Feature request: `.chezmoiunmanagedignore` file to filter `chezmoi unmanaged` output

[jkp]

Is your feature request related to a problem?

When using chezmoi unmanaged to find dotfiles that should be added to the source state, the output includes many paths that are intentionally not managed:

• XDG data/state directories (.local/share/, .local/state/)
• Tool-managed environments (.local/pipx/, virtual environments)
• Application runtime state (.config/gcloud/, .config/gh/)
• Downloaded plugins/assets (Spoons/, node_modules/)

These clutter the output and make it hard to spot files that actually need attention. Currently, there's no way to filter chezmoi unmanaged output without external tooling.

Describe the solution you'd like

A .chezmoiunmanagedignore file in the source directory that filters the output of chezmoi unmanaged. It would use the same gitignore-style patterns as .chezmoiignore.

Example .chezmoiunmanagedignore:

# XDG data directories (not config)
.local/share/
.local/state/

# Tool environments
.local/pipx/

# Runtime state
.config/gcloud/
.config/gh/

# Nested logs everywhere
**/logs/

Running chezmoi unmanaged would then exclude these paths from output.

Describe alternatives you've considered

1. Using .chezmoiignore - This prevents files from being applied, not from appearing in unmanaged output. Different purpose.

2. Global gitignore + external filtering - I implemented a wrapper that filters through both global gitignore and a custom ignore file. Works but requires shell-specific tooling.

3. Piping through grep - Manual and error-prone for complex patterns.

Additional context

I've implemented this as a fish shell wrapper that:

1. Calls chezmoi unmanaged
2. Filters output against a .chezmoiunmanagedignore file using gitignore patterns

This works well but feels like functionality that belongs in chezmoi itself, especially since it mirrors the existing .chezmoiignore pattern.

Related: #3608 (about empty directories in unmanaged output - different but complementary)

[twpayne]

Thank you for opening this issue!

A few thoughts:

• As there is a related issue (Do not list empty directories and directories with only ignored files/subdirectories in unmanaged output #3608, thank you for researching!) this enhancement would clearly help more than one person.
• As this is related to the unmanaged command only, adding a whole config file for this feels overly heavy. As a general guideline, chezmoi's source state should only declare the desired state of your home directory. Command-specific behavior is currently configured in chezmoi's config file.
• Which entries to ignore depends on the local machine. For example, ~/.config/gcloud/ is an XDG-specific path, whereas on macOS or Windows you might ignore something in ~/Library or whatever the Windows equivalent of that is.

What do you think about adding a configuration variable unmanaged.ignore which is a list of patterns that the unmanaged command ignores? Something like:

# ~/.config/chezmoi/chezmoi.toml
[unmanaged]
  ignore = [
    ".local/share/",
    ".local/state/",
    # ...
    "**/logs/",
  ]

As this would be part of your config file, you would be able to generate it with a config file template.

Your thoughts?