Migrating from another dotfile manager

Migrate from a dotfile manager that uses symlinks

Many dotfile managers replace dotfiles with symbolic links to files in a common directory. If you chezmoi add such a symlink, chezmoi will add the symlink, not the file. To assist with migrating from symlink-based systems, use the --follow option to chezmoi add, for example:

chezmoi add --follow ~/.bashrc

This will tell chezmoi add that the target state of ~/.bashrc is the target of the ~/.bashrc symlink, rather than the symlink itself. When you run chezmoi apply, chezmoi will replace the ~/.bashrc symlink with the file contents.