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If you’re packaging chezmoi for an operating system or distribution, this guide provides essential information to ensure a quality package.

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Build Dependencies

chezmoi has no build dependencies other than the standard Go toolchain.

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Runtime Dependencies

chezmoi has no runtime dependencies, but is usually used with git, so many packagers choose to make git an install dependency or recommended package.

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Version Information

Please set the version number, git commit, and build time in the binary. This greatly assists debugging when end users report problems or ask for help. You can do this by passing the following flags to go build: 
go build -ldflags "-X main.version=$VERSION \
                   -X main.commit=$COMMIT \
                   -X main.date=$DATE \
                   -X main.builtBy=$BUILT_BY"

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$VERSION

  • Should be the chezmoi version, e.g. 1.7.3
  • Any v prefix is optional and will be stripped
  • You can pass the git tag in directly
The command git describe --abbrev=0 --tags will return a suitable value for $VERSION.

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$COMMIT

Should be the full git commit hash at which chezmoi is built, e.g. 4d678ce6850c9d81c7ab2fe0d8f20c1547688b91.
The internal/cmds/generate-commit/main.go script will return a suitable value for $COMMIT.You can run it with:
go tool generate-commit
Alternatively, the source archive contains a file called COMMIT containing the commit hash.

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$DATE

Should be the date of the build as a UNIX timestamp or in RFC3339 format.
The command git show -s --format=%ct HEAD returns the UNIX timestamp of the last commit, e.g. 1636668628.The command date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ returns the current time in RFC3339 format, e.g. 2019-11-23T18:29:25Z.

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$BUILT_BY

Should be a string indicating what system was used to build the binary. Typically it should be the name of your packaging system, e.g. homebrew.

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CGO Considerations

Please enable cgo, if possible. chezmoi can be built and run without cgo, but the .chezmoi.username and .chezmoi.group template variables may not be set correctly on some systems.

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Upgrade Command

chezmoi includes an upgrade command which attempts to self-upgrade. You can remove this command completely by building chezmoi with the noupgrade build tag: 
go build -tags noupgrade
This is recommended for system package managers to prevent users from accidentally upgrading outside of the package management system.

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Shell Completions

chezmoi includes shell completions in the completions directory. Please include these in the package and install them in the shell-appropriate directory, if possible. Typical installation paths:
  • Bash: /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/chezmoi
  • Zsh: /usr/share/zsh/site-functions/_chezmoi
  • Fish: /usr/share/fish/vendor_completions.d/chezmoi.fish
  • PowerShell: Check your distribution’s conventions

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Using Make

You can use the provided Makefile for building and installing: 
make VERSION=v2.0.0 \
     COMMIT=$(git rev-parse HEAD) \
     DATE=$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ) \
     BUILT_BY=mypackage \
     PREFIX=/usr \
     DESTDIR=$pkgdir \
     install
This will:
  1. Build the binary with embedded version information
  2. Install it to ${DESTDIR}${PREFIX}/bin/chezmoi

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Installation Guide

If the instructions for installing chezmoi in chezmoi’s install guide are absent or incorrect, please open an issue or submit a PR to correct them.

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Example Package Configurations

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Homebrew

class Chezmoi < Formula
  desc "Manage your dotfiles across multiple machines"
  homepage "https://chezmoi.io/"
  url "https://github.com/twpayne/chezmoi/archive/v2.0.0.tar.gz"
  
  depends_on "go" => :build
  
  def install
    system "make",
           "VERSION=v#{version}",
           "COMMIT=#{stable.specs[:revision]}",
           "DATE=#{time.iso8601}",
           "BUILT_BY=homebrew",
           "PREFIX=#{prefix}",
           "install"
  end
end

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Arch Linux PKGBUILD

build() {
  cd "$srcdir/chezmoi-$pkgver"
  
  make VERSION="v$pkgver" \
       COMMIT="$(cat COMMIT)" \
       DATE="$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" \
       BUILT_BY="arch" \
       build
}

package() {
  cd "$srcdir/chezmoi-$pkgver"
  
  install -Dm755 chezmoi "$pkgdir/usr/bin/chezmoi"
  
  # Shell completions
  install -Dm644 completions/chezmoi-completion.bash \
    "$pkgdir/usr/share/bash-completion/completions/chezmoi"
  install -Dm644 completions/chezmoi.fish \
    "$pkgdir/usr/share/fish/vendor_completions.d/chezmoi.fish"
  install -Dm644 completions/chezmoi.zsh \
    "$pkgdir/usr/share/zsh/site-functions/_chezmoi"
}

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See Also

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