unmanaged

List the unmanaged files in the destination directory

The unmanaged command lists all files in your destination directory (typically your home directory) that are not managed by chezmoi.

Usage

chezmoi unmanaged [path]...

Description

The unmanaged command shows files that exist in your home directory but are not tracked by chezmoi. This is useful for:

• Finding files you might want to add to chezmoi
• Identifying files that should be in .chezmoiignore
• Cleaning up temporary or unnecessary files
• Auditing your dotfile coverage

Files listed in .chezmoiignore are not shown as unmanaged.

Flags

-x, --exclude · types

Exclude entry types (comma-separated: dirs, files, remove, scripts, symlinks, always, encrypted, externals, templates).

-i, --include · types

Include only specified entry types (comma-separated: dirs, files, remove, scripts, symlinks, always, encrypted, externals, templates).

-0, --nul-path-separator · boolean · default: "false"

Use NUL character as path separator. Useful for piping to xargs -0.

-p, --path-style · string · default: "relative"

Path style to use. Options:

• relative - Paths relative to home directory
• absolute - Absolute paths

-t, --tree · boolean · default: "false"

Print paths as a tree structure.

Examples

List all unmanaged files

chezmoi unmanaged

Output:

.bash_history
.cache
.local/bin/custom-script
Downloads
Documents

List with absolute paths

chezmoi unmanaged --path-style=absolute

Output:

/home/john/.bash_history
/home/john/.cache
/home/john/.local/bin/custom-script
/home/john/Downloads
/home/john/Documents

List in tree format

chezmoi unmanaged --tree

Output:

.
├── .bash_history
├── .cache
├── .local
│   └── bin
│       └── custom-script
├── Documents
└── Downloads

List unmanaged files in a specific directory

chezmoi unmanaged ~/.config

Shows unmanaged files only within ~/.config.

List only unmanaged regular files

chezmoi unmanaged --include=files

Excludes directories and symlinks.

Use with xargs

chezmoi unmanaged --nul-path-separator | xargs -0 ls -lh

Safely pass unmanaged files to other commands.

Common Workflows

Find dotfiles to add

Find configuration files that aren’t managed:

chezmoi unmanaged | grep "^\."

Output:

.bashrc-backup
.custom-config
.local-settings

Add important unmanaged files

# Find important configs
chezmoi unmanaged | grep -E "\.(bash|zsh|vim)rc"

# Add them
chezmoi add ~/.custom-bashrc

Identify files to ignore

Find files that should be in .chezmoiignore:

# Check for temporary or cache files
chezmoi unmanaged | grep -E "\.(log|cache|tmp)"

# Add to .chezmoiignore
echo ".*.log" >> ~/.local/share/chezmoi/.chezmoiignore

Clean up unmanaged files

# Review unmanaged files
chezmoi unmanaged --tree

# Remove temporary files
chezmoi unmanaged | grep -E "\.(tmp|bak|old)$" | xargs rm

Output Examples

Default output

$ chezmoi unmanaged
.bash_history
.cache
.lesshst
.viminfo  
Downloads

Tree view

$ chezmoi unmanaged --tree
.
├── .bash_history
├── .cache
│   ├── mozilla
│   └── pip
├── .lesshst
├── .viminfo
└── Downloads
    └── file.zip

In specific directory

$ chezmoi unmanaged ~/.config
.config/Slack
.config/discord  
.config/spotify

Filtering Examples

Find large unmanaged files

chezmoi unmanaged --path-style=absolute --include=files | \
  xargs du -h | \
  sort -rh | \
  head -20

Find unmanaged config files

chezmoi unmanaged ~/.config --include=files

Count unmanaged files

chezmoi unmanaged | wc -l

Understanding .chezmoiignore

Files matching patterns in .chezmoiignore won’t appear in unmanaged output:

# ~/.local/share/chezmoi/.chezmoiignore
.bash_history
.cache/
*.log
*.tmp
Downloads/
Documents/

After adding this, those files won’t show up:

$ chezmoi unmanaged
# Only shows files not in .chezmoiignore

Practical Examples

Audit dotfile coverage

Check which config files aren’t managed:

#!/bin/bash
echo "Unmanaged dotfiles:"
chezmoi unmanaged | grep "^\."

echo "\nManaged dotfiles:"
chezmoi managed | grep "^\."

Find unmanaged scripts

chezmoi unmanaged ~/.local/bin --include=files

Generate ignore patterns

Create .chezmoiignore entries from unmanaged files:

chezmoi unmanaged | grep -E "\.(cache|log|tmp)" > /tmp/to-ignore.txt

Interactive file addition

#!/bin/bash
for file in $(chezmoi unmanaged | grep "^\."); do
    echo "Add $file to chezmoi? (y/n)"
    read -r response
    if [ "$response" = "y" ]; then
        chezmoi add ~/$file
    fi
done

Performance Note

The unmanaged command may be slow on home directories with many files. To speed it up:

1. Add common directories to .chezmoiignore (Downloads, Documents, etc.)
2. Specify a subdirectory: chezmoi unmanaged ~/.config
3. Exclude file types: chezmoi unmanaged --exclude=dirs

Related Commands

• managed - List managed files
• add - Add unmanaged files to chezmoi
• status - Show status of managed files