4f9158e533
If a user does not want to manage their shell configuration through Home Manager then they have to manually make sure that the session variables are set.
268 lines
6.9 KiB
Markdown
268 lines
6.9 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][]. Before attempting to use Home Manager please
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read the warning below.
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Words of warning
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----------------
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This project is under development. I personally use it to manage
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several user configurations but it may fail catastrophically for you.
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So beware!
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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 overwrite 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 17.09 (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 (you can attempt to run the activation script for the
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desired generation).
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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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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. If you are not
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using NixOS then you may here have to run
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```console
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$ mkdir -m 0755 -p /nix/var/nix/{profiles,gcroots}/per-user/$USER
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```
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since Home Manager uses these directories to manage your profile
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generations. On NixOS these should already be available.
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Also make sure that your user is able to build and install Nix
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packages. For example, you should be able to successfully run a
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command like `nix-instantiate '<nixpkgs>' -A hello`. For a
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multi-user install of Nix this means that your user must be
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covered by the [`allowed-users`][nixAllowedUsers] Nix option. On
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NixOS you can control this option using the
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[`nix.allowedUsers`][nixosAllowedUsers] system option.
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2. Assign a temporary variable holding the URL to the appropriate
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archive. Typically this is
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```console
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$ HM_PATH=https://github.com/rycee/home-manager/archive/master.tar.gz
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```
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or
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```console
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$ HM_PATH=https://github.com/rycee/home-manager/archive/release-17.09.tar.gz
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```
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depending on whether you follow Nixpkgs unstable or version 17.09.
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3. Create an initial Home Manager configuration file:
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```console
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$ cat > ~/.config/nixpkgs/home.nix <<EOF
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{
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programs.home-manager.enable = true;
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programs.home-manager.path = $HM_PATH;
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}
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EOF
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```
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4. Install Home Manager and create the first Home Manager generation:
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```console
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$ nix-shell $HM_PATH -A install
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```
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Home Manager should now be active and available in your user
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environment.
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5. If you do not plan on having Home Manager manage your shell
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configuration then you must source the
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```
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"$HOME/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh"
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```
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file in your shell configuration. Unfortunately, we currently only
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support 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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to your `~/.profile` file.
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Note, because the `HM_PATH` variable above points to the live Home
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Manager repository you will automatically get updates whenever you
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build a new generation. If you dislike automatic updates then perform
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a Git clone of the desired branch and instead do the above steps with
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`HM_PATH` set to the _absolute path_ of your clone.
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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 the
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IcedTea plugin enabled, 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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enableIcedTea = true;
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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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To see available configuration options with descriptions and usage
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examples run
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```console
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$ man home-configuration.nix
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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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`~/.gitconfig` 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/.gitconfig' 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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[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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