Offline mode for .chezmoiexternal

[2-4601]

When I was working offline and run chezmoi apply I run into an error:

$ chezmoi apply --verbose
chezmoi: ~/.local/share/chezmoi/home/.chezmoiexternals/externals.toml: template:
~/.local/share/chezmoi/home/.chezmoiexternals/externals.toml:26:14: executing
"~/.local/share/chezmoi/home/.chezmoiexternals/externals.toml" at
<gitHubLatestReleaseAssetURL "mmaulwurff/autoautosave" "autoautosave-*.pk3">:
error calling gitHubLatestReleaseAssetURL: Get
"https://api.github.com/repos/mmaulwurff/autoautosave/releases/latest": dial
tcp: lookup api.github.com: Temporary failure in name resolution

I tried to skip externals completely by issuing:

$ chezmoi apply --verbose --refresh-externals never
chezmoi: ~/.local/share/chezmoi/home/.chezmoiexternals/externals.toml: template:
~/.local/share/chezmoi/home/.chezmoiexternals/externals.toml:26:14: executing
"~/.local/share/chezmoi/home/.chezmoiexternals/externals.toml" at <`
"mmaulwurff/autoautosave" "autoautosave-*.pk3">: error calling
gitHubLatestReleaseAssetURL: Get
"https://api.github.com/repos/mmaulwurff/autoautosave/releases/latest": dial
tcp: lookup api.github.com: Temporary failure in name resolution

But same issue.

As the error message says, the reason for the failure is gitHubLatestReleaseAssetURL. Should that function (and all template functions that use network) respect the refreshPeriod defined in the chezmoi externals file? But maybe that change might break too many things... 🤔

The section in my externals file looks like this:

["games/gzdoom/autoautosave.pk3"]
type = "file"
url = "{{ gitHubLatestReleaseAssetURL "mmaulwurff/autoautosave" "autoautosave-*.pk3" }}"
refreshPeriod = "{{ mul 24 7 }}h"

The easiest way to get past the network requirement was to temporarily remove the whole externals file. But maybe there is a better solution?

My simple use case is temporarily running chezmoi apply without requiring an internet connection.

Seems that an offline mode has been considered some time ago in #2354 (comment)

[twpayne]

You can use templating to disable .chezmoiexternals when an environment variable is set, for example:

{{ if not (env "OFFLINE") }}

["games/gzdoom/autoautosave.pk3"]
type = "file"
url = "{{ gitHubLatestReleaseAssetURL "mmaulwurff/autoautosave" "autoautosave-*.pk3" }}"
refreshPeriod = "{{ mul 24 7 }}h"

{{ end }}

Then set the $OFFLINE environment variable when you want to run chezmoi without network access, e.g.

$ OFFLINE=1 chezmoi apply

[2-4601]

Thanks Tom,

That is a brilliant and simple idea. Fits for my use case perfectly!