chezmoi

Chezmoi

chezmoi is an open source tool for managing dotfiles and personal configuration files across multiple machines. It uses a version control system to store config files and sync changes between devices.
Os & Utilities Configuration Management
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dotfiles configuration management version-control
Chezmoi alternatives ➤

chezmoi: Open Source Tool for Dotfile Management

Automate your personal configuration file management with chezmoi, an open source tool storing config files in a version control system and syncing changes between devices.

What is Chezmoi?

chezmoi is an open source command line tool for managing personal configuration files across multiple machines. It allows you to version, synchronize and manage your dotfiles and configuration using Git or other version control systems.

Some key features of chezmoi include:

  • Keeps all your dotfiles and personal config files in a single, centralized Git repo
  • Encrypts sensitive parts of config files before storing them
  • Applies config changes incrementally to avoid unnecessary churn
  • Template system to manage files across different operating systems
  • Flexible and fast thanks to being written in Golang
  • Complements existing tools like Ansible, Puppet or Chef

chezmoi aims to make it easy to replicate your exact software setup across multiple servers, devices or operating systems. It borrows concepts from tools like Ansible while specifically focusing on personal user configs rather than system-wide server configs. If you manage multiple devices and want consistent dotfiles and configs across them, chezmoi is a great open source solution to try out.

Chezmoi Features

Features

  1. Version control system integration to manage dotfiles
  2. Flexible templating for generating config files
  3. Encryption of secret files
  4. Dry run mode to preview changes
  5. Scripting capabilities for advanced workflows

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Simple and organized dotfile management

Works across multiple machines and operating systems

Handles merging and conflict resolution

Secures sensitive data

Powerful functionality through scripts

Cons

Learning curve for configuration syntax

More involved setup compared to simple dotfile repos

Cryptic error messages at times

Not intuitive for non-developers

Official Links

Official Website
https://chezmoi.io/

The Best Chezmoi Alternatives

Top Os & Utilities and Configuration Management and other similar apps like Chezmoi

Here are some alternatives to Chezmoi:

Ansible icon
Ansible
Unison File Synchronizer icon
Unison File Synchronizer
GNU Stow icon
GNU Stow
Mackup icon
Mackup
Suggest an alternative ❐

Ansible icon

Ansible

Ansible, developed by Red Hat, is a powerful and open-source automation tool designed to simplify IT tasks ranging from configuration management to application deployment and task orchestration. Leveraging a simple and human-readable language, Ansible enables users to automate complex workflows, ensuring consistency, efficiency, and scalability across their IT infrastructure. At...
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Unison File Synchronizer icon

Unison File Synchronizer

Unison is an open source file synchronization and data replication tool for Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. It allows two replicas of a collection of files and directories to be stored on different hosts (or different disks on the same host), modified separately, and then brought up to date...
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GNU Stow icon

GNU Stow

GNU Stow is a free, open-source symlink manager software that helps organize programs installed from source code into separate directories, while symlinking their binaries into standard locations in the file system hierarchy. This allows multiple versions of the same software to coexist in separate locations, without interfering with each other.Some...
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Mackup icon

Mackup

Mackup is an open-source command line tool that helps sync application preferences and settings across systems. It works by storing configuration files from supported applications in cloud storage like Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive or any other storage service. When run on a new system, it downloads the configuration files and...
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