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The unmanaged command lists all files in your destination directory (typically your home directory) that are not managed by chezmoi.

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Usage

chezmoi unmanaged [path]...

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Description

The unmanaged command shows files that exist in your home directory but are not tracked by chezmoi. This is useful for:
  • Finding files you might want to add to chezmoi
  • Identifying files that should be in .chezmoiignore
  • Cleaning up temporary or unnecessary files
  • Auditing your dotfile coverage
Files listed in .chezmoiignore are not shown as unmanaged.

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Flags

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-x, --exclude
types
Exclude entry types (comma-separated: dirs, files, remove, scripts, symlinks, always, encrypted, externals, templates).
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-i, --include
types
Include only specified entry types (comma-separated: dirs, files, remove, scripts, symlinks, always, encrypted, externals, templates).
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-0, --nul-path-separator
boolean
default:"false"
Use NUL character as path separator. Useful for piping to xargs -0.
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-p, --path-style
string
default:"relative"
Path style to use. Options:
  • relative - Paths relative to home directory
  • absolute - Absolute paths
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-t, --tree
boolean
default:"false"
Print paths as a tree structure.

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Examples

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List all unmanaged files

chezmoi unmanaged
Output: 
.bash_history
.cache
.local/bin/custom-script
Downloads
Documents

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List with absolute paths

chezmoi unmanaged --path-style=absolute
Output: 
/home/john/.bash_history
/home/john/.cache
/home/john/.local/bin/custom-script
/home/john/Downloads
/home/john/Documents

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List in tree format

chezmoi unmanaged --tree
Output: 
.
├── .bash_history
├── .cache
├── .local
│   └── bin
│       └── custom-script
├── Documents
└── Downloads

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List unmanaged files in a specific directory

chezmoi unmanaged ~/.config
Shows unmanaged files only within ~/.config.

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List only unmanaged regular files

chezmoi unmanaged --include=files
Excludes directories and symlinks.

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Use with xargs

chezmoi unmanaged --nul-path-separator | xargs -0 ls -lh
Safely pass unmanaged files to other commands.

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Common Workflows

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Find dotfiles to add

Find configuration files that aren’t managed: 
chezmoi unmanaged | grep "^\."
Output: 
.bashrc-backup
.custom-config
.local-settings

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Add important unmanaged files

# Find important configs
chezmoi unmanaged | grep -E "\.(bash|zsh|vim)rc"

# Add them
chezmoi add ~/.custom-bashrc

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Identify files to ignore

Find files that should be in .chezmoiignore: 
# Check for temporary or cache files
chezmoi unmanaged | grep -E "\.(log|cache|tmp)"

# Add to .chezmoiignore
echo ".*.log" >> ~/.local/share/chezmoi/.chezmoiignore

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Clean up unmanaged files

# Review unmanaged files
chezmoi unmanaged --tree

# Remove temporary files
chezmoi unmanaged | grep -E "\.(tmp|bak|old)$" | xargs rm

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Output Examples

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Default output

$ chezmoi unmanaged
.bash_history
.cache
.lesshst
.viminfo  
Downloads

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Tree view

$ chezmoi unmanaged --tree
.
├── .bash_history
├── .cache
│   ├── mozilla
│   └── pip
├── .lesshst
├── .viminfo
└── Downloads
    └── file.zip

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In specific directory

$ chezmoi unmanaged ~/.config
.config/Slack
.config/discord  
.config/spotify

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Filtering Examples

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Find large unmanaged files

chezmoi unmanaged --path-style=absolute --include=files | \
  xargs du -h | \
  sort -rh | \
  head -20

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Find unmanaged config files

chezmoi unmanaged ~/.config --include=files

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Count unmanaged files

chezmoi unmanaged | wc -l

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Understanding .chezmoiignore

Files matching patterns in .chezmoiignore won’t appear in unmanaged output: 
# ~/.local/share/chezmoi/.chezmoiignore
.bash_history
.cache/
*.log
*.tmp
Downloads/
Documents/
After adding this, those files won’t show up: 
$ chezmoi unmanaged
# Only shows files not in .chezmoiignore

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Practical Examples

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Audit dotfile coverage

Check which config files aren’t managed: 
#!/bin/bash
echo "Unmanaged dotfiles:"
chezmoi unmanaged | grep "^\."

echo "\nManaged dotfiles:"
chezmoi managed | grep "^\."

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Find unmanaged scripts

chezmoi unmanaged ~/.local/bin --include=files

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Generate ignore patterns

Create .chezmoiignore entries from unmanaged files: 
chezmoi unmanaged | grep -E "\.(cache|log|tmp)" > /tmp/to-ignore.txt

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Interactive file addition

#!/bin/bash
for file in $(chezmoi unmanaged | grep "^\."); do
    echo "Add $file to chezmoi? (y/n)"
    read -r response
    if [ "$response" = "y" ]; then
        chezmoi add ~/$file
    fi
done

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Performance Note

The unmanaged command may be slow on home directories with many files. To speed it up:
  1. Add common directories to .chezmoiignore (Downloads, Documents, etc.)
  2. Specify a subdirectory: chezmoi unmanaged ~/.config
  3. Exclude file types: chezmoi unmanaged --exclude=dirs
  • managed - List managed files
  • add - Add unmanaged files to chezmoi
  • status - Show status of managed files

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