML file.
9	dev repos:status	List all Git Repositories and setup status.

Below I have provided more information on each DEV.env CLI command.

1. List of all available commands

To view a list of all available commands you can use, you may use the help command:

$ dev help

2. Update DEV.env to the latest version

To ensure you have the latest version of DEV.env, you can use the self-update command:

$ dev self-update

3. Add development environment setup file to DEV.env

DEV.env does not include any development environment setup files since each developer has their personal preference and each development team has different requirements to ensure all team members' environments are similar to ensure code consistency and ease of collaboration.

Instead, this tool offers the option to store multiple shell-based development environment setup files by using the env:config command. You can provide a local or remote-based setup file (supports Git repositories and GitHub Gist).

However remote-based setup files are preferred over local setup files for several reasons not only for individual developers but also for development teams.

By having remote-based setup files, you can guarantee development environment configurations are consistent between your team members. Plus you can transfer to another computer and replicate your configuration without the need to manually transferring various setup files.

Use local setup files

When using local setup files, you only need to provide the full path of the setup file when using the env:config command.

$ dev env:config path/development-setup.sh

By default, DEV.env will create a symbolic link to your setup file. If you prefer to not have a symbolic link, you can provide the --no-symlink option to the env:config command.

$ dev env:config path/development-setup.sh --no-symlink

If you wish to have DEV.env rename your setup file, you can provide the name option to the env:config command.

$ dev env:config path/development-setup.sh --name=macos

Use remote-based setup files

When retrieving remote-based setup files, you will need to provide the Git repository url when using the env:config command.

$ dev env:config git@<git-url>.git

GitHub Gist repositories use a random hash as the Git repositories name. Which can be difficult to remember. You can provide an additional --directory option to the env:config command, DEV.env will save you GitHub Gist files or Git repositories in the named directory.

$ dev env:config git@<git-url>.git --directory=localhost

You can provide an additional --only option to the env:config command, This will allow DEV.env to only store the desired configuration files.

# Only keep macos setup file
$ dev env:config git@<git-url>.git --only=macos

# Provide multiple files by comma separated list
$ dev env:config git@<git-url>.git --only=macos,vscode

4. List available development environment setup files

DEV.env offers a env:list command to show a list of available development environment files in a table view that have been configured using DEV.env env:config command.

$ dev env:list

5. Setup development environment

Once you have added your development environment setup files to DEV.env. You can use the env:setup command to run the various setup files to configure your development environment.

The env:setup command requires the setup file name as an argument.

# Individual setup file
$ dev env:setup macos

# Multiple setup files
$ dev env:setup macos vscode

6. Add repositories YAML file to DEV.env

DEV.env allows you to add your pre-existing YAML repositories configuration files. Similar to the env:config command, you can provide a local or remote-based repositories configuration file (supports Git repositories and GitHub Gist).

Use local repositories configuration files

When using local YAML repositories configuration files, you only need to provide the full path of the repositories configuration file when using the repos:config command.

$ dev repos:config path/personal.yml

If you wish to have DEV.env rename your YAML repositories configuration file, you can provide the name option to the repos:config command.

$ dev repos:config path/repos.yml --name=personal

Use remote-based repositories configuration files

When retrieving remote-based YAML repositories configuration files, you will need to provide the Git repository url when using the repos:config command.

$ dev repos:config git@<git-url>.git

By default DEV.env will store all YAML files in the template directory. You can provide an additional --only option to the repos:config command, This will allow DEV.env to only store the desired YAML repositories configuration files.

# Only keep personal YAML repositories configuration file
$ dev repos:config git@<git-url>.git --only=personal

# Provide multiple files by comma separated list
$ dev repos:config git@<git-url>.git --only=personal,company

7. Publish DEV.env repositories configuration templates

Before DEV.env can set up your repositories, you will need to publish a YAML repositories configuration file to your projects root directory. You can use the repos:publish command to copy the YAML repositories configuration file to your project root directory.

# Change directory
$ cd projects

# Publish configuration
$ dev repos:publish

Once you have published your YAML repositories configuration file, your project directory structure is presented as follows:

.
+-- projects
|   +-- repositories.yml

Use template repositories configuration file

If you don't have pre-existing repositories configuration file, DEV.env includes a template repositories-template.yml which you can use.

$ dev repos:publish

Use your own repositories configuration files

The repos:publish command also accepts a repositories configuration name as an argument and copy the repositories configuration file to your project root directory.

$ dev repos:publish personal

8. Setup git repositories

Once you have published your YAML repository configuration file. You will need to provide the following information.

Field	Mandatory	Description
repo name	Required	Your repo name.
gitUrl	Required	SSH or HTTPS url for you repo.
branch	Optional	The branch you want to clone.
localDirectory	Optional	Which directory would you want DEV.env clone your repo?
setupCommand	Optional	Your repo setup command.

Example of repositories.yml

The repositories YAML config can store multiple repositories in one config.

---
# List of repositories that DEV.env will setup.
enabled-repositories:
  - repository-one
  - repository-two
---
# Description
repository-one:
  gitUrl: git@github.com:username/repository-one.git
  branch: main
  localDirectory:
  setupCommand:
---
# Description
repository-two:
  gitUrl: git@github.com:username/repository-two.git
  branch: main
  localDirectory:
  setupCommand:

Once you have configured your git repositories in your repositories configuration file. You can run the repos:setup command in your projects root directory to allow DEV.env to automatically set up your repositories.

The repos:setup command provides two methods to set up repositories: setup all enabled repositories or set up an individual repository.

Enabled repositories

In your repositories YAML configuration file, you will have a collection node called enabled-repositories.

---
# List of repositories that DEV.env will setup.
enabled-repositories:
  - repository-one
  - repository-two
---

You can list the repositories in the enabled repositories collection node you want DEV.env to automatically set up. If the repository already exists in your local environment, DEV.env will skip the repository setup process.

Once you have run the repos:setup command, your projects root directory will be structured as follows:

.
+-- projects
|   +-- repository-one
|   +-- repository-two
|   +-- repositories.yml

Individual repository

The repos:setup command also accepts a repositories name as an argument.

$ dev repos:setup repository-name

9. Check git repositories setup status

Although you are not required to use DEV.env to manage your development environment, DEV.env does offer a repos:status command to show a list in a table view of the setup status for each repository. Which is based on your repositories configuration file

$ dev repos:status

FAQ

Q: Why shell-based development environment setup files?
A: The configuration options and customization is limitless when you use CLI. You can install packages, download files, open URLs and orchestrate your setup progress to be interactive or completely a background process. shell-based setup files enable you to set up your development environment to your exact requirements.

Q: Can I used DEV.env to setup repositories from different organizations or profiles?
A: Absolutely, you can create subdirectories for each organization or profile and publish your repositories YAML configuration files in each respective directory.

# Change directory
$ cd development

# Create your directories
$ mkdir organization-one organization-two personal

# Publish your configuration in each directory
$ for d in ./*/ ; do (cd "$d" && dev repos:publish "$(basename "$d")"); done

# Setup each organization/profile repositories
$ for d in ./*/ ; do (cd "$d" && dev repos:setup); done

Your organizations/profile directories will be structured as follows:

.
+-- organization-one
|   +-- repository-one
|   +-- repository-two
|   +-- repositories.yml
+-- organization-two
|   +-- repository-one
|   +-- repository-two
|   +-- repository-three
|   +-- repositories.yml
+-- personal
|   +-- website
|   +-- repositories.yml

Q: Are you able to share your development environment setup files?
A: I plan to provide setup templates which will provide developers a starting point. Each developer has their personal preference and I want DEV.env to be a lightweight tool without having collection of unnecessary setup files.

Useful Tips

The objective of this project is to provide an ecosystem of tools to improve the onboarding experience for developers. Below are a few tools my development team and I use and recommend.

Fig is a CLI tool that adds VSCode-style autocomplete to your existing Terminal. You can build autocomplete functionality for any CLI with javascript, not bash. You can share it with your team, or contribute to Fig open source specs for tools like git, aws, kubectl.

Raycast lets you control your tools with a few keystrokes. It's designed to keep you focused. Provides built-in extensions to connect with common tools like Asana, GitHub, Jira, Linear, Zoom. Write scripts in your favorite programming language to connect to web APIs or control other tools.

Swimm keeps development smooth with smart docs that are always synced with your code. Never let onboarding, outdated documents, or project switching slow you down. Swimm allows you to create walkthroughs or hands-on tasks to demonstrate patterns and logic. Create tailored onboarding plans per team or specific new hire.

VS Code makes it easier to automate and configure VS Code, it is possible to list, install, and uninstall extensions from the command line. This is a great feature if you want to use DEV.env to include your VS Code set up part of your development environment set up. You can learn more about command-line extension management in VS Code user guide.

Awesome Compose is curated list of Docker Compose samples that provide a starting point for how to integrate different services using a Compose file and to manage their deployment with Docker Compose.

Please note: The following Awesome Compose samples are intended for use in local development environments such as project setups, tinkering with software stacks, etc. These samples must not be deployed in production environments.

Localhost SonarQube offers a light-weight command-line interface for interacting with SonarQube Community Edition and analyse your source code with SonarScanner (CLI) in a Docker environment.

free-for.dev A list of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS offerings that have free tiers of interest to devops and infradev.

Changelog

Please see CHANGELOG for more information what has changed recently.

Roadmap

Please see the Public Roadmap where you can learn about what features we're working on, what stage they're in, and when we expect to bring them to you.

Contributing

I encourage you to contribute to DEV.env! Contributions are what make the open source community such an amazing place to be learn, inspire, and create. Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

Please check out the contributing to DEV.env guide for guidelines about how to proceed.

Security Vulnerabilities

Trying to report a possible security vulnerability in DEV.env? Please check out our security policy for guidelines about how to proceed.

Credits

The illustration used in the project is from unDraw (created by Katerina Limpitsouni). All product names, logos, brands, trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

This software uses the following open source packages:

• ANSI Code Generator
• bash-yaml

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.

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