New Mac setup checklist

Updated on 2022-09-14: Made some changes to the procedure. I’ll keep the repository updated on GitHub.

There are some things that we don’t need to recite fluently, but rather to keep them in a memo. Like the following a couple of things to do when I set up a new Mac.

• Set up iCloud account.
  • Turn off the iCloud sync of Photos before library migration.
• Install Chrome.
• Install 1Password.
• Install Google Drive, Dropbox.
• Install Alfred.
• Install Karabiner-Elements.
• Install iTerm 2. Install Homebrew.
• Change computer and host name:
  • sudo scutil --set ComputerName "newname"
  • sudo scutil --set LocalHostName "newname"
  • sudo scutil --set HostName "newname"
• Stop Time Machine local snapshots.
  • tmutil disablelocal was deprecated since Mojave. Use TimeMachineEditor instead.
• Create a global gitignore file at ~/.gitignore.
  • See this one as an example.
  • git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore
• Generate and add SSH key to GitHub account.

As GitHub stopped supporting users from using account passwords for authenticated Git operations.

We need to do the following set up:

1. Generate an SSH key on the new device as no SSH keys exist inside .ssh
   • ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C “email@example.com”
   • Enter the path with filename /Users/myname/.ssh/id_ed25519_github after the prompt
   • Enter a passphrase (optional), then id_ed25519_github and id_ed25519_github.pub will appear
2. Add the SSH key to ssh-agent
   • Start the ssh-agent by exec ssh-agent zsh
   • Add newly created SSH private key to the ssh-agent by ssh-add —apple-use-keychain ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_github
   • Create a config file touch ~/.ssh/config with:

Host *
  AddKeysToAgent yes
  UseKeychain yes
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_github

3. Add the SSH key to GitHub account

• pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_github.pub
• On GitHub, Settings -> SSH and GPG keys -> New SSH key

4. Additionally, inside .git/config, use SSH url instead of HTTPS url.

I’ve also created a list of applications and something more that I consider as “essential ones” in a GitHub repository.

New device, new environment, new day.