Automatically apply changes from all the config files chemzoi manages

[Zackhardtoname]

Sometimes I have to run the apply commit with all my dotfiles. Even after enabling auto-commit and auto-push, it could still get tedious. Is there any way we can have a command like chezmoi -apply-all?

[twpayne]

Could you give an example of the command you would like?

chezmoi apply already updates all the files in the destination directory by default, and does not change anything in the source directory.

Autocommit and autopush are only relevant when there are changes to the source directory.

[Zackhardtoname]

"apply-all" is probably a really bad name choice.

Example:
change ~/.zhrc
change ~/.bashrc
change some other dotfile
...

Then I run the command,
it would do the following
chezmoi add ~/.zhrc
chezmoi add ~/.bashrc
chezmoi add all the other files that are tracked but not added with chezmoi by the user

In that case, I don't have to keep track of the files I have modified. I can just run one command after applying lots of changes to multiple dotfiles.

[twpayne]

Thanks for the further details.

If you chezmoi add a file that's already managed by chezmoi then chezmoi will forget any attributes like empty_, encrypted_, and .tmpl so it's not safe to use in the general case. For example, if ~/.zshrc is generated by a template then running chezmoi add ~/.zshrc will replace the dot_zshrc.tmpl template with a non-template dot_zshrc containing the only the result of the template, which is probably not what the user wants.

If you can train your muscle memory to run, instead of typing $EDITOR ~/.zshrc; chezmoi add ~/.zshrc, typing instead:

chezmoi edit --apply ~/.zshrc

then you'll get the benefits of the changes being saved in the source state, applied to ~/.zshrc, and autocommitted and autopushed, if you have those turned on. chezmoi edit also knows about encrypted files and automatically decrypts and re-encrypts them for you transparently.

With version 2, there'll be a chezmoi status command that will tell you which files are out of data, which will also be helpful.

[Zackhardtoname]

Thank you for your explanation! The reason why I did not do chezmoi edit --apply ~/.zshrc is that sometimes I wasn't sure if the file was previously managed by chezmoi or not.

Anyway, for now, I will add an alias for chezmoi edit --apply .

[Zackhardtoname]

I just remembered the true reason why I used the vim + chezmoi add workflow:
Sometimes I don't know if my changes would work or not, so I experiment with them first.
After enabling auto commit and auto pull, chezmoi edit --apply would potentially pollute my git history with incorrect changes.
It often involves multiple files, then the functionality in the request would come handy.

Please let me know what you think. Thanks!

[twpayne]

For the reasons mentioned above, chezmoi add is not safe.

Once chezmoi status is implemented (targeted for version 2, work in progress in #654), then you'll be able to quickly see which files you've modified locally add add them.

[liukun]

Can there be chezmoi push command that does commit and push all changes? It does the same as auto-commit/push, but triggered manually.

[twpayne]

Can there be chezmoi push command that does commit and push all changes? It does the same as auto-commit/push, but triggered manually.

You can do this with:

chezmoi git -- commit -m "Add all changes" .
chezmoi git -- push

[liukun]

Thanks, so the one-liner would be

chezmoi git -- status && chezmoi git -- add -A && chezmoi git -- commit -m 'All' && chezmoi git -- push

[tkolleh]

Until status is released, to add the changes of all target files (edited target), I use the command (without the --dry-run):

chezmoi managed | xargs -I _ -n1 chezmoi --dry-run add --prompt _

As @twpayne stated above chezmoi edit --apply <path/to/file> is the ideal approach to editing files for chezmoi.

[Zackhardtoname]

Until status is released, to add the changes of all target files (edited target), I use the command (without the --dry-run):

chezmoi managed | xargs -I _ -n1 chezmoi --dry-run add --prompt _

Just as a reference for myself, when actually ready to run it:
chezmoi managed | xargs -I _ -n1 chezmoi add _ or chezmoi managed | xargs -I arg chezmoi add arg

[twpayne]

Fixed with #1208.