Table of Contents
ca.desrt.dconf or dconf.service? Table of Contents
ca.desrt.dconf or dconf.service? This manual will eventually describe how to install, use, and extend Home Manager.
If you encounter problems then please reach out on the IRC channel #home-manager @@ -45,6 +45,18 @@ be reported on the Home Manager issue tracker.
Commands prefixed with $ sudo have to be run as root, either
requiring to login as root user or temporarily switching to it using
sudo for example.
Home Manager is a Nix-powered tool for reproducible management of the contents of users’ home directories. +This includes programs, configuration files, environment variables and, well… arbitrary files. +The following example snippet of Nix code:
programs.git = {
+ enable = true;
+ userEmail = "joe@example.org";
+ userName = "joe";
+};
+would make available to a user the git executable and man pages and a configuration file ~/.config/git/config:
[user]
+ email = "joe@example.org"
+ name = "joe"
+Since Home Manager is implemented in Nix, it provides several benefits:
Contents are reproducible — a home will be the exact same every time it is built, unless of course, an intentional change is made. +This also means you can have the exact same home on different hosts.
Significantly faster and more powerful than various backup strategies.
Unlike “dotfiles” repositories, Home Manager supports specifying programs, as well as their configurations.
Supported by http://cache.nixos.org/, so that you don’t have to build from source.
If you do want to build some programs from source, there is hardly a tool more useful than Nix for that, and the build instructions can be neatly integrated in your Home Manager usage.
Infinitely composable, so that values in different configuration files and build instructions can share a source of truth.
Connects you with the most extensive and most up-to-date software package repository on earth, Nixpkgs.
Home Manager can be used in three primary ways:
Using the standalone home-manager tool. For platforms other than
NixOS and Darwin, this is the only available choice. It is also
recommended for people on NixOS or Darwin that want to manage their