Preventing Data Loss

[Xevion]

Hi,

I was curious if Chezmoi or it's users have methods for making sure I don't apply without being super sure data loss won't occur.

The wider I expand my dotfiles config footprint, the more likely I am going to be working with a program or config that either changes it config autonomously, or I will change it without remembering to use Chezmoi.

Of course, this isn't problematic on it's own since Chezmoi can merge/pull these changes in, but I find it likely that I will:

1. Have a destination file that's edited.
2. Work on something unrelated to it in the source.
3. Use chezmoi apply, not using --interactive or chezmoi diff prior.
4. Destroy data in a config I did not mean to - and without me knowing immediately.
5. Pain.

So far, I found that the only real way is to make sure I use chezmoi edit -a or chezmoi diff or chezmoi apply --interactive prior. But for obvious reasons, I'm going to forget and endure data loss, and being ultra careful at all times isn't exactly a 'solution' in my mind.

More or less, I wish Chezmoi had options to provide data loss mitigation or warnings by default. I'm hoping the community may offer suggestions from their experience, or point me in the right direction to using existing solutions that I am unaware of.

[twpayne]

chezmoi already does this.

You can always use chezmoi diff to see exactly what changes chezmoi will make to your system.

chezmoi apply will warn you if a file managed by chezmoi has been changed since chezmoi last wrote it.

chezmoi managed and chezmoi unmanaged tell you exactly which files are managed by chezmoi.

chezmoi encourages you to keep your dotfiles in version control, so you can always roll back to a previous version.

Of course, in the case of accidentally overwriting a file, you can always retrieve the file from your backup system. chezmoi is a dotfile manager, not a backup system.

More or less, I wish Chezmoi had options to provide data loss mitigation or warnings by default. I'm hoping the community may offer suggestions from their experience, or point me in the right direction to using existing solutions that I am unaware of.

What, exactly, do you think chezmoi should do that it doesn't do already?

[Xevion]

chezmoi apply will warn you if a file managed by chezmoi has been changed since chezmoi last wrote it.

I was unaware of this. Damn. 👀