`--follow` flag for `chezmoi apply`

[leonfeng]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I use WSL on Windows 11. The vast majority of my dotfiles sit in my Linux home folder. However, there are a few Windows config files that I'd like Chezmoi to manage.

So far, I have symlinked to and chezmoi add --followed these Windows config files. But when applying, Chezmoi overwrites the Linux symlinks instead of following them.

Describe the solution you'd like

A --follow flag will allow chezmoi apply to selectively overwrite the target files of the symlinks and not the symlinks themselves.

Describe alternatives you've considered

• Hardlinking doesn't work across file systems.
• chezmoi add requires the files to be in my Linux home folder so I can't add the Windows config files directly.
• Chezmoi's symlink mode isn't what I want, since most of my dotfiles are regular files.

Additional context

Right now I'm copying these config files between Windows and Linux each time there's a change, and it gets old very quickly. Thank you for reading my feature request!

[KapJI]

You should be able to manage Windows configs with .chezmoiignore and templates, there is no need for symlinks.

[halostatue]

I believe that what @leonfeng is looking for is running chezmoi once from their WSL instance where they have placed symlinks of Windows configuration files somewhere in that instance.

I don't see this being implemented because this makes chezmoi apply even less predictable in behaviour:

• if you forget to specify --follow, any symlinks will be removed and the files will be written instead.
• if you do not have the symlinks, the files will be written.
• if you have other symlinks, the files will be overwritten.

Additionally, on Windows/WSL you have the fact that Windows files use CRLF newlines and Linux — even under WSL — uses LF newlines.