Application order

chezmoi is deterministic in its order of application. The order is:

1. Read the source state.
2. Read the destination state.
3. Compute the target state.
4. Run run_before_ scripts in alphabetical order.
5. Update entries in the target state (files, directories, externals, scripts, symlinks, etc.) in alphabetical order of their target name. Directories (including those created by externals) are updated before the files they contain.
6. Run run_after_ scripts in alphabetical order.

Target names are considered after all attributes are stripped.

!!! example

Given `create_alpha` and `modify_dot_beta` in the source state, `.beta`
will be updated before `alpha` because `.beta` sorts before `alpha`.

chezmoi assumes that the source or destination states are not modified while chezmoi is being executed. This assumption permits significant performance improvements, including allowing chezmoi to only read files from the source and destination states if they are needed to compute the target state.

chezmoi's behavior when the above assumptions are violated is undefined. For example, using a run_before_ script to update files in the source or destination states violates the assumption that the source and destination states do not change while chezmoi is running.

!!! note

External sources are updated during the update phase; it is inadvisable for
a `run_before_` script to depend on an external applied *during* the update
phase. `run_after_` scripts may freely depend on externals.