chezmoi/External

• chezmoi External Files

  • chezmoi can manage files that come from external sources (git repos, archives, single files) via .chezmoiexternal.toml files

  • git-repo type

    • Clones a git repo to a target directory and keeps it updated
    • Declared in a .chezmoiexternal.toml file placed in the parent of the desired target directory in the chezmoi source
    • toml

      ["<dirname>"]
        type = "git-repo"
        url = "https://github.com/user/repo.git"
        refreshPeriod = "168h"

    • refreshPeriod controls how often chezmoi update runs git fetch — "168h" = weekly
    • To pin to a specific commit or tag, add exact = true and ref = "<tag-or-sha>"

  • Usage in this dotfiles repo

    • oh-my-tmux is managed this way
      • Source: chezmoi/dot_local/share/tmux/.chezmoiexternal.toml
      • Clones to: ~/.local/share/oh-my-tmux/
      • See oh-my-tmux/Installation for the full setup

  • Chezmoi symlinks

    • Use a symlink_<name> file in the chezmoi source to create a symlink at the target path
    • File contents = the symlink target (can be relative or absolute)
    • Example: chezmoi/dot_config/tmux/symlink_tmux.conf containing ../../.local/share/oh-my-tmux/.tmux.conf

      creates ~/.config/tmux/tmux.conf → ../../.local/share/oh-my-tmux/.tmux.conf