epidots

Functionality-first NixOS/EPITA rice that lives entirely in AFS (~/afs). The system stays vanilla — home is wiped on every boot, so everything is re-applied automatically at login.

Version v0.95 — patch notes: CHANGELOG.md · releases: GitHub Releases · requests: GitHub issues

Install (school machine)

One line (same idea as tsunooky/epidots):

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/clawdbot58-pixel/epidots/main/installer.sh | sh

Manual equivalent:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/clawdbot58-pixel/epidots.git /tmp/epidots
mkdir -p ~/afs/.confs
cp -r /tmp/epidots/.confs/. ~/afs/.confs/   # merges — stock files (gitconfig, ssh, …) are kept
cp /tmp/epidots/rice ~/afs/rice
chmod +x ~/afs/rice ~/afs/.confs/install.sh
~/afs/rice on

Note: .confs is a dotfile — cp -r /tmp/epidots/* will NOT copy it.

That's it — nothing else. The login hook that re-applies the rice (pam_epita running ~/afs/.confs/install.sh at every login/unlock) is a stock nixpie feature, exactly the mechanism tsunooky/epidots relies on, and everything lives in ~/afs + symlinks in your home — the system itself is never modified. The stock EPITA dotfiles seeded in ~/afs/.confs (gitconfig, ssh, signature, …) keep working whether the rice is on or off. Log out / in once and the rice applies itself from then on.

On / off switch

~/afs/rice on      # apply (also auto-applies at every login from now on)
~/afs/rice off     # remove everything we added — back to vanilla, takes effect immediately
~/afs/rice status  # what's enabled, what's linked, profile state
~/afs/rice sync    # re-apply + reinstall packages (after editing manifest.txt)
~/afs/rice update  # self-update: pull the latest rice from GitHub and re-apply
~/afs/rice diag    # read-only diagnostic report (paste it when something breaks)
~/afs/rice uninstall  # remove the rice, restore vanilla desktop

rice on / rice off restart i3 right away — no logout needed (also works from a plain SSH terminal: the display is picked up from your session).

Keyboard shortcuts

Mod = the Windows/Super key. Bindings live in .confs/config/i3/config.

Launch

Keys	Action
Mod+Return	terminal (alacritty)
Mod+d	app launcher (rofi; includes a Lock screen entry)
Mod+t	editor (VSCodium, Python out of the box)

Windows

Keys	Action
Mod+Shift+q	close window
Mod+Shift+space	pop window out of the layout (floating) / back in
Mod+space	focus the other window (mode toggle)
Mod+f	fullscreen toggle
Mod+a	focus parent container
Mod+left-drag	move window (floating or tiled)
Mod+right-drag	resize window
Mod+Shift+e	exit i3 (confirmation bar)

Focus / move

Keys	Action
Mod+j/k/l/;	focus left / down / up / right
Mod+arrows	same, with arrow keys
Mod+Shift+j/k/l/; or Mod+Shift+arrows	move window in that direction

Layout & workspaces

Keys	Action
Mod+h / Mod+v	split horizontal / vertical
Mod+s / Mod+w / Mod+e	stacking / tabbed / toggle split
Mod+1..0	switch to workspace 1–10
Mod+Shift+1..0	move window to workspace 1–10
Mod+r then j/k/l/;	resize mode (Enter/Esc to exit)

Session

Keys	Action
Mod+Ctrl+l	lock now (also locks automatically after 5 min idle)
Print / Mod+Shift+s	region screenshot → ~/Pictures/, opens instantly in feh (lightweight viewer)
Mod+Shift+c	reload i3 config
Mod+Shift+r	restart i3 (picks up daemons too)
Volume keys	volume up / down / mute

~/Pictures is a link into AFS — screenshots survive reboots and seat changes (clear old ones occasionally, they count against the 10 GB quota).

Terminal tips

• zsh is your shell — login shells hand over to it automatically (no chsh needed; /etc/passwd is reset at every boot anyway). Plain bash stays vanilla if you start it yourself.
• suggestions: type a command → grey suggestion appears → → to accept; syntax highlighting turns valid commands green. No auto correction popups — corrections are manual: type the bad command, then run fuck.
• fuck (pay-respects, the maintained thefuck): typed a wrong command? fuck (or just f) shows the fix → Enter runs it. ff runs the best fix without asking. Ctrl+X Ctrl+X fixes the line in place without running it (git comit → git commit, cd payrespe → the full path).
• fzf: Ctrl+R fuzzy history · Ctrl+T fuzzy file pick · Alt+C fuzzy cd
• zoxide: z dir jumps to a directory you use often (after cding there)
• eza: ll, la, lt (tree), plain ls grouped by directory
• bat: cat now pages with syntax highlighting
• vim: ships with syntax highlighting, line numbers, mouse support (system vim, config in .confs/vimrc)
• ranger: file manager in the terminal (arrow keys, q to quit, ? help)
• tmux: mouse on — click panes, drag status bar, scroll with the wheel; tmux to start; new windows/panes (prefix c, prefix %, prefix ") always open in the current pane's directory, never $HOME

What you get

• rofi launcher, alacritty terminal, thunar file manager
• VSCodium with Python extension (dot-completions, no Pylance needed)
• zsh as the default shell (autosuggestions, syntax highlighting, completions), fzf, pay-respects (fuck)
• eza / bat / fd / ripgrep / zoxide / starship / ranger
• vim with syntax highlighting (.confs/vimrc)
• tmux, btop, dunst notifications, xss-lock + xautolock (5 min)
• picom with vsync (no tearing when moving windows)
• The vanilla EPITA wallpaper stays untouched (stealth mode). To use your own: echo /path/to/img > ~/afs/.confs/wallpaper

Adding / removing packages

Edit .confs/manifest.txt (one package per line), then:

~/afs/rice sync     # installs new/changed packages (hash-based)

To fully drop a package that is no longer in the manifest:

rm -rf ~/afs/.confs/nix-profile   # force a full re-install
~/afs/rice sync

Binaries live in /nix/store, profile symlinks in AFS — a few KB each, well under the 10 GB quota.

How it works

• nixpie's PAM (pam_epita) runs ~/afs/.confs/install.sh at every login (GUI, SSH, screen unlock). It does nothing unless ~/afs/.confs/enabled exists.
• install.sh symlinks dotfiles from .confs/ into $HOME and keeps ~/.nix-profile pointed at .confs/nix-profile (a profile full of symlinks into /nix/store — a few KB of AFS).
• The stock EPITA dotfiles a school seat seeds into ~/afs/.confs (gitconfig, gitignore, ssh, signature, …) are linked too — same list as the stock install.sh / tsunooky/epidots — so nothing regresses on a real seat, whether the rice is on or off. ~/.config is linked wholesale into .confs/config (stock behaviour) when the home is fresh.
• Shell history lives in AFS (.confs/.zsh_history) and survives reboots.
• Packages come from .confs/manifest.txt and are installed with nix profile install --profile only when the manifest changes (so logins stay fast).
• rice off deletes the enabled flag, removes only symlinks pointing into ~/afs, regenerates the stock EPITA i3 config (Windows key = mod, via i3-config-wizard), and stops the daemons — your home is vanilla again and nothing runs at next login.

How the pieces fit together

login (PAM) ──▶ install.sh ──▶ lib.sh apply() ──▶ symlinks + nix profile
                     │                                │
                     │                                ├─ .profile   ─▶ hands login shell to zsh
                     │                                ├─ .bashrc    ─▶ vanilla fallback
                     │                                ├─ .zshrc     ─▶ suggestions, fuck, fzf…
                     │                                ├─ .tmux.conf ─▶ mouse on
                     │                                └─ i3 config  ─▶ Mod+Return, rofi…
                     └─ only if ~/afs/.confs/enabled exists

rice on  = create enabled, apply, restart i3
rice off = delete enabled, unlink AFS symlinks, EPITA default i3, stop daemons

Layout

~/afs/
├── rice                 # the on/off switch
└── .confs/
    ├── enabled          # flag: rice is on (created by `rice on`)
    ├── install.sh       # PAM entry point (runs at every login)
    ├── lib.sh           # apply/unapply logic
    ├── manifest.txt     # package list (edit + `rice sync`)
    ├── nix-profile/     # nix profile (symlinks to /nix/store; ~KB)
    ├── bashrc           # -> ~/.bashrc (vanilla fallback)
    ├── profile          # -> ~/.profile (hands login shell to zsh)
    ├── zshrc            # -> ~/.zshrc
    ├── tmux.conf        # -> ~/.tmux.conf
    ├── picom.conf       # vsync compositor config
    ├── wallpaper        # optional: path to an image
    ├── pictures/        # screenshots (~/Pictures -> here, survives wipes)
    ├── bin/             # helper scripts (shot, daemons, menu, autoupdate, ...)
    ├── local-share/     # i3lock launcher entry, etc.
    └── config/i3/config # -> ~/.config/i3/config

Update / self-repair

Automatic: at every i3 launch a quiet background job checks GitHub (only every 7 days, only pulls when something actually changed) and re-applies. Opt out with:

touch ~/afs/.confs/no-autoupdate

Manual:

~/afs/rice update   # git-pull the latest rice into ~/afs and re-apply
~/afs/rice diag     # read-only report: links, profile health, i3 parse check, login hook

Note: auto-update refreshes .confs from GitHub — local edits to manifest.txt/configs get overwritten (re-apply them upstream, or opt out).

No git? The installer one-liner from the top of this README also updates:

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/clawdbot58-pixel/epidots/main/installer.sh | sh

Switching computers (rofi/zsh "disappeared", rice sync seemed to do nothing)

The nix profile lives in AFS (shared between seats) but /nix/store is per-seat — binaries installed on one computer don't resolve on another. rice detects this (manifest hash matches but binaries don't run) and reinstalls automatically — on the first login on a new seat, or any time you run rice sync / rice on. To see what's happening:

~/afs/rice diag     # shows the "profile unusable" line + the fix
~/afs/rice sync     # forces the reinstall for THIS computer now

Never-bricked by design

Auto-updates are safe by construction:

• Login can never be blocked. The PAM hook (install.sh) always exits 0 — a broken rice degrades to "no rice today", never "no session".
• Broken updates are refused. rice update syntax-checks every shell file and parse-checks the i3 config (i3 -C) before installing; anything that fails keeps your current working version.
• i3 never restarts onto a bad config. If the config on disk doesn't parse, apply skips the reload and your current session stays up.
• Instant escape hatch, works even with everything else broken:

~/afs/rice off      # vanilla desktop immediately
curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/clawdbot58-pixel/epidots/main/installer.sh | sh   # restore

Uninstall

~/afs/rice uninstall

Or without any rice installed (fetches it first):

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/clawdbot58-pixel/epidots/main/uninstall.sh | sh

This removes the rice's links and files, stops the daemons and restores the vanilla EPITA desktop. Stock EPITA dotfiles (~/afs/.confs/gitconfig, ssh, …), your shell history and VS Code state are kept. Installed packages are kept too (they cost a few KB of AFS symlinks); to remove them as well:

rm -rf ~/afs/.confs/nix-profile