c4a9546831
This avoids the uncontrollable nature of fetching the tarball as part
of the evaluation. Instead the user can decide when to update and also
perform rollbacks, if necessary.
(cherry picked from commit a37b5c9c61)
293 lines
8.1 KiB
Markdown
293 lines
8.1 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 18.09 (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. 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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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/$USER
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```
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since Home Manager uses these directories to manage your profile
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generations. On NixOS these should already be available.
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Also make sure that your user is able to build and install Nix
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packages. For example, you should be able to successfully run a
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command like `nix-instantiate '<nixpkgs>' -A hello`. For a
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multi-user install of Nix this means that your user must be
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covered by the [`allowed-users`][nixAllowedUsers] Nix option. On
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NixOS you can control this option using the
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[`nix.allowedUsers`][nixosAllowedUsers] system option.
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2. Add the appropriate Home Manager channel. Typically this is
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```console
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$ nix-channel --add https://github.com/rycee/home-manager/archive/master.tar.gz home-manager
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$ nix-channel --update
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```
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if you are following Nixpkgs master or an unstable channel and
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```console
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$ nix-channel --add https://github.com/rycee/home-manager/archive/release-18.09.tar.gz home-manager
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$ nix-channel --update
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```
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if you follow a Nixpkgs version 18.09 channel.
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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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"$HOME/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh"
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```
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file in your shell configuration. Unfortunately, we currently only
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support POSIX.2-like shells such as [Bash][] or [Z shell][].
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For example, if you use Bash then add
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```bash
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. "$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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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 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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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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`~/.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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[configuration options]: https://rycee.gitlab.io/home-manager/options.html
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