Is there an outline for the order of execution for each of chezmoi's features?

[bradenhilton]

I've skimmed through the docs and haven't noticed anything resembling this.

An example question I had - where in the pipeline (for want of a better word) are files from .chezmoiexternal downloaded? During the target state generation? Can they be used in run_before_ scripts, or are those scripts run before externals are downloaded?

Does create_ run before modify_? etc.

Perhaps this could be added to the docs if it does not exist.

[twpayne]

The order is:

1. run_before_ scripts in alphabetical order.
2. Targets (files, directories, scripts, symlinks, etc.) in alphabetical order of target name.
3. run_after_ scripts in alphabetical order.

[twpayne]

Note also that the full state is read, then things are executed in order. This means that, for example, if you have a run_before_ script that creates a run_after_ script (shudder - you should never use chezmoi to modify anything in the source directory) then the run_after_ script won't get run until then next time you run chezmoi apply.

[bradenhilton]

I was aware of the run_ ordering but I suppose I erroneously assumed there would be more to it than just the target name.

Thanks for the quick response anyway.

[twpayne]

I added 6e97b5d to include this in the docs. Thank you for the question :)

[gadams999]

Can you also do run_once_before_, or run_before_once_?

[twpayne]

The order of attributes is important. You have to use run_once_before_. See the section on source state attributes in the reference manual for more information.