chezmoi-source-state

name	chezmoi-source-state
description	Work with the chezmoi source directory: file naming prefixes, adding/removing files, externals (.chezmoiexternal for external files, archives, and git repos), special directories (.chezmoiignore, .chezmoitemplates/), and git operations.

Source directory location

Default: ~/.local/share/chezmoi Override with sourceDir in config or --source flag. Open a shell in it: chezmoi cd

The source directory is a plain git repository.

File name prefix system

Multiple prefixes compose left to right.

Attribute prefixes

Prefix	Meaning
dot_	File/dir name starts with . (e.g., dot_bashrc → .bashrc)
private_	File permissions 0600, directory 0700
executable_	File permissions 0755
readonly_	File permissions are read-only
empty_	Create the file even if its content is empty
encrypted_	File is encrypted (age or gpg)
exact_	Directory: remove target files not present in source
literal_	File name is used as-is, no prefix interpretation
run_	File is a script, not a dotfile
symlink_	Create as a symlink in the target
modify_	Script that modifies an existing target file
create_	Create file only if it does not already exist

Suffix

Suffix	Meaning
.tmpl	File is a Go template; rendered before applying
.age	Encrypted with age (added automatically, not manual)
.asc	Encrypted with gpg (added automatically, not manual)

Read more about attributes in references/attributes.md

Examples

Source name	Target path	Notes
dot_bashrc	~/.bashrc	Simple dotfile
private_dot_ssh/	~/.ssh/	Directory with 0700
private_dot_ssh/config	~/.ssh/config	File inside private dir
executable_dot_local/bin/script.sh	~/.local/bin/script.sh	Executable script
dot_gitconfig.tmpl	~/.gitconfig	Rendered as template
encrypted_private_dot_netrc.age	~/.netrc	Encrypted, private
symlink_dot_vim	~/.vim	Symlink
exact_dot_config/git/	~/.config/git/	Exact dir, removes unlisted files

Adding files to source state

chezmoi add ~/.bashrc
chezmoi add --follow ~/.config/nvim   # follow symlinks
chezmoi add --encrypt ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
chezmoi add --template ~/.gitconfig   # treat as template

Read more about attributes in references/attributes.md

Inspecting the source state

chezmoi managed           # list all managed targets
chezmoi source-path ~/.bashrc   # find source for a target file
chezmoi cat ~/.bashrc     # print rendered content of a managed file
chezmoi archive           # tar of the full rendered target state

Removing files from source state

chezmoi forget ~/.bashrc        # remove from source, keep in target
chezmoi destroy ~/.bashrc       # remove from source AND target

.chezmoiignore

Create ~/.local/share/chezmoi/.chezmoiignore to exclude patterns from management:

README.md
*.swp
.DS_Store

Supports Go template syntax.

Read more about special files and directories in references/special-files-directories.md

.chezmoiexternal.toml

Fetch external files, archives, or git repos into the target as if they were in the source state:

[".oh-my-zsh"]
  type = "archive"
  url = "https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/archive/master.tar.gz"
  exact = true
  stripComponents = 1
  refreshPeriod = "168h"

Note that stripComponents trims leading path segments from the archive.

Read more about external types and all fields in references/externals.md

.chezmoitemplates/

Store shared template fragments here. Use in other templates: {{ template "shared-fragment" . }}

Git operations on the source directory

chezmoi git status
chezmoi git add .
chezmoi git commit -- -m "chore: update dotfiles"
chezmoi git push

Or cd $(chezmoi source-path) and use git directly.

Read more about git operations in references/git-operations.md