How to install pre-requisites for templates?

[felipecrs]

Some of my templates requires git and curl. As chezmoi executes the templates (computing source state) before executing run_before, what is the recommend way of installing the tools I need in the templates?

This is somewhat related to #1616, despite this applies to every template, not only to .chezmoiexternal.yaml.

[twpayne]

If your templates require git and curl then they are no longer templates.

Some suggestions:

• Wrap your call to chezmoi in a script that installs git and curl before calling chezmoi.
• Use a run_once_before_00_ script to install git and curl before your other run_once_before_ scripts get executed (chezmoi executes templates lazily when possible).
• If your needs extend beyond managing your personal dotfiles, then consider switching to a whole system management tool like Ansible, Chef, Puppet, or Salt, as described in the FAQ.

[twpayne]

Very good idea @felipecrs. Could you open a PR to add the FAQ entry?

[felipecrs]

Sure, let on me.

[felipecrs]

@twpayne I'm only trying to integrate this in my dotfiles today, and it doesn't seem to work as documented (felipecrs/dotfiles#113).

Nevertheless, we can now define pre-read-source-state hooks for this purpose.

So, I would recommend updating the documentation to point to the pre-read-source-state hook approach instead.

[twpayne]

I can't tell from felipecrs/dotfiles#113 what you're trying to achieve, what you expect to happen, or what is actually happening.

Could you make a minimal example that demonstrates the issue or propose an exact documentation change?

[felipecrs]

I was trying to achieve what this discussion concluded in, back in 2022: https://www.chezmoi.io/user-guide/frequently-asked-questions/usage/#how-do-i-install-pre-requisites-for-templates

The documentation says chezmoi will run the run_before script before templating other files as long the script is not a template itself. But it doesn't seem to be the case, at least for such minimal reproduction repo I built.

Here is the minimal repository: https://github.com/felipecrs/chezmoi-repro-template-pre-requisites

# enter in some container to avoid polluting your environment
❯ docker run --rm -it mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/base:ubuntu-22.04

$ sudo apt remove curl -y

$ git clone https://github.com/felipecrs/chezmoi-repro-template-pre-requisites

$ chezmoi-repro-template-pre-requisites/install.sh
Installing chezmoi to '/root/.local/bin/chezmoi'
info found version 2.48.0 for latest/linux/amd64
info installed /root/.local/bin/chezmoi
Running 'chezmoi init --apply --source=/home/felipecrs/repos/chezmoi-repro-template-pre-requisites'
💡 Tip: you can re-enter your name and email with `chezmoi init --data=false`.
chezmoi: /home/felipecrs/repos/chezmoi-repro-template-pre-requisites/.chezmoiexternal.yaml.tmpl: template: /home/felipecrs/repos/chezmoi-repro-template-pre-requisites/.chezmoiexternal.yaml.tmpl:1:10: executing "/home/felipecrs/repos/chezmoi-repro-template-pre-requisites/.chezmoiexternal.yaml.tmpl" at <output "curl" "--version">: error calling output: curl --version: exec: "curl": executable file not found in $PATH