Need advice/confirmation migrating from homesick/castles

[michaelrommel]

Dear community,

I am considering switching to chezmoi from a patched version of homes(h)ick. I have 4 repositories each with a bootstrap script that installs packages etc. I want to be able to install packages and config files starting with a simple "core" configuration, which sets up the shell, some environment variables, terminfo entries and such. The next level is tmux and configuration/plugins, then neovim with all configs/plugins and then a coding environment with multiple languages.

I do not mind having all in one repository, they all install in the same $HOME destination, no overlaps. I would like to see in a bare minimum installation, that only minimal packages are installed and the home directory is having only the minimum config files from core, e.g.

My current idea would be to have four source directories like:

• ./.local/share/chezmoi/.core
• ./.local/share/chezmoi/.tmux
• ./.local/share/chezmoi/.neovim
• ./.local/share/chezmoi/.coding

The I would edit a local not-checked-in "roles" file listing all the groups I need on a machine.

There would also be a run_onchange script, that installs the packages based on the contents of the "roles" file.
And another run_ script that iterates over the roles, and running chezmoi apply --source ./.local/share/chezmoi/.$ROLE for each configured role.

My set of config files do not need any templates, the bootstrapping scripts automatically determine already the OS/architecures and package managers and are idempotent.

Does that seem like a valid approach to my goals? I would like to get some feedback from the experienced users here.

Thanks for your thoughts...

Michael.

[halostatue]

What you're suggesting is far outside of what chezmoi does and would require that you maintain multiple state files as well as chezmoi is not reentrant, by design.

With judicious use of templates, you can achieve role-based and even layered configuration.

Alternatively, there's a discussion about layered configuration — I'm on my phone, so I can't get to it easily — but it requires separate commands to manage (but they can be chained in shell scripts).

[halostatue]

See #2574 by @Lockszmith-GH.

[Lockszmith-GH]

From reading your requirements, I would recommend Tom's suggestion of using templating based on variables over my layered approach.
The overhead of the layered approach I describe there makes sense when data needs to be managed in separate repos.

The only exception is my usage of a separate state for externals - as a performance boost.

[twpayne]

I would approach this differently.

Use a boolean variables for each role, which you initialize with a config file template, and then use these variables in your dotfiles and .chezmoiignore to decide what to include.

[michaelrommel]

Thank you all for your advice and suggestions! I gave up my original approach and went with an array of roles and .chezmoiignore files. Currently working on the scripts, the initial creation of the roles is like:

{{- $choices := list "minimal" "core" "tmux" "tools" "neovim" -}}
{{- $roles := promptMultichoiceOnce . "global.roles" "roles"
    $choices (list "minimal" "core")
-}}
[data.global]
	roles = {{ $roles | toJson  }}

and the ignore file has now sections for the roles like:

{{ if not (has "minimal" .global.roles) }}
.bash_aliases
.config/zsh
.inputrc
.minimalrc
.path.d/99_default.sh
.postinitialization.sh
.zshenv
bin/helper.sh
{{ end }}

It was cleaner to do it that way and I get some features, that I haven't had in homesick, which I might use later.

Thanks again, for the helpful responses!

Michael.

[michaelrommel]

Hm, I am running into trouble with the scripts:

Why is this simple script run every time, even if the repo did not change at all?

md2v3xkc% chezmoi update
remote: Enumerating objects: 5, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (5/5), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (1/1), done.
remote: Total 3 (delta 2), reused 3 (delta 2), pack-reused 0 (from 0)
Unpacking objects: 100% (3/3), 277 bytes | 92.00 KiB/s, done.
From https://github.com/michaelrommel/dots
   01b6462..ca26289  main       -> origin/main
Updating 01b6462..ca26289
Fast-forward
 run_onchange_after_bootstrap_core.tmpl | 202 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1 file changed, 202 deletions(-)
in bootstrap core
chezmoi: bootstrap_core: exit status 1
md2v3xkc% chezmoi update
Already up to date.
in bootstrap core
chezmoi: bootstrap_core: exit status 1
md2v3xkc% chezmoi update
Already up to date.
in bootstrap core
chezmoi: bootstrap_core: exit status 1
md2v3xkc% cat .local/share/chezmoi/run_onchange_after_bootstrap_core.tmpl
#! /usr/bin/env bash

echo "in bootstrap core"

# This script should install all necessary packages and tools for
# the "core" version of the dotfiles

source "${HOME}/bin/helper.sh"

{{ if not (has "foo" .global.roles)  -}}
exit 1
{{ end -}}

Hm, it seems, that it is because of the exit code...

Should that not be mentioned in the documentation, that an unsuccessful exit code will lead to the script being executed every time?

Michael.

[twpayne]

Good point. #4610 updates the documentation to clarify that a script is only considered to have been run if it completed successfully.

[michaelrommel]

Honestly, guys, this thing is nice! After working with it for two evenings, I quite like the design and functions. Very well designed...
👍

[michaelrommel]

@twpayne
Hey Tom,

thanks again for the support and the tool. I was able to convert my old solution to chezmoi in a single day. It feels cleaner, installs quickly and I can now select any role individually or together with other roles and all installations are going well.

The result is now here, although you have by now obviously seen enough of people's hacks...:
https://github.com/michaelrommel/dots
I will later rename that repo to dotfiles, currently an older version occupies the name...

Have a good weekend, Michael.