Setting Up Fedora Workstation for Software Development

A guide to setting up Fedora Workstation for DevOps and software development. This is current for Fedora 39.

Installation #

Enable Disk Encryption #

Enable disk encryption when prompted during the setup process.

Disk encryption is the only protection against anyone with physical access to your computer. All other security measures will be completely bypassed if someone with physical access either restarts your computer with a bootable pen drive, or removes the internal hard drive and attaches it to another computer.

Set a Password for UEFI or BIOS #

Once you have installed Fedora, restart your computer, and press the function key to enter the setup menu for the UEFI firmware, or BIOS. Change the boot options so that the computer only boots from the hard drive, and set both a user password for startup, and an administrator password to protect the firmware menus.

Do This First #

Log in once, run the GNOME Software utility, and ensure that the operating system has the latest updates. After all of the updates have been applied, restart the computer.

User Settings #

Select Settings > Privacy, and review the settings. Depending upon your needs, you may decide to turn off Location Services or Usage & History.

Installing Desktop Applications with Flatpak #

Flatpak is the new standard for desktop software packages. The Fedora project still provides RPM packages for many desktop applications, but Flatpak already offers newer versions of products, as well as software that is not available from Fedora RPM repositories, such as Slack.

Setting Up for Development #

Text Editors #

Fedora includes the command-line editor nano and a small version of vim with a limited set of features, as well as a desktop text editor with basic support for programming. Add the code editors or IDEs that you would prefer to use.

If you do not have a preferred editor, consider using a version of Visual Studio Code. To work with a modern Vim editor, install Neovim.

Visual Studio Code #

Visual Studio Code is a powerful desktop editor for programming, with built-in support for version control and debugging. The large range of extensions for Visual Studio Code enable it to work with every popular programming language and framework. It is available free of charge.

The Microsoft releases of Visual Studio Code are proprietary software with telemetry enabled by default, and download extensions from a proprietary Microsoft app store. if you have issues or concerns about the Microsoft releases, use the RPM packages that are provided by the vscodium project.

Neovim #

If you would like a modern Vim editor with a good default configuration, set up Neovim. To install Neovim, enter this command in a terminal window:

sudo dnf install neovim

Setting The EDITOR Environment Variable #

Whichever text editor you choose, remember to set the EDITOR environment variable in your ~/.bashrc file, so that this editor is automatically invoked by command-line tools like your version control system. For example, put this line in your profile to make Neovim (nvim) the favored text editor:

export EDITOR="nvim"

Configuring Git #

Fedora Workstation includes the Git version control system. Always set your details for Git before you create or clone repositories on a new system. This requires two commands in a terminal window:

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "you@your-domain.com"

The global option means that the setting will apply to every repository that you work with in the current user account.

To enable colors in the output, which can be very helpful, enter this command:

git config --global color.ui auto

Setting Up A Directory Structure for Projects #

To keep your projects tidy, I would recommend following these guidelines. They may seem slightly fussy, but they pay off when you have many projects, some of which are on different version control hosts.

First, create a top-level directory with a short, generic name like repos. For each repository host, create a subdirectory that matches your username. Check out projects in the directory.

The final directory structure looks like this:

    repos/
      gitlab.com/
        my-gitlab-username/
            a-project/
            another-project/
      sr.ht/
        my-sourcehut-username/
            a-project/

Creating SSH Keys #

You will frequently use SSH to access Git repositories or remote UNIX systems. Fedora includes the standard OpenSSH suite of tools.

To create an SSH key, run the ssh-keygen command in a terminal window. For example:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "Me MyName (MyDevice) <me@mydomain.com>"

Working with Programming Languages #

Avoid using the Fedora packages for programming languages. Instead, use either containers or specialized tools like the mise version manager. These enable you to install the correct version of the required programming language and dependencies for each of your projects.

Fedora Workstation automatically includes support for containers, with Podman as the equivalent of Docker, along with toolbx to help you manage container environments for developing your projects. You may use any version manager on Fedora Workstation, but you will need to install the tool yourself.

Using Version Managers #

You may use any version manager on Fedora Workstation, such as pyenv for Python. I recommend using rustup for Rust and mise for other programming languages. The mise version manager provides the same set of features for managing several programming languages, including Python, Go and JavaScript.

To install a version manager, use the process that the documentation for the product recommends.

If you use a version manager, you will also need to install compiler tools for the C programming language. Installations of Python, Node.js and other languages use GCC to compile components that are written in C. To provide GCC use the Fedora packages for GCC:

sudo dnf install gcc

We use the GCC compiler for this purpose because it is compatible with the widest range of C code. If you are developing your own C code, consider using the Clang compiler for your project.

The System Python Installation #

Fedora includes an installation of Python 3, which is used by system tools. Avoid using this system installation yourself. Instead, manage your own installations of Python with containers or version managers, as explained in the previous section.

Working with Containers #

Fedora Workstation automatically includes support for containers. Podman provides the features of Docker, and toolbx helps you manage container environments for developing your projects.

To use a graphical interface for working with containers, add Podman Desktop to your system. To install Podman Desktop, go to Software, search for Podman Desktop, select the entry from the list, and choose Install.

Podman #

Podman replaces Docker, and also has additional features to integrate better with both the Linux operating system and Kubernetes. For example, you can run Podman containers as standard system services.

Podman accepts the same syntax as the docker command-line tool, and will read Dockerfiles. Both Docker and Podman use the OCI image format, so that images created either product will work with the other. By default, Podman will check the Docker public registry for container images, as well as Quay registries.

For convenience, define a shell alias in your .bashrc file:

alias docker="podman"

This will redirect any call to Docker, so that it uses Podman instead.

The Usage Transfer page lists Docker commands, and the equivalents for Podman. This article explains the relationship between Podman, Buildah and Docker in more detail.

If you need to run existing Docker Compose configurations, install podman-compose:

sudo dnf install podman-compose

The podman compose subcommand uses podman-compose to substitute for Docker Compose.

This enables you to convert Docker Compose configurations into Podman pod definitions at a later time. Use pods to benefit from the features of Podman, such as systemd integration and the facility to generate Kubernetes configurations from pod definitions.

Working with Virtual Machines #

Fedora Workstation installs GNOME Boxes by default, to enable you to create and manage virtual machines. GNOME Boxes provides a graphical interface for the standard KVM and QEMU software. You can also use these directly on the command-line.

SQL Databases #

Consider using containers to provide the database services for your Web applications. This will enable you to use different versions of the database servers for different projects, and ensure that you are running the same versions as the database instances on your production systems.

If you prefer to install services directly on to your workstation, Fedora provides packages for PostgreSQL and MariaDB. If you need a database server that is compatible with MySQL, install MariaDB. Otherwise, PostgreSQL is often a better choice for new applications.

Installing PostgreSQL #

To install PostgreSQL using dnf, enter these commands in a terminal window:

sudo dnf install postgresql-server
sudo postgresql-setup --initdb
sudo systemctl enable postgresql
sudo systemctl start postgresql

These commands install the server, the command-line tools, and the client libraries that are needed to compile adapters for programming languages.

To create a user account for yourself in PostgreSQL with administrative rights, enter this command in a terminal window:

sudo su - postgres
createuser -s YOU
exit

Replace YOU with the username of your account on Fedora.

The -s option means that your new PostgreSQL account is a superuser, with unlimited rights over the databases. Once you have a superuser account, you may use tools like createuser or log in to databases without using sudo or the -U option.

For example, to create an extra user account that is not a superuser:

createuser EXTRA-ACCOUNT

Replace EXTRA-ACCOUNT with the username of the new account.

Refer to the Fedora Wiki article for more information on working with PostgreSQL.