🧨 Dots Eject Guide

While Chezmoi is a powerful and recommended tool for managing dotfiles across multiple systems, we understand that some users may prefer to maintain their own independent distribution.

[!TIP] This guide helps you eject from chezmoi and take full manual control of your dotfiles — useful for advanced users or custom workflows.

---

🚀 Why Use Chezmoi?

Chezmoi offers:

• 🔁 Synchronization of dotfiles across machines
• 🧼 Separation of source/config vs. applied state
• 🔐 Secret management
• 🔧 Easy templating and onboarding of new environments

But if you no longer wish to use chezmoi, you can safely eject.

---

📦 How to Eject from Chezmoi

Follow the official guide here: 👉 Migrate away from chezmoi

The process includes:

1. Applying all changes to your home directory:

   chezmoi apply
   

2. Copying the real files to a new git-tracked directory:

   mkdir ~/my-dotfiles
   chezmoi managed --include=all | xargs -I {} cp --parents {} ~/my-dotfiles/
   cd ~/my-dotfiles && git init
   

3. Removing chezmoi from your workflow:

   sudo pacman -Rns chezmoi  # or appropriate command for your distro
   

Now you're managing your dotfiles fully manually or with your own tooling.

---

🧠 Things to Consider Before Ejecting

• ✅ Are you managing secrets that chezmoi helps encrypt?
• ✅ Do you still want templating, or are static files fine?
• ✅ Do you want a clean separation between machine-specific and shared config?

If the answer is “no” or “you want full control,” ejecting is a valid next step.

---

🆘 Need Help?

• Chezmoi Docs
• Dotfiles Discussions

Whether you stay with chezmoi or go fully manual, the goal is the same: dotfiles that reflect your ideal workflow. Choose the path that works best for you. 🛠️