2952168ed5
The docs implied that fish was not really supported, but if fish is managed by Home Manager, the generated config does use fenv to source the session-vars file. Update the installation instructions and FAQ to mention that fish does work, and mention fenv in the README.
388 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
388 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
Home Manager using Nix
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======================
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This project provides a basic system for managing a user environment
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using the [Nix][] package manager together with the Nix libraries
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found in [Nixpkgs][]. It allows declarative configuration of user
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specific (non global) packages and dotfiles.
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Before attempting to use Home Manager please read the warning below.
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For a more systematic overview of Home Manager and its available
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options, please see the [Home Manager manual][manual].
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Words of warning
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----------------
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Unfortunately, it is quite possible to get difficult to understand
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errors when working with Home Manager, such as infinite loops with no
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clear source reference. You should therefore be comfortable using the
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Nix language and the various tools in the Nix ecosystem. Reading
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through the [Nix Pills][] document is a good way to familiarize
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yourself with them.
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If you are not very familiar with Nix but still want to use Home
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Manager then you are strongly encouraged to start with a small and
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very simple configuration and gradually make it more elaborate as you
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learn.
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In some cases Home Manager cannot detect whether it will overwrite a
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previous manual configuration. For example, the Gnome Terminal module
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will write to your dconf store and cannot tell whether a configuration
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that it is about to be overwritten was from a previous Home Manager
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generation or from manual configuration.
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Home Manager targets [NixOS][] unstable and NixOS version 21.05 (the
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current stable version), it may or may not work on other Linux
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distributions and NixOS versions.
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Also, the `home-manager` tool does not explicitly support rollbacks at
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the moment so if your home directory gets messed up you'll have to fix
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it yourself. See the [rollbacks](#rollbacks) section for instructions
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on how to manually perform a rollback.
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Now when your expectations have been built up and you are eager to try
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all this out you can go ahead and read the rest of this text.
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Contact
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-------
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You can chat with us on IRC in the channel [#home-manager][] on
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[OFTC][].
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Installation
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------------
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Currently the easiest way to install Home Manager is as follows:
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1. Make sure you have a working Nix installation. Specifically, make
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sure that your user is able to build and install Nix packages. For
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example, you should be able to successfully run a command like
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`nix-instantiate '<nixpkgs>' -A hello` without having to switch to
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the root user. For a multi-user install of Nix this means that
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your user must be covered by the
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[`allowed-users`][nixAllowedUsers] Nix option. On NixOS you can
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control this option using the
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[`nix.allowedUsers`][nixosAllowedUsers] system option.
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Note that Nix 2.4 (`nixUnstable`) is not yet supported.
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2. Add the appropriate Home Manager channel. If you are following
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Nixpkgs master or an unstable channel you can run
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```console
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$ nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/archive/master.tar.gz home-manager
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$ nix-channel --update
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```
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and if you follow a Nixpkgs version 21.05 channel you can run
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```console
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$ nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/archive/release-21.05.tar.gz home-manager
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$ nix-channel --update
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```
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On NixOS you may need to log out and back in for the channel to
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become available. On non-NixOS you may have to add
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```shell
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export NIX_PATH=$HOME/.nix-defexpr/channels${NIX_PATH:+:}$NIX_PATH
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```
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to your shell (see [nix#2033](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/2033)).
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3. Install Home Manager and create the first Home Manager generation:
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```console
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$ nix-shell '<home-manager>' -A install
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```
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Once finished, Home Manager should be active and available in your
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user environment.
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3. If you do not plan on having Home Manager manage your shell
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configuration then you must source the
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```
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$HOME/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh
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```
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file in your shell configuration. This file can be sourced
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directly by POSIX.2-like shells such as [Bash][] or [Z shell][].
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For example, if you use Bash then add
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```bash
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. "$HOME/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh"
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```
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or this when managing home configuration together with system
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configuration
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```bash
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. "/etc/profiles/per-user/$USER/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh"
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```
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to your `~/.profile` file. For fish shell, it is possible to use
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[foreign-env](https://github.com/oh-my-fish/plugin-foreign-env) to
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source the file.
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If instead of using channels you want to run Home Manager from a Git
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checkout of the repository then you can use the
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`programs.home-manager.path` option to specify the absolute path to
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the repository.
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Usage
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-----
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Home Manager is typically managed through the `home-manager` tool.
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This tool can, for example, apply configurations to your home
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directory, list user packages installed by the tool, and list the
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configuration generations.
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As an example, let us expand the initial configuration file from the
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installation above to install the htop and fortune packages, install
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Emacs with a few extra packages enabled, install Firefox with
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smooth scrolling disabled, and enable the user gpg-agent service.
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To satisfy the above setup we should elaborate the
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`~/.config/nixpkgs/home.nix` file as follows:
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```nix
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{ pkgs, ... }:
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{
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home.packages = [
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pkgs.htop
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pkgs.fortune
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];
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programs.emacs = {
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enable = true;
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extraPackages = epkgs: [
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epkgs.nix-mode
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epkgs.magit
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];
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};
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programs.firefox = {
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enable = true;
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profiles = {
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myprofile = {
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settings = {
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"general.smoothScroll" = false;
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};
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};
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};
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};
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services.gpg-agent = {
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enable = true;
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defaultCacheTtl = 1800;
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enableSshSupport = true;
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};
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programs.home-manager = {
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enable = true;
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path = "…";
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};
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}
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```
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To activate this configuration you can then run
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```console
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$ home-manager switch
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```
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or if you are not feeling so lucky,
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```console
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$ home-manager build
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```
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which will create a `result` link to a directory containing an
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activation script and the generated home directory files.
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Documentation of available configuration options, including
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descriptions and usage examples, is available in the [Home Manager
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manual][configuration options] or offline by running
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```console
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$ man home-configuration.nix
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```
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Rollbacks
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---------
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While the `home-manager` tool does not explicitly support rollbacks at
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the moment it is relatively easy to perform one manually. The steps to
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do so are
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1. Run `home-manager generations` to determine which generation you
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wish to rollback to:
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```console
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$ home-manager generations
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2018-01-04 11:56 : id 765 -> /nix/store/kahm1rxk77mnvd2l8pfvd4jkkffk5ijk-home-manager-generation
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2018-01-03 10:29 : id 764 -> /nix/store/2wsmsliqr5yynqkdyjzb1y57pr5q2lsj-home-manager-generation
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2018-01-01 12:21 : id 763 -> /nix/store/mv960kl9chn2lal5q8lnqdp1ygxngcd1-home-manager-generation
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2017-12-29 21:03 : id 762 -> /nix/store/6c0k1r03fxckql4vgqcn9ccb616ynb94-home-manager-generation
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2017-12-25 18:51 : id 761 -> /nix/store/czc5y6vi1rvnkfv83cs3rn84jarcgsgh-home-manager-generation
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…
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```
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2. Copy the Nix store path of the generation you chose, e.g.,
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/nix/store/mv960kl9chn2lal5q8lnqdp1ygxngcd1-home-manager-generation
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for generation 763.
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3. Run the `activate` script inside the copied store path:
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```console
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$ /nix/store/mv960kl9chn2lal5q8lnqdp1ygxngcd1-home-manager-generation/activate
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Starting home manager activation
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…
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```
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Keeping your ~ safe from harm
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-----------------------------
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To configure programs and services Home Manager must write various
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things to your home directory. To prevent overwriting any existing
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files when switching to a new generation, Home Manager will attempt to
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detect collisions between existing files and generated files. If any
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such collision is detected the activation will terminate before
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changing anything on your computer.
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For example, suppose you have a wonderful, painstakingly created
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`~/.config/git/config` and add
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```nix
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{
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# …
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programs.git = {
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enable = true;
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userName = "Jane Doe";
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userEmail = "jane.doe@example.org";
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};
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# …
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}
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```
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to your configuration. Attempting to switch to the generation will
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then result in
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```console
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$ home-manager switch
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…
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Activating checkLinkTargets
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Existing file '/home/jdoe/.config/git/config' is in the way
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Please move the above files and try again
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```
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Graphical services
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------------------
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Home Manager includes a number of services intended to run in a
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graphical session, for example `xscreensaver` and `dunst`.
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Unfortunately, such services will not be started automatically unless
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you let Home Manager start your X session. That is, you have something
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like
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```nix
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{
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# …
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services.xserver.enable = true;
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# …
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}
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```
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in your system configuration and
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```nix
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{
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# …
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xsession.enable = true;
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xsession.windowManager.command = "…";
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# …
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}
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```
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in your Home Manager configuration.
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Nix Flakes
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----------
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Home Manager includes a `flake.nix` file for compatibility with [Nix Flakes][]
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for those that wish to use it as a module. A bare-minimum `flake.nix` would be
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as follows:
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```nix
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{
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description = "NixOS configuration";
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inputs = {
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nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
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home-manager.url = "github:nix-community/home-manager";
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};
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outputs = { home-manager, nixpkgs, ... }: {
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nixosConfigurations = {
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hostname = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
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system = "x86_64-linux";
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modules = [
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./configuration.nix
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home-manager.nixosModules.home-manager
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{
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home-manager.useGlobalPkgs = true;
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home-manager.useUserPackages = true;
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home-manager.users.jdoe = import ./home.nix;
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}
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];
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};
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};
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};
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}
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```
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Note, the Home Manager library is exported by the flake under
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`lib.hm`.
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When using flakes, switch to new configurations as you do for the
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whole system (e. g. `nixos-rebuild switch --flake <path>`) instead of
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using the `home-manager` command line tool.
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Releases
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--------
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Home Manager is developed against `nixpkgs-unstable` branch, which
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often causes it to contain tweaks for changes/packages not yet
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released in stable NixOS. To avoid breaking users' configurations,
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Home Manager is released in branches corresponding to NixOS releases
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(e.g. `release-21.05`). These branches get fixes, but usually not new
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modules. If you need a module to be backported, then feel free to open
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an issue.
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[Bash]: https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/
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[Nix]: https://nixos.org/nix/
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[NixOS]: https://nixos.org/
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[Nixpkgs]: https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/
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[nixAllowedUsers]: https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#conf-allowed-users
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[nixosAllowedUsers]: https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/options.html#opt-nix.allowedUsers
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[Z shell]: http://zsh.sourceforge.net/
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[manual]: https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/
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[configuration options]: https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/options.html
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[#home-manager]: https://webchat.oftc.net/?channels=home-manager
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[OFTC]: https://oftc.net/
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[samueldr]: https://github.com/samueldr/
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[Nix Pills]: https://nixos.org/nixos/nix-pills/
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[Nix Flakes]: https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Flakes
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