Getting Started

Basic overview

• Use git to version files and directories present in $HOME folder, henceforth called dotfiles.

• Use chezmoi to manage all the workflows involved.

  Use chezmoi’s templates to handle machine specific configuration.

Update workflow

See the chezmoi’s terms section for explanations of any terms below.

• Use cd $(chezmoi source-path) to navigate to the source directory.

  This is currently $HOME/.local/share/chezmoi.

• Use chezmoi edit $HOME/<target> to edit the corresponding <target> as present in the source directory.

• Use a git branch for significant changes to source state

  • git branch -b updates

  • chezmoi diff to see what will change

  • chezmoi apply to update destination state in $HOME

  • git checkout master to reset everything back in case of disaster.

• Use -n|--dry-run and -v|--verbose after chezmoi in the above commands if scared.

• For any of the symlinks, chezmoi dump ~/<target> to see what chezmoi is modelling it as. eg:

  $ chezmoi dump ~/.bash_profile
  [
    {
      "type": "symlink",
      "sourcePath": "/home/vvnraman/.local/share/chezmoi/symlink_dot_bash_profile",
      "targetPath": ".bash_profile",
      "template": false,
      "linkname": "dot-bash/bash_profile"
    }
  ]
  

  Avoid using this for non-symlinks, as the output is either json or yaml and not human readable.