chezmoi evaluates the source state for the current machine and then updates the destination directory, where:
-
The source state declares the desired state of your home directory, including templates and machine-specific configuration.
-
The source directory is where chezmoi stores the source state, by default
~/.local/share/chezmoi. -
The target state is the source state computed for the current machine.
-
The destination directory is the directory that chezmoi manages, by default
~, your home directory. -
A target is a file, directory, or symlink in the destination directory.
-
The destination state is the state of all the targets in the destination directory.
-
The config file contains machine-specific configuration, by default it is
~/.config/chezmoi/chezmoi.toml.
Initialize chezmoi:
chezmoi init
This will create a new git repository in ~/.local/share/chezmoi with
permissions 0700 where chezmoi will store the source state. chezmoi only
modifies files in the working copy. It is your responsibility to commit changes.
Manage an existing file with chezmoi:
chezmoi add ~/.bashrc
This will copy ~/.bashrc to ~/.local/share/chezmoi/dot_bashrc.
Edit the source state:
chezmoi edit ~/.bashrc
This will open ~/.local/share/chezmoi/dot_bashrc in your $EDITOR. Make some
changes and save them.
See what changes chezmoi would make:
chezmoi diff
Apply the changes:
chezmoi -v apply
All chezmoi commands accept the -v (verbose) flag to print out exactly what
changes they will make to the file system, and the -n (dry run) flag to not
make any actual changes. The combination -n -v is very useful if you want to
see exactly what changes would be made.
Finally, change to the source directory, commit your changes, and return to where you were:
chezmoi cd
git add dot_bashrc
git commit -m "Updated .bashrc"
exit
For a full list of commands run:
chezmoi help
chezmoi has much more functionality. Read the how-to guide to explore.