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<div><h1 class="title"><a id="home-manager-manual"></a>Home Manager Manual</h1></div>
<div><h2 class="subtitle">Version 23.11</h2></div>
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<div class="toc"> <p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p> <dl class="toc"> <dt> <span class="preface"> <a href="index.xhtml#preface">Preface</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="part"> <a href="index.xhtml#ch-installation">Installing Home Manager</a> </span></dt><dd><dl><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-install-standalone">Standalone installation</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-install-nixos-module">NixOS module</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-install-nix-darwin-module">nix-darwin module</a> </span></dt></dl></dd><dt> <span class="part"> <a href="index.xhtml#ch-usage">Using Home Manager</a> </span></dt><dd><dl><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-usage-configuration">Configuration Example</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-usage-rollbacks">Rollbacks</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-usage-dotfiles">Keeping your ~ safe from harm</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-usage-graphical">Graphical services</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-updating">Updating</a> </span></dt></dl></dd><dt> <span class="part"> <a href="index.xhtml#ch-nix-flakes">Nix Flakes</a> </span></dt><dd><dl><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-flakes-prerequisites">Prerequisites</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-flakes-standalone">Standalone setup</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-flakes-nixos-module">NixOS module</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-flakes-nix-darwin-module">nix-darwin module</a> </span></dt></dl></dd><dt> <span class="part"> <a href="index.xhtml#ch-writing-modules">Writing Home Manager Modules</a> </span></dt><dd><dl><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-option-types">Option Types</a> </span></dt></dl></dd><dt> <span class="part"> <a href="index.xhtml#ch-contributing">Contributing</a> </span></dt><dd><dl><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-contrib-getting-started">Getting started</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-guidelines">Guidelines</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-news">News</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-tests">Tests</a> </span></dt></dl></dd><dt> <span class="part"> <a href="index.xhtml#ch-3rd-party">Third-Party Tools and Extensions</a> </span></dt><dd><dl><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-3rd-party-module-collections">Module Collections</a> </span></dt></dl></dd><dt> <span class="part"> <a href="index.xhtml#ch-faq">Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)</a> </span></dt><dd><dl><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#_why_is_there_a_collision_error_when_switching_generation">Why is there a collision error when switching generation?</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#_why_are_the_session_variables_not_set">Why are the session variables not set?</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#_how_to_set_up_a_configuration_for_multiple_users_machines">How to set up a configuration for multiple users/machines?</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#_why_do_i_get_an_error_message_about_literal_ca_desrt_dconf_literal_or_literal_dconf_service_literal">Why do I get an error message about <code class="literal">ca.desrt.dconf</code> or <code class="literal">dconf.service</code>?</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#_how_do_i_install_packages_from_nixpkgs_unstable">How do I install packages from Nixpkgs unstable?</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#_how_do_i_override_the_package_used_by_a_module">How do I override the package used by a module?</a> </span></dt></dl></dd><dt> <span class="appendix"> <a href="options.html">A. Home Manager Configuration Options</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="appendix"> <a href="nixos-options.html">B. NixOS Configuration Options</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="appendix"> <a href="nix-darwin-options.html">C. nix-darwin Configuration Options</a> </span></dt> </dl></div>
<div class="preface"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h1 class="title" > <a id="preface"></a>Preface </h1> </div> </div></div><p>This manual will eventually describe how to install, use, and extend Home
Manager.</p><p>If you encounter problems then please reach out on the IRC channel
<a class="link" href="https://webchat.oftc.net/?channels=home-manager" target="_top">#home-manager</a>
hosted by <a class="link" href="https://oftc.net/" target="_top">OFTC</a>.
There is also a <a class="link" href="https://matrix.to/#/%23hm:rycee.net" target="_top">Matrix room</a>,
which is bridged to the IRC channel.
If your problem is caused by a bug in Home Manager then it should
be reported on the
<a class="link" href="https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/issues" target="_top">Home Manager issue tracker</a>.</p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>Commands prefixed with <code class="literal">$ sudo</code> have to be run as root, either
requiring to login as root user or temporarily switching to it using
<code class="literal">sudo</code> for example.</p></div>
</div><div class="part"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h1 class="title" > <a id="ch-installation"></a>Installing Home Manager </h1> </div> </div></div><div class="partintro"><p>Home Manager can be used in three primary ways:</p><div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist " type="1"><li class="listitem"><p>Using the standalone <code class="literal">home-manager</code> 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
<a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-install-standalone" title="Standalone installation" >Standalone installation</a> for instructions
on how to perform this installation.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>As a module within a NixOS system configuration. This allows the
user profiles to be built together with the system when running
<code class="literal">nixos-rebuild</code>. See <a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-install-nixos-module" title="NixOS module" >NixOS module</a> for a
description of this setup.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>As a module within a
<a class="link" href="https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin/" target="_top">nix-darwin</a> system
configuration. This allows the user profiles to be built together
with the system when running <code class="literal">darwin-rebuild</code>. See <a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-install-nix-darwin-module" title="nix-darwin module" >nix-darwin
module</a> for a description of this
setup.</p></li></ol></div><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>In this chapter we describe how to install Home Manager in the standard
way using channels. If you prefer to use <a class="link" href="https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Flakes" target="_top">Nix
Flakes</a> then please see the instructions
in <a class="link" href="index.xhtml#ch-nix-flakes" title="Nix Flakes" >nix flakes</a>.</p></div><div class="toc"> <p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p> <dl class="toc"> <dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-install-standalone">Standalone installation</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-install-nixos-module">NixOS module</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-install-nix-darwin-module">nix-darwin module</a> </span></dt> </dl></div></div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="sec-install-standalone"></a>Standalone installation </h2> </div> </div></div><div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist " type="1"><li class="listitem"><p>Make sure you have a working Nix installation. Specifically, make
sure that your user is able to build and install Nix packages. For
example, you should be able to successfully run a command like
<code class="literal">nix-instantiate &#x27;&lt;nixpkgs&gt;&#x27; -A hello</code> without having to switch to
the root user. For a multi-user install of Nix this means that your
user must be covered by the
<a class="link" href="https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#conf-allowed-users" target="_top"><code class="literal">allowed-users</code></a>
Nix option. On NixOS you can control this option using the
<a class="link" href="https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/options.html#opt-nix.settings.allowed-users" target="_top"><code class="literal">nix.settings.allowed-users</code></a>
system option.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Add the appropriate Home Manager channel. If you are following
Nixpkgs master or an unstable channel you can run</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/archive/master.tar.gz home-manager
$ nix-channel --update
</code></pre><p>and if you follow a Nixpkgs version 23.11 channel you can run</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/archive/release-23.11.tar.gz home-manager
$ nix-channel --update
</code></pre></li><li class="listitem"><p>Run the Home Manager installation command and create the first Home
Manager generation:</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix-shell &#x27;&lt;home-manager&gt;&#x27; -A install
</code></pre><p>Once finished, Home Manager should be active and available in your
user environment.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>If you do not plan on having Home Manager manage your shell
configuration then you must source the</p><pre><code class="programlisting bash">$HOME/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh
</code></pre><p>file in your shell configuration. Alternatively source</p><pre><code class="programlisting bash">/etc/profiles/per-user/$USER/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh
</code></pre><p>when managing home configuration together with system configuration.</p><p>This file can be sourced directly by POSIX.2-like shells such as
<a class="link" href="https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/" target="_top">Bash</a> or <a class="link" href="http://zsh.sourceforge.net/" target="_top">Z
shell</a>. <a class="link" href="https://fishshell.com" target="_top">Fish</a>
users can use utilities such as
<a class="link" href="https://github.com/oh-my-fish/plugin-foreign-env" target="_top">foreign-env</a> or
<a class="link" href="https://github.com/bouk/babelfish" target="_top">babelfish</a>.</p><p>For example, if you use Bash then add</p><pre><code class="programlisting bash">. &quot;$HOME/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh&quot;
</code></pre><p>to your <code class="literal">~/.profile</code> file.</p></li></ol></div><p>If instead of using channels you want to run Home Manager from a Git
checkout of the repository then you can use the
<a class="link" href="options.html#opt-programs.home-manager.path" >home-manager.path</a> option to specify the absolute
path to the repository.</p><p>Once installed you can see <a class="link" href="index.xhtml#ch-usage" title="Using Home Manager" >Using Home Manager</a> for a more detailed
description of Home Manager and how to use it.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="sec-install-nixos-module"></a>NixOS module </h2> </div> </div></div><p>Home Manager provides a NixOS module that allows you to prepare user
environments directly from the system configuration file, which often is
more convenient than using the <code class="literal">home-manager</code> tool. It also opens up
additional possibilities, for example, to automatically configure user
environments in NixOS declarative containers or on systems deployed
through NixOps.</p><p>To make the NixOS module available for use you must <code class="literal">import</code> it into
your system configuration. This is most conveniently done by adding a
Home Manager channel to the root user. For example, if you are following
Nixpkgs master or an unstable channel, you can run</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ sudo nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/archive/master.tar.gz home-manager
$ sudo nix-channel --update
</code></pre><p>and if you follow a Nixpkgs version 23.11 channel, you can run</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ sudo nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/archive/release-23.11.tar.gz home-manager
$ sudo nix-channel --update
</code></pre><p>It is then possible to add</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">imports = [ &lt;home-manager/nixos&gt; ];
</code></pre><p>to your system <code class="literal">configuration.nix</code> file, which will introduce a new
NixOS option called <code class="literal">home-manager.users</code> whose type is an attribute set
that maps user names to Home Manager configurations.</p><p>For example, a NixOS configuration may include the lines</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">users.users.eve.isNormalUser = true;
home-manager.users.eve = { pkgs, ... }: {
home.packages = [ pkgs.atool pkgs.httpie ];
programs.bash.enable = true;
# The state version is required and should stay at the version you
# originally installed.
home.stateVersion = &quot;23.11&quot;;
};
</code></pre><p>and after a <code class="literal">sudo nixos-rebuild switch</code> the user eve’s environment
should include a basic Bash configuration and the packages atool and
httpie.</p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>If <code class="literal">nixos-rebuild switch</code> does not result in the environment you expect,
you can take a look at the output of the Home Manager activation script
output using</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ systemctl status &quot;home-manager-$USER.service&quot;
</code></pre></div><p>If you do not plan on having Home Manager manage your shell
configuration then you must add either</p><pre><code class="programlisting bash">. &quot;$HOME/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh&quot;
</code></pre><p>or</p><pre><code class="programlisting bash">. &quot;/etc/profiles/per-user/$USER/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh&quot;
</code></pre><p>to your shell configuration, depending on whether
<a class="link" href="nixos-options.html#nixos-opt-home-manager.useUserPackages" >home-manager.useUserPackages</a> is enabled. This file can
be sourced directly by POSIX.2-like shells such as
<a class="link" href="https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/" target="_top">Bash</a> or <a class="link" href="http://zsh.sourceforge.net/" target="_top">Z
shell</a>. <a class="link" href="https://fishshell.com" target="_top">Fish</a> users
can use utilities such as
<a class="link" href="https://github.com/oh-my-fish/plugin-foreign-env" target="_top">foreign-env</a> or
<a class="link" href="https://github.com/bouk/babelfish" target="_top">babelfish</a>.</p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>By default packages will be installed to <code class="literal">$HOME/.nix-profile</code> but they
can be installed to <code class="literal">/etc/profiles</code> if</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">home-manager.useUserPackages = true;
</code></pre><p>is added to the system configuration. This is necessary if, for example,
you wish to use <code class="literal">nixos-rebuild build-vm</code>. This option may become the
default value in the future.</p></div><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>By default, Home Manager uses a private <code class="literal">pkgs</code> instance that is
configured via the <code class="literal">home-manager.users.&lt;name&gt;.nixpkgs</code> options. To
instead use the global <code class="literal">pkgs</code> that is configured via the system level
<code class="literal">nixpkgs</code> options, set</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">home-manager.useGlobalPkgs = true;
</code></pre><p>This saves an extra Nixpkgs evaluation, adds consistency, and removes
the dependency on <code class="literal">NIX_PATH</code>, which is otherwise used for importing
Nixpkgs.</p></div><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>Home Manager will pass <code class="literal">osConfig</code> as a module argument to any modules
you create. This contains the system’s NixOS configuration.</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">{ lib, pkgs, osConfig, ... }:
</code></pre></div><p>Once installed you can see <a class="link" href="index.xhtml#ch-usage" title="Using Home Manager" >Using Home Manager</a> for a more detailed
description of Home Manager and how to use it.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="sec-install-nix-darwin-module"></a>nix-darwin module </h2> </div> </div></div><p>Home Manager provides a module that allows you to prepare user
environments directly from the
<a class="link" href="https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin/" target="_top">nix-darwin</a> configuration file,
which often is more convenient than using the <code class="literal">home-manager</code> tool.</p><p>To make the NixOS module available for use you must <code class="literal">import</code> it into
your system configuration. This is most conveniently done by adding a
Home Manager channel. For example, if you are following Nixpkgs master
or an unstable channel, you can run</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/archive/master.tar.gz home-manager
$ nix-channel --update
</code></pre><p>and if you follow a Nixpkgs version 23.11 channel, you can run</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/archive/release-23.11.tar.gz home-manager
$ nix-channel --update
</code></pre><p>It is then possible to add</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">imports = [ &lt;home-manager/nix-darwin&gt; ];
</code></pre><p>to your nix-darwin <code class="literal">configuration.nix</code> file, which will introduce a new
NixOS option called <code class="literal">home-manager</code> whose type is an attribute set that
maps user names to Home Manager configurations.</p><p>For example, a nix-darwin configuration may include the lines</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">users.users.eve = {
name = &quot;eve&quot;;
home = &quot;/Users/eve&quot;;
}
home-manager.users.eve = { pkgs, ... }: {
home.packages = [ pkgs.atool pkgs.httpie ];
programs.bash.enable = true;
# The state version is required and should stay at the version you
# originally installed.
home.stateVersion = &quot;23.11&quot;;
};
</code></pre><p>and after a <code class="literal">darwin-rebuild switch</code> the user eve’s environment should
include a basic Bash configuration and the packages atool and httpie.</p><p>If you do not plan on having Home Manager manage your shell
configuration then you must add either</p><pre><code class="programlisting bash">. &quot;$HOME/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh&quot;
</code></pre><p>or</p><pre><code class="programlisting bash">. &quot;/etc/profiles/per-user/$USER/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh&quot;
</code></pre><p>to your shell configuration, depending on whether
<a class="link" href="nix-darwin-options.html#nix-darwin-opt-home-manager.useUserPackages" >home-manager.useUserPackages</a> is enabled. This
file can be sourced directly by POSIX.2-like shells such as
<a class="link" href="https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/" target="_top">Bash</a> or <a class="link" href="http://zsh.sourceforge.net/" target="_top">Z
shell</a>. <a class="link" href="https://fishshell.com" target="_top">Fish</a> users
can use utilities such as
<a class="link" href="https://github.com/oh-my-fish/plugin-foreign-env" target="_top">foreign-env</a> or
<a class="link" href="https://github.com/bouk/babelfish" target="_top">babelfish</a>.</p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>By default user packages will not be ignored in favor of
<code class="literal">environment.systemPackages</code>, but they will be installed to
<code class="literal">/etc/profiles/per-user/$USERNAME</code> if</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">home-manager.useUserPackages = true;
</code></pre><p>is added to the nix-darwin configuration. This option may become the
default value in the future.</p></div><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>By default, Home Manager uses a private <code class="literal">pkgs</code> instance that is
configured via the <code class="literal">home-manager.users.&lt;name&gt;.nixpkgs</code> options. To
instead use the global <code class="literal">pkgs</code> that is configured via the system level
<code class="literal">nixpkgs</code> options, set</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">home-manager.useGlobalPkgs = true;
</code></pre><p>This saves an extra Nixpkgs evaluation, adds consistency, and removes
the dependency on <code class="literal">NIX_PATH</code>, which is otherwise used for importing
Nixpkgs.</p></div><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>Home Manager will pass <code class="literal">osConfig</code> as a module argument to any modules
you create. This contains the system’s nix-darwin configuration.</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">{ lib, pkgs, osConfig, ... }:
</code></pre></div><p>Once installed you can see <a class="link" href="index.xhtml#ch-usage" title="Using Home Manager" >Using Home Manager</a> for a more detailed
description of Home Manager and how to use it.</p>
</div>
</div><div class="part"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h1 class="title" > <a id="ch-usage"></a>Using Home Manager </h1> </div> </div></div><div class="partintro"><p>Your use of Home Manager is centered around the configuration file,
which is typically found at <code class="literal">~/.config/home-manager/home.nix</code> in the
standard installation or <code class="literal">~/.config/home-manager/flake.nix</code> in a Nix
flake based installation.</p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>The default configuration used to be placed in <code class="literal">~/.config/nixpkgs</code>¸ so
you may see references to that elsewhere. The old directory still works
but Home Manager will print a warning message when used.</p></div><p>This configuration file can be <span class="emphasis"><em>built</em></span> and <span class="emphasis"><em>activated</em></span>.</p><p>Building a configuration produces a directory in the Nix store that
contains all files and programs that should be available in your home
directory and Nix user profile, respectively. The build step also checks
that the configuration is valid and it will fail with an error if you,
for example, assign a value to an option that does not exist or assign a
value of the wrong type. Some modules also have custom assertions that
perform more detailed, module specific, checks.</p><p>Concretely, if your configuration contains</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">programs.emacs.enable = &quot;yes&quot;;
</code></pre><p>then building it, for example using <code class="literal">home-manager build</code>, will result in
an error message saying something like</p><pre><code class="programlisting console">$ home-manager build
error: A definition for option `programs.emacs.enable&#x27; is not of type `boolean&#x27;. Definition values:
- In `/home/jdoe/.config/home-manager/home.nix&#x27;: &quot;yes&quot;
(use &#x27;--show-trace&#x27; to show detailed location information)
</code></pre><p>The message indicates that you must provide a Boolean value for this
option, that is, either <code class="literal">true</code> or <code class="literal">false</code>. The documentation of each
option will state the expected type, for
<a class="link" href="options.html#opt-programs.emacs.enable" >programs.emacs.enable</a> you will see “Type: boolean”. You
there also find information about the default value and a description of
the option. You can find the complete option documentation in
<a class="link" href="options.html" title="Appendix A. Home Manager Configuration Options" >Home Manager Configuration Options</a> or directly in the terminal by running</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">man home-configuration.nix
</code></pre><p>Once a configuration is successfully built, it can be activated. The
activation performs the steps necessary to make the files, programs, and
services available in your user environment. The <code class="literal">home-manager switch</code>
command performs a combined build and activation.</p><div class="toc"> <p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p> <dl class="toc"> <dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-usage-configuration">Configuration Example</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-usage-rollbacks">Rollbacks</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-usage-dotfiles">Keeping your ~ safe from harm</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-usage-graphical">Graphical services</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-updating">Updating</a> </span></dt> </dl></div></div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="sec-usage-configuration"></a>Configuration Example </h2> </div> </div></div><p>A fresh install of Home Manager will generate a minimal
<code class="literal">~/.config/home-manager/home.nix</code> file containing something like</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
# Home Manager needs a bit of information about you and the
# paths it should manage.
home.username = &quot;jdoe&quot;;
home.homeDirectory = &quot;/home/jdoe&quot;;
# This value determines the Home Manager release that your
# configuration is compatible with. This helps avoid breakage
# when a new Home Manager release introduces backwards
# incompatible changes.
#
# You can update Home Manager without changing this value. See
# the Home Manager release notes for a list of state version
# changes in each release.
home.stateVersion = &quot;23.11&quot;;
# Let Home Manager install and manage itself.
programs.home-manager.enable = true;
}
</code></pre><p>You can use this as a base for your further configurations.</p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>If you are not very familiar with the Nix language and NixOS modules
then it is encouraged to start with small and simple changes. As you
learn you can gradually grow the configuration with confidence.</p></div><p>As an example, let us expand the initial configuration file to also
install the htop and fortune packages, install Emacs with a few extra
packages available, and enable the user gpg-agent service.</p><p>To satisfy the above setup we should elaborate the <code class="literal">home.nix</code> file as
follows:</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
# Home Manager needs a bit of information about you and the
# paths it should manage.
home.username = &quot;jdoe&quot;;
home.homeDirectory = &quot;/home/jdoe&quot;;
# Packages that should be installed to the user profile.
home.packages = [
pkgs.htop
pkgs.fortune
];
# This value determines the Home Manager release that your
# configuration is compatible with. This helps avoid breakage
# when a new Home Manager release introduces backwards
# incompatible changes.
#
# You can update Home Manager without changing this value. See
# the Home Manager release notes for a list of state version
# changes in each release.
home.stateVersion = &quot;23.11&quot;;
# Let Home Manager install and manage itself.
programs.home-manager.enable = true;
programs.emacs = {
enable = true;
extraPackages = epkgs: [
epkgs.nix-mode
epkgs.magit
];
};
services.gpg-agent = {
enable = true;
defaultCacheTtl = 1800;
enableSshSupport = true;
};
}
</code></pre><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist " style="list-style-type: disc;"><li class="listitem"><p>Nixpkgs packages can be installed to the user profile using
<a class="link" href="opt-home.packages" target="_top">???</a>.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>The option names of a program module typically start with
<code class="literal">programs.&lt;package name&gt;</code>.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Similarly, for a service module, the names start with
<code class="literal">services.&lt;package name&gt;</code>. Note in some cases a package has both
programs <span class="emphasis"><em>and</em></span> service options – Emacs is such an example.</p></li></ul></div><p>To activate this configuration you can run</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">home-manager switch
</code></pre><p>or if you are not feeling so lucky,</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">home-manager build
</code></pre><p>which will create a <code class="literal">result</code> link to a directory containing an
activation script and the generated home directory files.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="sec-usage-rollbacks"></a>Rollbacks </h2> </div> </div></div><p>While the <code class="literal">home-manager</code> tool does not explicitly support rollbacks at
the moment it is relatively easy to perform one manually. The steps to
do so are</p><div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist " type="1"><li class="listitem"><p>Run <code class="literal">home-manager generations</code> to determine which generation you
wish to rollback to:</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ home-manager generations
2018-01-04 11:56 : id 765 -&gt; /nix/store/kahm1rxk77mnvd2l8pfvd4jkkffk5ijk-home-manager-generation
2018-01-03 10:29 : id 764 -&gt; /nix/store/2wsmsliqr5yynqkdyjzb1y57pr5q2lsj-home-manager-generation
2018-01-01 12:21 : id 763 -&gt; /nix/store/mv960kl9chn2lal5q8lnqdp1ygxngcd1-home-manager-generation
2017-12-29 21:03 : id 762 -&gt; /nix/store/6c0k1r03fxckql4vgqcn9ccb616ynb94-home-manager-generation
2017-12-25 18:51 : id 761 -&gt; /nix/store/czc5y6vi1rvnkfv83cs3rn84jarcgsgh-home-manager-generation
…
</code></pre></li><li class="listitem"><p>Copy the Nix store path of the generation you chose, e.g.,</p><pre><code class="programlisting">/nix/store/mv960kl9chn2lal5q8lnqdp1ygxngcd1-home-manager-generation
</code></pre><p>for generation 763.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Run the <code class="literal">activate</code> script inside the copied store path:</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ /nix/store/mv960kl9chn2lal5q8lnqdp1ygxngcd1-home-manager-generation/activate
Starting home manager activation
…
</code></pre></li></ol></div>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="sec-usage-dotfiles"></a>Keeping your ~ safe from harm </h2> </div> </div></div><p>To configure programs and services Home Manager must write various
things to your home directory. To prevent overwriting any existing files
when switching to a new generation, Home Manager will attempt to detect
collisions between existing files and generated files. If any such
collision is detected the activation will terminate before changing
anything on your computer.</p><p>For example, suppose you have a wonderful, painstakingly created
<code class="literal">~/.config/git/config</code> and add</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">{
# …
programs.git = {
enable = true;
userName = &quot;Jane Doe&quot;;
userEmail = &quot;jane.doe@example.org&quot;;
};
# …
}
</code></pre><p>to your configuration. Attempting to switch to the generation will then
result in</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ home-manager switch
…
Activating checkLinkTargets
Existing file &#x27;/home/jdoe/.config/git/config&#x27; is in the way
Please move the above files and try again
</code></pre>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="sec-usage-graphical"></a>Graphical services </h2> </div> </div></div><p>Home Manager includes a number of services intended to run in a
graphical session, for example <code class="literal">xscreensaver</code> and <code class="literal">dunst</code>.
Unfortunately, such services will not be started automatically unless
you let Home Manager start your X session. That is, you have something
like</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">{
# …
services.xserver.enable = true;
# …
}
</code></pre><p>in your system configuration and</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">{
# …
xsession.enable = true;
xsession.windowManager.command = &quot;…&quot;;
# …
}
</code></pre><p>in your Home Manager configuration.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="sec-updating"></a>Updating </h2> </div> </div></div><p>If you have installed Home Manager using the Nix channel method then
updating Home Manager is done by first updating the channel. You can
then switch to the updated Home Manager environment.</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix-channel --update
…
unpacking channels...
$ home-manager switch
</code></pre>
</div>
</div><div class="part"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h1 class="title" > <a id="ch-nix-flakes"></a>Nix Flakes </h1> </div> </div></div><div class="partintro"><p>Home Manager is compatible with <a class="link" href="https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Flakes" target="_top">Nix
Flakes</a>. But please be aware that the
support it is still experimental and may change in backwards
incompatible ways.</p><p>Just like in the standard installation you can use the Home Manager
flake in three ways:</p><div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist " type="1"><li class="listitem"><p>Using the standalone <code class="literal">home-manager</code> 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
<a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-flakes-standalone" title="Standalone setup" >Standalone setup</a> for instructions on how
to perform this installation.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>As a module within a NixOS system configuration. This allows the
user profiles to be built together with the system when running
<code class="literal">nixos-rebuild</code>. See <a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-flakes-nixos-module" title="NixOS module" >NixOS module</a> for a
description of this setup.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>This allows the user profiles to be built together with the system
when running <code class="literal">darwin-rebuild</code>. See <a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-flakes-nix-darwin-module" title="nix-darwin module" >nix-darwin
module</a> for a description of this
setup.</p></li></ol></div><div class="toc"> <p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p> <dl class="toc"> <dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-flakes-prerequisites">Prerequisites</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-flakes-standalone">Standalone setup</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-flakes-nixos-module">NixOS module</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-flakes-nix-darwin-module">nix-darwin module</a> </span></dt> </dl></div></div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="sec-flakes-prerequisites"></a>Prerequisites </h2> </div> </div></div><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist " style="list-style-type: disc;"><li class="listitem"><p>Install Nix 2.4 or later, or have it in <code class="literal">nix-shell</code>.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Enable experimental features <code class="literal">nix-command</code> and <code class="literal">flakes</code>.</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist " style="list-style-type: circle;"><li class="listitem"><p>When using NixOS, add the following to your <code class="literal">configuration.nix</code>
and rebuild your system.</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">nix = {
package = pkgs.nixFlakes;
extraOptions = &#x27;&#x27;
experimental-features = nix-command flakes
&#x27;&#x27;;
};
</code></pre></li><li class="listitem"><p>If you are not using NixOS, add the following to <code class="literal">nix.conf</code>
(located at <code class="literal">~/.config/nix/</code> or <code class="literal">/etc/nix/nix.conf</code>).</p><pre><code class="programlisting bash">experimental-features = nix-command flakes
</code></pre><p>You may need to restart the Nix daemon with, for example,
<code class="literal">sudo systemctl restart nix-daemon.service</code>.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Alternatively, you can enable flakes on a per-command basis with
the following additional flags to <code class="literal">nix</code> and <code class="literal">home-manager</code>:</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix --extra-experimental-features &quot;nix-command flakes&quot; &lt;sub-commands&gt;
$ home-manager --extra-experimental-features &quot;nix-command flakes&quot; &lt;sub-commands&gt;
</code></pre></li></ul></div></li><li class="listitem"><p>Prepare your Home Manager configuration (<code class="literal">home.nix</code>).</p><p>Unlike the channel-based setup, <code class="literal">home.nix</code> will be evaluated when
the flake is built, so it must be present before bootstrap of Home
Manager from the flake. See <a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-usage-configuration" title="Configuration Example" >Configuration Example</a> for
introduction about writing a Home Manager configuration.</p></li></ul></div>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="sec-flakes-standalone"></a>Standalone setup </h2> </div> </div></div><p>To prepare an initial Home Manager configuration for your logged in
user, you can run the Home Manager <code class="literal">init</code> command directly from its
flake.</p><p>For example, if you are using the unstable version of Nixpkgs or NixOS,
then to generate and activate a basic configuration run the command</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix run home-manager/master -- init --switch
</code></pre><p>For Nixpkgs or NixOS version 23.11 run</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix run home-manager/release-23.11 -- init --switch
</code></pre><p>This will generate a <code class="literal">flake.nix</code> and a <code class="literal">home.nix</code> file in
<code class="literal">~/.config/home-manager</code>, creating the directory if it does not exist.</p><p>If you omit the <code class="literal">--switch</code> option then the activation will not happen.
This is useful if you want to inspect and edit the configuration before
activating it.</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix run home-manager/$branch -- init
$ # Edit files in ~/.config/home-manager
$ nix run home-manager/$branch -- init --switch
</code></pre><p>Where <code class="literal">$branch</code> is one of <code class="literal">master</code> or <code class="literal">release-23.11</code>.</p><p>After the initial activation has completed successfully then building
and activating your flake-based configuration is as simple as</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ home-manager switch
</code></pre><p>It is possible to override the default configuration directory, if you
want. For example,</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix run home-manager/$branch -- init --switch ~/hmconf
$ # And after the initial activation.
$ home-manager switch --flake ~/hmconf
</code></pre><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>The flake inputs are not automatically updated by Home Manager. You need
to use the standard <code class="literal">nix flake update</code> command for that.</p><p>If you only want to update a single flake input, then the command
<code class="literal">nix flake lock --update-input &lt;input&gt;</code> can be used.</p><p>You can also pass flake-related options such as <code class="literal">--recreate-lock-file</code>
or <code class="literal">--update-input &lt;input&gt;</code> to <code class="literal">home-manager</code> when building or
switching, and these options will be forwarded to <code class="literal">nix build</code>. See the
<a class="link" href="https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Flakes" target="_top">NixOS Wiki page</a> for details.</p></div>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="sec-flakes-nixos-module"></a>NixOS module </h2> </div> </div></div><p>To use Home Manager as a NixOS module, a bare-minimum <code class="literal">flake.nix</code> would
be as follows:</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">{
description = &quot;NixOS configuration&quot;;
inputs = {
nixpkgs.url = &quot;github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable&quot;;
home-manager.url = &quot;github:nix-community/home-manager&quot;;
home-manager.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = &quot;nixpkgs&quot;;
};
outputs = inputs@{ nixpkgs, home-manager, ... }: {
nixosConfigurations = {
hostname = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
system = &quot;x86_64-linux&quot;;
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
}
];
};
};
};
}
</code></pre><p>The Home Manager configuration is then part of the NixOS configuration
and is automatically rebuilt with the system when using the appropriate
command for the system, such as
<code class="literal">nixos-rebuild switch --flake &lt;flake-uri&gt;</code>.</p><p>You can use the above <code class="literal">flake.nix</code> as a template in <code class="literal">/etc/nixos</code> by</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix flake new /etc/nixos -t github:nix-community/home-manager#nixos
</code></pre>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="sec-flakes-nix-darwin-module"></a>nix-darwin module </h2> </div> </div></div><p>The flake-based setup of the Home Manager nix-darwin module is similar
to that of NixOS. The <code class="literal">flake.nix</code> would be:</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">{
description = &quot;Darwin configuration&quot;;
inputs = {
nixpkgs.url = &quot;github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable&quot;;
darwin.url = &quot;github:lnl7/nix-darwin&quot;;
darwin.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = &quot;nixpkgs&quot;;
home-manager.url = &quot;github:nix-community/home-manager&quot;;
home-manager.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = &quot;nixpkgs&quot;;
};
outputs = inputs@{ nixpkgs, home-manager, darwin, ... }: {
darwinConfigurations = {
hostname = darwin.lib.darwinSystem {
system = &quot;x86_64-darwin&quot;;
modules = [
./configuration.nix
home-manager.darwinModules.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
}
];
};
};
};
}
</code></pre><p>and it is also rebuilt with the nix-darwin generations. The rebuild
command here may be <code class="literal">darwin-rebuild switch --flake &lt;flake-uri&gt;</code>.</p><p>You can use the above <code class="literal">flake.nix</code> as a template in <code class="literal">~/.config/darwin</code> by</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix flake new ~/.config/darwin -t github:nix-community/home-manager#nix-darwin
</code></pre>
</div>
</div><div class="part"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h1 class="title" > <a id="ch-writing-modules"></a>Writing Home Manager Modules </h1> </div> </div></div><div class="partintro"><p>The module system in Home Manager is based entirely on the NixOS module
system so we will here only highlight aspects that are specific for Home
Manager. For information about the module system as such please refer to
the <a class="link" href="https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/index.html#sec-writing-modules" target="_top">Writing NixOS
Modules</a>
chapter of the NixOS manual.</p><div class="toc"> <p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p> <dl class="toc"> <dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-option-types">Option Types</a> </span></dt> </dl></div></div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="sec-option-types"></a>Option Types </h2> </div> </div></div><p>Overall the basic option types are the same in Home Manager as NixOS. A
few Home Manager options, however, make use of custom types that are
worth describing in more detail. These are the option types <code class="literal">dagOf</code> and
<code class="literal">gvariant</code> that are used, for example, by
<a class="link" href="options.html#opt-programs.ssh.matchBlocks" >programs.ssh.matchBlocks</a> and <a class="link" href="options.html#opt-dconf.settings" >dconf.settings</a>.</p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-dag" /><code class="literal">hm.types.dagOf</code></span></dt><dd><p>Options of this type have attribute sets as values where each member
is a node in a <a class="link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Directed_acyclic_graph&amp;oldid=939656095" target="_top">directed acyclic
graph</a>
(DAG). This allows the attribute set entries to express dependency
relations among themselves. This can, for example, be used to
control the order of match blocks in a OpenSSH client configuration
or the order of activation script blocks in
<a class="link" href="options.html#opt-home.activation" >home.activation</a>.</p><p>A number of functions are provided to create DAG nodes. The
functions are shown below with examples using an option <code class="literal">foo.bar</code> of
type <code class="literal">hm.types.dagOf types.int</code>.</p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-dag-entryAnywhere" /><code class="literal">hm.dag.entryAnywhere (value: T) : DagEntry&lt;T&gt;</code></span></dt><dd><p>Indicates that <code class="literal">value</code> can be placed anywhere within the DAG.
This is also the default for plain attribute set entries, that
is</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar = {
a = hm.dag.entryAnywhere 0;
}
</code></pre><p>and</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar = {
a = 0;
}
</code></pre><p>are equivalent.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-dag-entryAfter" /><code class="literal">hm.dag.entryAfter (afters: list string) (value: T) : DagEntry&lt;T&gt;</code></span></dt><dd><p>Indicates that <code class="literal">value</code> must be placed <span class="emphasis"><em>after</em></span> each of the
attribute names in the given list. For example</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar = {
a = 0;
b = hm.dag.entryAfter [ &quot;a&quot; ] 1;
}
</code></pre><p>would place <code class="literal">b</code> after <code class="literal">a</code> in the graph.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-dag-entryBefore" /><code class="literal">hm.dag.entryBefore (befores: list string) (value: T) : DagEntry&lt;T&gt;</code></span></dt><dd><p>Indicates that <code class="literal">value</code> must be placed <span class="emphasis"><em>before</em></span> each of the
attribute names in the given list. For example</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar = {
b = hm.dag.entryBefore [ &quot;a&quot; ] 1;
a = 0;
}
</code></pre><p>would place <code class="literal">b</code> before <code class="literal">a</code> in the graph.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-dag-entryBetween" /><code class="literal">hm.dag.entryBetween (befores: list string) (afters: list string) (value: T) : DagEntry&lt;T&gt;</code></span></dt><dd><p>Indicates that <code class="literal">value</code> must be placed <span class="emphasis"><em>before</em></span> the attribute
names in the first list and <span class="emphasis"><em>after</em></span> the attribute names in the
second list. For example</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar = {
a = 0;
c = hm.dag.entryBetween [ &quot;b&quot; ] [ &quot;a&quot; ] 2;
b = 1;
}
</code></pre><p>would place <code class="literal">c</code> before <code class="literal">b</code> and after <code class="literal">a</code> in the graph.</p></dd></dl></div><p>There are also a set of functions that generate a DAG from a list.
These are convenient when you just want to have a linear list of DAG
entries, without having to manually enter the relationship between
each entry. Each of these functions take a <code class="literal">tag</code> as argument and the
DAG entries will be named <code class="literal">${tag}-${index}</code>.</p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-dag-entriesAnywhere" /><code class="literal">hm.dag.entriesAnywhere (tag: string) (values: [T]) : Dag&lt;T&gt;</code></span></dt><dd><p>Creates a DAG with the given values with each entry labeled
using the given tag. For example</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar = hm.dag.entriesAnywhere &quot;a&quot; [ 0 1 ];
</code></pre><p>is equivalent to</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar = {
a-0 = 0;
a-1 = hm.dag.entryAfter [ &quot;a-0&quot; ] 1;
}
</code></pre></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-dag-entriesAfter" /><code class="literal">hm.dag.entriesAfter (tag: string) (afters: list string) (values: [T]) : Dag&lt;T&gt;</code></span></dt><dd><p>Creates a DAG with the given values with each entry labeled
using the given tag. The list of values are placed are placed
<span class="emphasis"><em>after</em></span> each of the attribute names in <code class="literal">afters</code>. For example</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar =
{ b = 0; }
// hm.dag.entriesAfter &quot;a&quot; [ &quot;b&quot; ] [ 1 2 ];
</code></pre><p>is equivalent to</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar = {
b = 0;
a-0 = hm.dag.entryAfter [ &quot;b&quot; ] 1;
a-1 = hm.dag.entryAfter [ &quot;a-0&quot; ] 2;
}
</code></pre></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-dag-entriesBefore" /><code class="literal">hm.dag.entriesBefore (tag: string) (befores: list string) (values: [T]) : Dag&lt;T&gt;</code></span></dt><dd><p>Creates a DAG with the given values with each entry labeled
using the given tag. The list of values are placed <span class="emphasis"><em>before</em></span> each
of the attribute names in <code class="literal">befores</code>. For example</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar =
{ b = 0; }
// hm.dag.entriesBefore &quot;a&quot; [ &quot;b&quot; ] [ 1 2 ];
</code></pre><p>is equivalent to</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar = {
b = 0;
a-0 = 1;
a-1 = hm.dag.entryBetween [ &quot;b&quot; ] [ &quot;a-0&quot; ] 2;
}
</code></pre></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-dag-entriesBetween" /><code class="literal">hm.dag.entriesBetween (tag: string) (befores: list string) (afters: list string) (values: [T]) : Dag&lt;T&gt;</code></span></dt><dd><p>Creates a DAG with the given values with each entry labeled
using the given tag. The list of values are placed <span class="emphasis"><em>before</em></span> each
of the attribute names in <code class="literal">befores</code> and <span class="emphasis"><em>after</em></span> each of the
attribute names in <code class="literal">afters</code>. For example</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar =
{ b = 0; c = 3; }
// hm.dag.entriesBetween &quot;a&quot; [ &quot;b&quot; ] [ &quot;c&quot; ] [ 1 2 ];
</code></pre><p>is equivalent to</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar = {
b = 0;
c = 3;
a-0 = hm.dag.entryAfter [ &quot;c&quot; ] 1;
a-1 = hm.dag.entryBetween [ &quot;b&quot; ] [ &quot;a-0&quot; ] 2;
}
</code></pre></dd></dl></div></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant" /><code class="literal">hm.types.gvariant</code></span></dt><dd><p>This type is useful for options representing
<a class="link" href="https://docs.gtk.org/glib/struct.Variant.html#description" target="_top">GVariant</a>
values. The type accepts all primitive GVariant types as well as
arrays, tuples, “maybe” types, and dictionaries.</p><p>Some Nix values are automatically coerced to matching GVariant value
but the GVariant model is richer so you may need to use one of the
provided constructor functions. Examples assume an option <code class="literal">foo.bar</code>
of type <code class="literal">hm.types.gvariant</code>.</p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant-mkBoolean" /><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkBoolean (v: bool)</code></span></dt><dd><p>Takes a Nix value <code class="literal">v</code> to a GVariant <code class="literal">boolean</code> value (GVariant
format string <code class="literal">b</code>). Note, Nix booleans are automatically coerced
using this function. That is,</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar = hm.gvariant.mkBoolean true;
</code></pre><p>is equivalent to</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar = true;
</code></pre></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant-mkString" /><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkString (v: string)</code></span></dt><dd><p>Takes a Nix value <code class="literal">v</code> to a GVariant <code class="literal">string</code> value (GVariant
format string <code class="literal">s</code>). Note, Nix strings are automatically coerced
using this function. That is,</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar = hm.gvariant.mkString &quot;a string&quot;;
</code></pre><p>is equivalent to</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar = &quot;a string&quot;;
</code></pre></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant-mkObjectpath" /><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkObjectpath (v: string)</code></span></dt><dd><p>Takes a Nix value <code class="literal">v</code> to a GVariant <code class="literal">objectpath</code> value (GVariant
format string <code class="literal">o</code>).</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant-mkUchar" /><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkUchar (v: string)</code></span></dt><dd><p>Takes a Nix value <code class="literal">v</code> to a GVariant <code class="literal">uchar</code> value (GVariant
format string <code class="literal">y</code>).</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant-mkInt16" /><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkInt16 (v: int)</code></span></dt><dd><p>Takes a Nix value <code class="literal">v</code> to a GVariant <code class="literal">int16</code> value (GVariant
format string <code class="literal">n</code>).</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant-mkUint16" /><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkUint16 (v: int)</code></span></dt><dd><p>Takes a Nix value <code class="literal">v</code> to a GVariant <code class="literal">uint16</code> value (GVariant
format string <code class="literal">q</code>).</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant-mkInt32" /><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkInt32 (v: int)</code></span></dt><dd><p>Takes a Nix value <code class="literal">v</code> to a GVariant <code class="literal">int32</code> value (GVariant
format string <code class="literal">i</code>). Note, Nix integers are automatically coerced
using this function. That is,</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar = hm.gvariant.mkInt32 7;
</code></pre><p>is equivalent to</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar = 7;
</code></pre></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant-mkUint32" /><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkUint32 (v: int)</code></span></dt><dd><p>Takes a Nix value <code class="literal">v</code> to a GVariant <code class="literal">uint32</code> value (GVariant
format string <code class="literal">u</code>).</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant-mkInt64" /><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkInt64 (v: int)</code></span></dt><dd><p>Takes a Nix value <code class="literal">v</code> to a GVariant <code class="literal">int64</code> value (GVariant
format string <code class="literal">x</code>).</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant-mkUint64" /><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkUint64 (v: int)</code></span></dt><dd><p>Takes a Nix value <code class="literal">v</code> to a GVariant <code class="literal">uint64</code> value (GVariant
format string <code class="literal">t</code>).</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant-mkDouble" /><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkDouble (v: double)</code></span></dt><dd><p>Takes a Nix value <code class="literal">v</code> to a GVariant <code class="literal">double</code> value (GVariant
format string <code class="literal">d</code>). Note, Nix floats are automatically coerced
using this function. That is,</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar = hm.gvariant.mkDouble 3.14;
</code></pre><p>is equivalent to</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">foo.bar = 3.14;
</code></pre></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant-mkArray" /><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkArray type elements</code></span></dt><dd><p>Builds a GVariant array containing the given list of elements,
where each element is a GVariant value of the given type
(GVariant format string <code class="literal">a${type}</code>). The <code class="literal">type</code> value can be
constructed using</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist " style="list-style-type: disc;"><li class="listitem"><p><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.type.string</code> (GVariant format string <code class="literal">s</code>)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.type.boolean</code> (GVariant format string <code class="literal">b</code>)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.type.uchar</code> (GVariant format string <code class="literal">y</code>)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.type.int16</code> (GVariant format string <code class="literal">n</code>)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.type.uint16</code> (GVariant format string <code class="literal">q</code>)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.type.int32</code> (GVariant format string <code class="literal">i</code>)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.type.uint32</code> (GVariant format string <code class="literal">u</code>)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.type.int64</code> (GVariant format string <code class="literal">x</code>)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.type.uint64</code> (GVariant format string <code class="literal">t</code>)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.type.double</code> (GVariant format string <code class="literal">d</code>)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.type.variant</code> (GVariant format string <code class="literal">v</code>)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.type.arrayOf type</code> (GVariant format string
<code class="literal">a${type}</code>)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.type.maybeOf type</code> (GVariant format string
<code class="literal">m${type}</code>)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.type.tupleOf types</code> (GVariant format string
<code class="literal">(${lib.concatStrings types})</code>)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.type.dictionaryEntryOf [keyType valueType]</code>
(GVariant format string <code class="literal">{${keyType}${valueType}}</code>)</p></li></ul></div><p>where <code class="literal">type</code> and <code class="literal">types</code> are themselves a type and list of
types, respectively.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant-mkEmptyArray" /><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkEmptyArray type</code></span></dt><dd><p>An alias of
<a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-option-types-gvariant-mkArray" ><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkArray type []</code></a>.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant-mkNothing" /><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkNothing type</code></span></dt><dd><p>Builds a GVariant maybe value (GVariant format string
<code class="literal">m${type}</code>) whose (non-existent) element is of the given type.
The <code class="literal">type</code> value is constructed as described for the
<a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-option-types-gvariant-mkArray" ><code class="literal">mkArray</code></a> function above.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant-mkJust" /><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkJust element</code></span></dt><dd><p>Builds a GVariant maybe value (GVariant format string
<code class="literal">m${element.type}</code>) containing the given GVariant element.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant-mkTuple" /><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkTuple elements</code></span></dt><dd><p>Builds a GVariant tuple containing the given list of elements,
where each element is a GVariant value.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant-mkVariant" /><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkVariant element</code></span></dt><dd><p>Builds a GVariant variant (GVariant format string <code class="literal">v</code>) which
contains the value of a GVariant element.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><a id="sec-option-types-gvariant-mkDictionaryEntry" /><code class="literal">hm.gvariant.mkDictionaryEntry [key value]</code></span></dt><dd><p>Builds a GVariant dictionary entry containing the given list of
elements (GVariant format string <code class="literal">{${key.type}${value.type}}</code>),
where each element is a GVariant value.</p></dd></dl></div></dd></dl></div>
</div>
</div><div class="part"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h1 class="title" > <a id="ch-contributing"></a>Contributing </h1> </div> </div></div><div class="partintro"><p>Contributions to Home Manager are very welcome. To make the process as
smooth as possible for both you and the Home Manager maintainers we
provide some guidelines that we ask you to follow. See <a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-contrib-getting-started" title="Getting started" >Getting
started</a> for information on how to set up
a suitable development environment and <a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-guidelines" title="Guidelines" >Guidelines</a> for
the actual guidelines.</p><p>This text is mainly directed at those who would like to make code
contributions to Home Manager. If you just want to report a bug then
first look among the already <a class="link" href="https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/issues" target="_top">open
issues</a>, if you
find one matching yours then feel free to comment on it to add any
additional information you may have. If no matching issue exists then go
to the <a class="link" href="https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/issues/new" target="_top">new
issue</a> page
and write a description of your problem. Include as much information as
you can, ideally also include relevant excerpts from your Home Manager
configuration.</p><div class="toc"> <p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p> <dl class="toc"> <dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-contrib-getting-started">Getting started</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-guidelines">Guidelines</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-news">News</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-tests">Tests</a> </span></dt> </dl></div></div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="sec-contrib-getting-started"></a>Getting started </h2> </div> </div></div><p>If you have not previously forked Home Manager then you need to do that
first. Have a look at GitHub’s <a class="link" href="https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo/" target="_top">Fork a
repo</a> for instructions on
how to do this.</p><p>Once you have a fork of Home Manager you should create a branch starting
at the most recent <code class="literal">master</code> branch. Give your branch a reasonably
descriptive name. Commit your changes to this branch and when you are
happy with the result and it fulfills <a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-guidelines" title="Guidelines" >Guidelines</a> then
push the branch to GitHub and <a class="link" href="https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request/" target="_top">create a pull
request</a>.</p><p>Assuming your clone is at <code class="literal">$HOME/devel/home-manager</code> then you can make
the <code class="literal">home-manager</code> command use it by either</p><div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist " type="1"><li class="listitem"><p>overriding the default path by using the <code class="literal">-I</code> command line option:</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ home-manager -I home-manager=$HOME/devel/home-manager
</code></pre><p>or, if using <a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-flakes-standalone" title="Standalone setup" >flakes</a>:</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ home-manager --override-input home-manager ~/devel/home-manager
</code></pre><p>or</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>changing the default path by ensuring your configuration includes</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">programs.home-manager.enable = true;
programs.home-manager.path = &quot;$HOME/devel/home-manager&quot;;
</code></pre><p>and running <code class="literal">home-manager switch</code> to activate the change.
Afterwards, <code class="literal">home-manager build</code> and <code class="literal">home-manager switch</code> will use
your cloned repository.</p></li></ol></div><p>The first option is good if you only temporarily want to use your clone.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="sec-guidelines"></a>Guidelines </h2> </div> </div></div><div class="toc"> <dl class="toc"> <dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-guidelines-back-compat">Maintain backward compatibility</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-guidelines-forward-compat">Keep forward compatibility in mind</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-guidelines-valuable-options">Add only valuable options</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-guidelines-add-tests">Add relevant tests</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-guidelines-module-maintainer">Add relevant documentation</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#_add_yourself_as_a_module_maintainer">Add yourself as a module maintainer</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-guidelines-code-style">Format your code</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-guidelines-commit-message-style">Format your commit messages</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-guidelines-news-style">Format your news entries</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-guidelines-conditional-modules">Use conditional modules and news</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-guidelines-licensing">Mind the license</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-commit-style">Commits</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#ex-commit-message">Example commit</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-code-style">Code Style</a> </span></dt> </dl></div><p>If your contribution satisfy the following rules then there is a good
chance it will be merged without too much trouble. The rules are
enforced by the Home Manager maintainers and to a lesser extent the Home
Manager CI system.</p><p>If you are uncertain how these rules affect the change you would like to
make then feel free to start a discussion in the
<a class="link" href="https://webchat.oftc.net/?channels=home-manager" target="_top">#home-manager</a> IRC
channel, ideally before you start developing.</p><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h3 class="title" > <a id="sec-guidelines-back-compat"></a>Maintain backward compatibility </h3> </div> </div></div><p>Your contribution should not cause another user’s existing configuration
to break unless there is a very good reason and the change should be
announced to the user through an
<a class="link" href="https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/index.html#sec-assertions" target="_top">assertion</a>
or similar.</p><p>Remember that Home Manager is used in many different environments and
you should consider how your change may effect others. For example,</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist " style="list-style-type: disc;"><li class="listitem"><p>Does your change work for people that do not use NixOS? Consider
other GNU/Linux distributions and macOS.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Does your change work for people whose configuration is built on one
system and deployed on another system?</p></li></ul></div>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h3 class="title" > <a id="sec-guidelines-forward-compat"></a>Keep forward compatibility in mind </h3> </div> </div></div><p>The master branch of Home Manager tracks the unstable channel of
Nixpkgs, which may update package versions at any time. It is therefore
important to consider how a package update may affect your code and try
to reduce the risk of breakage.</p><p>The most effective way to reduce this risk is to follow the advice in
<a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-guidelines-valuable-options" title="Add only valuable options" >Add only valuable options</a>.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h3 class="title" > <a id="sec-guidelines-valuable-options"></a>Add only valuable options </h3> </div> </div></div><p>When creating a new module it is tempting to include every option
supported by the software. This is <span class="emphasis"><em>strongly</em></span> discouraged. Providing
many options increases maintenance burden and risk of breakage
considerably. This is why only the most <a class="link" href="https://github.com/NixOS/rfcs/blob/master/rfcs/0042-config-option.md#valuable-options" target="_top">important software
options</a>
should be modeled explicitly. Less important options should be
expressible through an <code class="literal">extraConfig</code> escape hatch.</p><p>A good rule of thumb for the first implementation of a module is to only
add explicit options for those settings that absolutely must be set for
the software to function correctly. It follows that a module for
software that provides sensible default values for all settings would
require no explicit options at all.</p><p>If the software uses a structured configuration format like a JSON,
YAML, INI, TOML, or even a plain list of key/value pairs then consider
using a <code class="literal">settings</code> option as described in <a class="link" href="https://github.com/NixOS/rfcs/blob/master/rfcs/0042-config-option.md" target="_top">Nix RFC
42</a>.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h3 class="title" > <a id="sec-guidelines-add-tests"></a>Add relevant tests </h3> </div> </div></div><p>If at all possible, make sure to add new tests and expand existing tests
so that your change will keep working in the future. See
<a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-tests" title="Tests" >Tests</a> for more information about the Home Manager test
suite.</p><p>All contributed code <span class="emphasis"><em>must</em></span> pass the test suite.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h3 class="title" > <a id="sec-guidelines-module-maintainer"></a>Add relevant documentation </h3> </div> </div></div><p>Many code changes require changing the documentation as well. Module
options should be documented with <a class="link" href="https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/unstable/#sec-contributing-markup" target="_top">Nixpkgs-flavoured
Markdown</a>.
Home Manager is itself documented using a combination of
<a class="link" href="https://tdg.docbook.org/" target="_top">DocBook</a> and
<a class="link" href="https://asciidoc.org/" target="_top">AsciiDoc</a>. All text is hosted in Home Manager’s
Git repository.</p><p>The HTML version of the manual containing both the module option
descriptions and the documentation of Home Manager can be generated and
opened by typing the following in a shell within a clone of the Home
Manager Git repository:</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix-build -A docs.html
$ xdg-open ./result/share/doc/home-manager/index.html
</code></pre><p>When you have made changes to a module, it is a good idea to check that
the man page version of the module options looks good:</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix-build -A docs.manPages
$ man ./result/share/man/man5/home-configuration.nix.5.gz
</code></pre>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h3 class="title" > <a id="_add_yourself_as_a_module_maintainer"></a>Add yourself as a module maintainer </h3> </div> </div></div><p>Every new module <span class="emphasis"><em>must</em></span> include a named maintainer using the
<code class="literal">meta.maintainers</code> attribute. If you are a user of a module that
currently lacks a maintainer then please consider adopting it.</p><p>If you are present in the nixpkgs maintainer list then you can use that
entry. If you are not then you can add yourself to
<code class="literal">modules/lib/maintainers.nix</code> in the Home Manager project.</p><p>Maintainers are encouraged to join the IRC or Matrix channel and
participate when they have opportunity.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h3 class="title" > <a id="sec-guidelines-code-style"></a>Format your code </h3> </div> </div></div><p>Make sure your code is formatted as described in <a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-code-style" title="Code Style" >Code
Style</a>. To maintain consistency throughout the project
you are encouraged to browse through existing code and adopt its style
also in new code.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h3 class="title" > <a id="sec-guidelines-commit-message-style"></a>Format your commit messages </h3> </div> </div></div><p>Similar to <a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-guidelines-code-style" title="Format your code" >Format your code</a> we encourage a
consistent commit message format as described in
<a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-commit-style" title="Commits" >Commits</a>.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h3 class="title" > <a id="sec-guidelines-news-style"></a>Format your news entries </h3> </div> </div></div><p>If your contribution includes a change that should be communicated to
users of Home Manager then you can add a news entry. The entry must be
formatted as described in <a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-news" title="News" >News</a>.</p><p>When new modules are added a news entry should be included but you do
not need to create this entry manually. The merging maintainer will
create the entry for you. This is to reduce the risk of merge conflicts.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h3 class="title" > <a id="sec-guidelines-conditional-modules"></a>Use conditional modules and news </h3> </div> </div></div><p>Home Manager includes a number of modules that are only usable on some
of the supported platforms. The most common example of platform specific
modules are those that define systemd user services, which only works on
Linux systems.</p><p>If you add a module that is platform specific then make sure to include
a condition in the <code class="literal">loadModule</code> function call. This will make the module
accessible only on systems where the condition evaluates to <code class="literal">true</code>.</p><p>Similarly, if you are adding a news entry then it should be shown only
to users that may find it relevant, see <a class="link" href="index.xhtml#sec-news" title="News" >News</a> for a
description of conditional news.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h3 class="title" > <a id="sec-guidelines-licensing"></a>Mind the license </h3> </div> </div></div><p>The Home Manager project is covered by the MIT license and we can only
accept contributions that fall under this license, or are licensed in a
compatible way. When you contribute self written code and documentation
it is assumed that you are doing so under the MIT license.</p><p>A potential gotcha with respect to licensing are option descriptions.
Often it is convenient to copy from the upstream software documentation.
When this is done it is important to verify that the license of the
upstream documentation allows redistribution under the terms of the MIT
license.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h3 class="title" > <a id="sec-commit-style"></a>Commits </h3> </div> </div></div><p>The commits in your pull request should be reasonably self-contained,
that is, each commit should make sense in isolation. In particular, you
will be asked to amend any commit that introduces syntax errors or
similar problems even if they are fixed in a later commit.</p><p>The commit messages should follow the <a class="link" href="https://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/#seven-rules" target="_top">seven
rules</a>, except for
&quot;Capitalize the subject line&quot;. We also ask you to include the affected
code component or module in the first line. That is, a commit message
should follow the template</p><pre><code class="programlisting">{component}: {description}
{long description}
</code></pre><p>where <code class="literal">{component}</code> refers to the code component (or module) your change
affects, <code class="literal">{description}</code> is a very brief description of your change, and
<code class="literal">{long description}</code> is an optional clarifying description. As a rare
exception, if there is no clear component, or your change affects many
components, then the <code class="literal">{component}</code> part is optional. See
<a class="link" href="index.xhtml#ex-commit-message" title="Example commit" >example_title</a> for a commit message that fulfills
these requirements.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h3 class="title" > <a id="ex-commit-message"></a>Example commit </h3> </div> </div></div><p>The commit
<a class="link" href="https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/commit/69f8e47e9e74c8d3d060ca22e18246b7f7d988ef" target="_top">69f8e47e9e74c8d3d060ca22e18246b7f7d988ef</a>
contains the commit message</p><pre><code class="programlisting">
starship: allow running in Emacs if vterm is used
The vterm buffer is backed by libvterm and can handle Starship prompts
without issues.
</code></pre><p>which ticks all the boxes necessary to be accepted in Home Manager.</p><p>Finally, when adding a new module, say <code class="literal">programs/foo.nix</code>, we use the
fixed commit format <code class="literal">foo: add module</code>. You can, of course, still include
a long description if you wish.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h3 class="title" > <a id="sec-code-style"></a>Code Style </h3> </div> </div></div><p>The code in Home Manager is formatted by the
<a class="link" href="https://github.com/serokell/nixfmt/" target="_top">nixfmt</a> tool and the formatting is
checked in the pull request tests. Run the <code class="literal">format</code> tool inside the
project repository before submitting your pull request.</p><p>Keep lines at a reasonable width, ideally 80 characters or less. This
also applies to string literals.</p><p>We prefer <code class="literal">lowerCamelCase</code> for variable and attribute names with the
accepted exception of variables directly referencing packages in Nixpkgs
which use a hyphenated style. For example, the Home Manager option
<code class="literal">services.gpg-agent.enableSshSupport</code> references the <code class="literal">gpg-agent</code> package
in Nixpkgs.</p>
</div>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="sec-news"></a>News </h2> </div> </div></div><p>Home Manager includes a system for presenting news to the user. When
making a change you, therefore, have the option to also include an
associated news entry. In general, a news entry should only be added for
truly noteworthy news. For example, a bug fix or new option does
generally not need a news entry.</p><p>If you do have a change worthy of a news entry then please add one in
<a class="link" href="https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/blob/master/modules/misc/news.nix" target="_top"><code class="literal">news.nix</code></a>
but you should follow some basic guidelines:</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist " style="list-style-type: disc;"><li class="listitem"><p>The entry timestamp should be in ISO-8601 format having &quot;+00:00&quot;
as time zone. For example, &quot;2017-09-13T17:10:14+00:00&quot;. A suitable
timestamp can be produced by the command</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ date --iso-8601=second --universal
</code></pre></li><li class="listitem"><p>The entry condition should be as specific as possible. For example,
if you are changing or deprecating a specific option then you could
restrict the news to those users who actually use this option.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Wrap the news message so that it will fit in the typical terminal,
that is, at most 80 characters wide. Ideally a bit less.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Unlike commit messages, news will be read without any connection to
the Home Manager source code. It is therefore important to make the
message understandable in isolation and to those who do not have
knowledge of the Home Manager internals. To this end it should be
written in more descriptive, prose like way.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>If you refer to an option then write its full attribute path. That
is, instead of writing</p><pre><code class="programlisting">The option &#x27;foo&#x27; has been deprecated, please use &#x27;bar&#x27; instead.
</code></pre><p>it should read</p><pre><code class="programlisting">The option &#x27;services.myservice.foo&#x27; has been deprecated, please
use &#x27;services.myservice.bar&#x27; instead.
</code></pre></li><li class="listitem"><p>A new module, say <code class="literal">foo.nix</code>, should always include a news entry that
has a message along the lines of</p><pre><code class="programlisting">A new module is available: &#x27;services.foo&#x27;.
</code></pre><p>If the module is platform specific, e.g., a service module using
systemd, then a condition like</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">condition = hostPlatform.isLinux;
</code></pre><p>should be added. If you contribute a module then you don’t need to
add this entry, the merger will create an entry for you.</p></li></ul></div>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="sec-tests"></a>Tests </h2> </div> </div></div><p>Home Manager includes a basic test suite and it is highly recommended to
include at least one test when adding a module. Tests are typically in
the form of &quot;golden tests&quot; where, for example, a generated
configuration file is compared to a known correct file.</p><p>It is relatively easy to create tests by modeling the existing tests,
found in the <code class="literal">tests</code> project directory. For a full reference to the
functions available in test scripts, you can look at NMT’s
<a class="link" href="https://git.sr.ht/~rycee/nmt/tree/master/item/bash-lib" target="_top">bash-lib</a>.</p><p>The full Home Manager test suite can be run by executing</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix-shell --pure tests -A run.all
</code></pre><p>in the project root. List all test cases through</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix-shell --pure tests -A list
</code></pre><p>and run an individual test, for example <code class="literal">alacritty-empty-settings</code>,
through</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix-shell --pure tests -A run.alacritty-empty-settings
</code></pre><p>However, those invocations will impurely source the system’s nixpkgs,
and may cause failures. To run against the nixpkgs from the flake.lock,
use instead e.g.</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix develop --ignore-environment .#all
</code></pre>
</div>
</div><div class="part"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h1 class="title" > <a id="ch-3rd-party"></a>Third-Party Tools and Extensions </h1> </div> </div></div><div class="partintro"><p>Here is a collection of tools and extensions that relate to Home
Manager. Note, these are maintained outside the regular Home Manager
flow so quality and support may vary wildly. If you encounter problems
then please raise them in the corresponding project, not as issues in
the Home Manager tracker.</p><p>If you have made something interesting related to Home Manager then you
are encouraged to create a PR that expands this chapter.</p><div class="toc"> <p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p> <dl class="toc"> <dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#sec-3rd-party-module-collections">Module Collections</a> </span></dt> </dl></div></div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="sec-3rd-party-module-collections"></a>Module Collections </h2> </div> </div></div><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist " style="list-style-type: disc;"><li class="listitem"><p><a class="link" href="https://github.com/schuelermine/xhmm" target="_top">xhmm — extra Home Manager
modules</a></p><p>A collection of modules maintained by Anselm Schüler.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><a class="link" href="https://github.com/danth/stylix/" target="_top">Stylix — System-wide colorscheming and
typography</a></p><p>Configure your applications to get coherent color scheme and font.</p></li></ul></div>
</div>
</div><div class="part"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h1 class="title" > <a id="ch-faq"></a>Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) </h1> </div> </div></div><div class="partintro"><div class="toc"> <p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p> <dl class="toc"> <dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#_why_is_there_a_collision_error_when_switching_generation">Why is there a collision error when switching generation?</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#_why_are_the_session_variables_not_set">Why are the session variables not set?</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#_how_to_set_up_a_configuration_for_multiple_users_machines">How to set up a configuration for multiple users/machines?</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#_why_do_i_get_an_error_message_about_literal_ca_desrt_dconf_literal_or_literal_dconf_service_literal">Why do I get an error message about <code class="literal">ca.desrt.dconf</code> or <code class="literal">dconf.service</code>?</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#_how_do_i_install_packages_from_nixpkgs_unstable">How do I install packages from Nixpkgs unstable?</a> </span></dt><dt> <span class="section"> <a href="index.xhtml#_how_do_i_override_the_package_used_by_a_module">How do I override the package used by a module?</a> </span></dt> </dl></div></div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="_why_is_there_a_collision_error_when_switching_generation"></a>Why is there a collision error when switching generation? </h2> </div> </div></div><p>Home Manager currently installs packages into the user environment,
precisely as if the packages were installed through <code class="literal">nix-env --install</code>.
This means that you will get a collision error if your Home Manager
configuration attempts to install a package that you already have
installed manually, that is, packages that shows up when you run
<code class="literal">nix-env --query</code>.</p><p>For example, imagine you have the <code class="literal">hello</code> package installed in your
environment</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix-env --query
hello-2.10
</code></pre><p>and your Home Manager configuration contains</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">home.packages = [ pkgs.hello ];
</code></pre><p>Then attempting to switch to this configuration will result in an error
similar to</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ home-manager switch
these derivations will be built:
/nix/store/xg69wsnd1rp8xgs9qfsjal017nf0ldhm-home-manager-path.drv
[…]
Activating installPackages
replacing old ‘home-manager-path’
installing ‘home-manager-path’
building path(s) ‘/nix/store/b5c0asjz9f06l52l9812w6k39ifr49jj-user-environment’
Wide character in die at /nix/store/64jc9gd2rkbgdb4yjx3nrgc91bpjj5ky-buildenv.pl line 79.
collision between ‘/nix/store/fmwa4axzghz11cnln5absh31nbhs9lq1-home-manager-path/bin/hello’ and ‘/nix/store/c2wyl8b9p4afivpcz8jplc9kis8rj36d-hello-2.10/bin/hello’; use ‘nix-env --set-flag priority NUMBER PKGNAME’ to change the priority of one of the conflicting packages
builder for ‘/nix/store/b37x3s7pzxbasfqhaca5dqbf3pjjw0ip-user-environment.drv’ failed with exit code 2
error: build of ‘/nix/store/b37x3s7pzxbasfqhaca5dqbf3pjjw0ip-user-environment.drv’ failed
</code></pre><p>The solution is typically to uninstall the package from the environment
using <code class="literal">nix-env --uninstall</code> and reattempt the Home Manager generation
switch.</p><p>You could also opt to unistall <span class="emphasis"><em>all</em></span> of the packages from your profile
with <code class="literal">nix-env --uninstall &#x27;*&#x27;</code>.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="_why_are_the_session_variables_not_set"></a>Why are the session variables not set? </h2> </div> </div></div><p>Home Manager is only able to set session variables automatically if it
manages your Bash, Z shell, or fish shell configuration. To enable such
management you use <a class="link" href="options.html#opt-programs.bash.enable" >programs.bash.enable</a>,
<a class="link" href="options.html#opt-programs.zsh.enable" >programs.zsh.enable</a>, or <a class="link" href="options.html#opt-programs.fish.enable" >programs.fish.enable</a>.</p><p>If you don’t want to let Home Manager manage your shell then you will
have to manually source the
<code class="literal">~/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh</code> file in an appropriate
way. In Bash and Z shell this can be done by adding</p><pre><code class="programlisting bash">. &quot;$HOME/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh&quot;
</code></pre><p>to your <code class="literal">.profile</code> and <code class="literal">.zshrc</code> files, respectively. The
<code class="literal">hm-session-vars.sh</code> file should work in most Bourne-like shells. For
fish shell, it is possible to source it using <a class="link" href="https://github.com/oh-my-fish/plugin-foreign-env" target="_top">the foreign-env
plugin</a></p><pre><code class="programlisting bash">fenv source &quot;$HOME/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh&quot; &gt; /dev/null
</code></pre>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="_how_to_set_up_a_configuration_for_multiple_users_machines"></a>How to set up a configuration for multiple users/machines? </h2> </div> </div></div><p>A typical way to prepare a repository of configurations for multiple
logins and machines is to prepare one &quot;top-level&quot; file for each unique
combination.</p><p>For example, if you have two machines, called &quot;kronos&quot; and &quot;rhea&quot; on
which you want to configure your user &quot;jane&quot; then you could create the
files</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist " style="list-style-type: disc;"><li class="listitem"><p><code class="literal">kronos-jane.nix</code>,</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="literal">rhea-jane.nix</code>, and</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="literal">common.nix</code></p></li></ul></div><p>in your repository. On the kronos and rhea machines you can then make
<code class="literal">~jane/.config/home-manager/home.nix</code> be a symbolic link to the
corresponding file in your configuration repository.</p><p>The <code class="literal">kronos-jane.nix</code> and <code class="literal">rhea-jane.nix</code> files follow the format</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">{ ... }:
{
imports = [ ./common.nix ];
# Various options that are specific for this machine/user.
}
</code></pre><p>while the <code class="literal">common.nix</code> file contains configuration shared across the two
logins. Of course, instead of just a single <code class="literal">common.nix</code> file you can
have multiple ones, even one per program or service.</p><p>You can get some inspiration from the <a class="link" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/NixOS/comments/9bb9h9/post_your_homemanager_homenix_file/" target="_top">Post your home-manager home.nix
file!</a>
Reddit thread.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="_why_do_i_get_an_error_message_about_literal_ca_desrt_dconf_literal_or_literal_dconf_service_literal"></a>Why do I get an error message about <code class="literal">ca.desrt.dconf</code> or <code class="literal">dconf.service</code>? </h2> </div> </div></div><p>You are most likely trying to configure something that uses dconf but
the DBus session is not aware of the dconf service. The full error you
might get is</p><pre><code class="programlisting">error: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name ca.desrt.dconf was not provided by any .service files
</code></pre><p>or</p><pre><code class="programlisting">error: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.systemd1.NoSuchUnit: Unit dconf.service not found.
</code></pre><p>The solution on NixOS is to add</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">programs.dconf.enable = true;
</code></pre><p>to your system configuration.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="_how_do_i_install_packages_from_nixpkgs_unstable"></a>How do I install packages from Nixpkgs unstable? </h2> </div> </div></div><p>If you are using a stable version of Nixpkgs but would like to install
some particular packages from Nixpkgs unstable – or some other channel
– then you can import the unstable Nixpkgs and refer to its packages
within your configuration. Something like</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">{ pkgs, config, ... }:
let
pkgsUnstable = import &lt;nixpkgs-unstable&gt; {};
in
{
home.packages = [
pkgsUnstable.foo
];
# …
}
</code></pre><p>should work provided you have a Nix channel called <code class="literal">nixpkgs-unstable</code>.</p><p>You can add the <code class="literal">nixpkgs-unstable</code> channel by running</p><pre><code class="programlisting shell">$ nix-channel --add https://nixos.org/channels/nixpkgs-unstable nixpkgs-unstable
$ nix-channel --update
</code></pre><p>Note, the package will not be affected by any package overrides,
overlays, etc.</p>
</div><div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a id="_how_do_i_override_the_package_used_by_a_module"></a>How do I override the package used by a module? </h2> </div> </div></div><p>By default Home Manager will install the package provided by your chosen
<code class="literal">nixpkgs</code> channel but occasionally you might end up needing to change
this package. This can typically be done in two ways.</p><div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist " type="1"><li class="listitem"><p>If the module provides a <code class="literal">package</code> option, such as
<code class="literal">programs.beets.package</code>, then this is the recommended way to
perform the override. For example,</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">programs.beets.package = pkgs.beets.override { enableCheck = true; };
</code></pre></li><li class="listitem"><p>If no <code class="literal">package</code> option is available then you can typically override
the relevant package using an
<a class="link" href="https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/manual/#chap-overlays" target="_top">overlay</a>.</p><p>For example, if you want to use the <code class="literal">programs.skim</code> module but use
the <code class="literal">skim</code> package from Nixpkgs unstable, then a configuration like</p><pre><code class="programlisting nix">{ pkgs, config, ... }:
let
pkgsUnstable = import &lt;nixpkgs-unstable&gt; {};
in
{
programs.skim.enable = true;
nixpkgs.overlays = [
(self: super: {
skim = pkgsUnstable.skim;
})
];
# …
}
</code></pre><p>should work OK.</p></li></ol></div>
</div>
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