Home Manager using Nix ====================== This project provides a basic system for managing a user environment using the [Nix][] package manager together with the Nix libraries found in [Nixpkgs][]. It allows declarative configuration of user specific (non global) packages and dotfiles. Before attempting to use Home Manager please read the warning below. For a more systematic overview of Home Manager and its available options, please see the [Home Manager manual][manual]. If you would like to contribute to Home Manager then please have a look at the [contributing][] chapter of the manual. Words of warning ---------------- Unfortunately, it is quite possible to get difficult to understand errors when working with Home Manager, such as infinite loops with no clear source reference. You should therefore be comfortable using the Nix language and the various tools in the Nix ecosystem. Reading through the [Nix Pills][] document is a good way to familiarize yourself with them. If you are not very familiar with Nix but still want to use Home Manager then you are strongly encouraged to start with a small and very simple configuration and gradually make it more elaborate as you learn. In some cases Home Manager cannot detect whether it will overwrite a previous manual configuration. For example, the Gnome Terminal module will write to your dconf store and cannot tell whether a configuration that it is about to be overwritten was from a previous Home Manager generation or from manual configuration. Home Manager targets [NixOS][] unstable and NixOS version 21.11 (the current stable version), it may or may not work on other Linux distributions and NixOS versions. Also, the `home-manager` tool does not explicitly support rollbacks at the moment so if your home directory gets messed up you'll have to fix it yourself. See the [rollbacks](#rollbacks) section for instructions on how to manually perform a rollback. Now when your expectations have been built up and you are eager to try all this out you can go ahead and read the rest of this text. Contact ------- You can chat with us on IRC in the channel [#home-manager][] on [OFTC][]. There is also a [Matrix room](https://matrix.to/#/#hm:rycee.net), which is bridged to the IRC channel. Installation ------------ Home Manager can be used in three primary ways: 1. 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 home directory independently of the system as a whole. See [Standalone installation][manual standalone install] in the manual for instructions on how to perform this installation. 2. As a module within a NixOS system configuration. This allows the user profiles to be built together with the system when running `nixos-rebuild`. See [NixOS module installation][manual nixos install] in the manual for a description of this setup. 3. As a module within a [nix-darwin][] system configuration. This allows the user profiles to be built together with the system when running `darwin-rebuild`. See [nix-darwin module installation][manual nix-darwin install] in the manual for a description of this setup. Translations ------------ Home Manager has basic support for internationalization through [gettext](https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/). The translations are hosted by [Weblate](https://weblate.org/). If you would like to contribute to the translation effort then start by going to the [Home Manager Weblate project](https://hosted.weblate.org/engage/home-manager/). Translation status Nix Flakes ---------- Home Manager includes a `flake.nix` file for compatibility with [Nix Flakes][] for those that wish to use it as a module. A bare-minimum `flake.nix` would be as follows: ```nix { description = "NixOS configuration"; inputs = { nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable"; home-manager.url = "github:nix-community/home-manager"; # nix-darwin.url = "github:lnl7/nix-darwin"; }; outputs = inputs@{ home-manager, nixpkgs, ... }: { nixosConfigurations = { hostname = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem { system = "x86_64-linux"; modules = [ ./configuration.nix home-manager.nixosModules.home-manager { home-manager.useGlobalPkgs = true; home-manager.useUserPackages = true; home-manager.users.jdoe = import ./home.nix; # Optionally, use home-manager.extraSpecialArgs to pass # arguments to home.nix } ]; }; }; # You do not need this unless you are using the nix-darwin project darwinConfigurations = { hostname = inputs.nix-darwin.lib.darwinSystem { system = "x86_64-darwin"; modules = [ ./configuration.nix home-manager.darwinModules.home-manager { home-manager.useGlobalPkgs = true; home-manager.useUserPackages = true; home-manager.users.jdoe = import ./home.nix; } ]; }; }; }; } ``` The Home Manager configuration is then part of the NixOS/Darwin configuration and is automatically rebuilt with the system when using the appropriate command for the system, such as `nixos-rebuild switch --flake ` for NixOS, and `darwin-rebuild switch --flake ` with nix-darwin. If you are not using NixOS you can place the following flake in `~/.config/nixpkgs/flake.nix` to load your standard Home Manager configuration: ```nix { description = "A Home Manager flake"; inputs = { nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-unstable"; home-manager.url = "github:nix-community/home-manager"; home-manager.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs"; }; outputs = inputs: { homeConfigurations = { jdoe = inputs.home-manager.lib.homeManagerConfiguration { system = "x86_64-linux"; homeDirectory = "/home/jdoe"; username = "jdoe"; configuration.imports = [ ./home.nix ]; }; }; }; } ``` Note, the Home Manager library is exported by the flake under `lib.hm`. When using flakes, switch to new configurations with `home-manager switch --flake `. Releases -------- Home Manager is developed against `nixpkgs-unstable` branch, which often causes it to contain tweaks for changes/packages not yet released in stable NixOS. To avoid breaking users' configurations, Home Manager is released in branches corresponding to NixOS releases (e.g. `release-21.11`). These branches get fixes, but usually not new modules. If you need a module to be backported, then feel free to open an issue. License ------- This project is licensed under the terms of the [MIT license](LICENSE). [Nix]: https://nixos.org/nix/ [NixOS]: https://nixos.org/ [Nixpkgs]: https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/ [manual]: https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/ [contributing]: https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/#ch-contributing [manual usage]: https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/#ch-usage [configuration options]: https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/options.html [#home-manager]: https://webchat.oftc.net/?channels=home-manager [OFTC]: https://oftc.net/ [Nix Pills]: https://nixos.org/nixos/nix-pills/ [Nix Flakes]: https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Flakes [nix-darwin]: https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin/ [manual standalone install]: https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/index.html#sec-install-standalone [manual nixos install]: https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/index.html#sec-install-nixos-module [manual nix-darwin install]: https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/index.html#sec-install-nix-darwin-module