Setting up Spacemacs on macOS Big Sur

January 09, 2021 by Antti

1. Install Emacs #

Spacemacs is actually just a premade set of configurations for Emacs, thus the first step on installing Spacemacs is to install Emacs. An easy way to install Emacs on a Mac is to use Homebrew:

brew install --cask emacs

2. Install Source Code Pro font #

Source Code Pro is the suggested font for Spacemacs. You can of course change the font later on, but to make things simple, install the free & open source font from GitHub.

3. Clone Spacemacs configuration #

To install the actual Spac part of Spacemacs, git clone the repository either directly to ~/.emacs.d if you don't have an existing Emacs installation, or to some other place and then copy/merge things over:

git clone https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs ~/.emacs.d

4. Run the wizard #

Start Emacs and the Spacemacs wizard should pop up, prompting you for your preferences regarding some of the most common options.

5. Bump up the font size #

The default font size of Spacemacs is painfully small 10. To bump it up, hit SPC f e d, search for dotspacemacs-default-font and increase the :size prop to a more comfortable one. It should be possible to reload the config by hitting SPC f e R, but for me setting the font side required restarting Emacs.

6. Draw the rest of the owl #

Navigate to your preferred search engine and search for Spacemacs tutorials to continue your journey!

Posted in #macos