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dfb5bbddf5
In particular, mention that non-NixOS users may have to create the per-user `profiles` and `gcroots` directories. Also reformat the list a little.
208 lines
4.9 KiB
Markdown
208 lines
4.9 KiB
Markdown
Home Manager using Nix
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======================
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This project provides a basic system for managing a user environment
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using the [Nix][] package manager together with the Nix libraries
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found in [Nixpkgs][]. Before attempting to use Home Manager please
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read the warning below.
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Words of warning
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----------------
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This project is under development. I personally use it to manage
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several user configurations but it may fail catastrophically for you.
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So beware!
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In some cases Home Manager cannot detect whether it will overwrite a
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previous manual configuration. For example, the Gnome Terminal module
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will write to your dconf store and cannot tell whether a configuration
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that it is about to be overwrite was from a previous Home Manager
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generation or from manual configuration.
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Home Manager targets [NixOS][] version 17.03 (the current stable
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version), it may or may not work on other Linux distributions and
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NixOS versions.
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Also, the `home-manager` tool does not explicitly support rollbacks at
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the moment so if your home directory gets messed up you'll have to fix
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it yourself (you can attempt to run the activation script for the
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desired generation).
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Now when your expectations have been built up and you are eager to try
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all this out you can go ahead and read the rest of this text.
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Installation
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------------
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Currently the easiest way to install Home Manager is as follows:
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1. Make sure you have a working Nix installation. If you are not
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using NixOS then you may here have to run
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```
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$ mkdir -m 0755 -p /nix/var/nix/{profiles,gcroots}/per-user/$USER
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```
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since Home Manager uses these directories to manage your profile
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generations. On NixOS these should already be available.
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2. Clone the Home Manager repository into the `~/.nixpkgs` directory:
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```
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$ git clone https://github.com/rycee/home-manager ~/.nixpkgs/home-manager
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```
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3. Add Home Manager to your user's Nixpkgs, for example by adding it
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to the `packageOverrides` section in your `~/.nixpkgs/config.nix`
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file:
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```nix
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{
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packageOverrides = pkgs: rec {
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home-manager = import ./home-manager { inherit pkgs; };
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};
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}
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```
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4. Install the `home-manager` package:
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```
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$ nix-env -f '<nixpkgs>' -iA home-manager
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installing ‘home-manager’
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```
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Usage
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-----
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The `home-manager` package installs a tool that is conveniently called
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`home-manager`. This tool can apply configurations to your home
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directory, list user packages installed by the tool, and list the
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configuration generations.
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As an example, let us set up a very simple configuration that installs
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the htop and fortune packages, installs Emacs with a few extra
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packages enabled, installs Firefox with Adobe Flash enabled, and
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enables the user gpg-agent service.
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First create a file `~/.nixpkgs/home.nix` containing
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```nix
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{ pkgs, ... }:
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{
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home.packages = [
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pkgs.htop
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pkgs.fortune
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];
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programs.emacs = {
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enable = true;
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extraPackages = epkgs: [
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epkgs.nix-mode
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epkgs.magit
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];
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};
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programs.firefox = {
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enable = true;
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enableAdobeFlash = true;
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};
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services.gpg-agent = {
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enable = true;
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defaultCacheTtl = 1800;
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enableSshSupport = true;
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};
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}
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```
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To activate this configuration you can then run
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```
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$ home-manager switch
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```
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or if you are not feeling so lucky,
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```
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$ home-manager build
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```
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which will create a `result` link to a directory containing an
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activation script and the generated home directory files.
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File safety
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-----------
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To configure programs and services the Home Manager must write various
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things to your home directory. To prevent overwriting any existing
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files when switching to a new generation, Home Manager will attempt to
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detect collisions between existing files and generated files. If any
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such collision is detected the activation will terminate before
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changing anything on your computer.
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For example, suppose you have a wonderful, painstakingly created
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`~/.gitconfig` and add
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```nix
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{
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# …
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programs.git = {
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enable = true;
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userName = "Jane Doe";
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userEmail = "jane.doe@example.org";
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};
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# …
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}
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```
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to your configuration. Attempting to switch to the generation will
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then result in
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```
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$ home-manager switch
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…
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Activating checkLinkTargets
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Existing file '/home/jdoe/.gitconfig' is in the way
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Please move the above files and try again
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```
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Graphical services
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------------------
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Home Manager includes a number of services intended to run in a
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graphical session, for example `xscreensaver` and `dunst`.
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Unfortunately, such services will not be started automatically unless
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you let Home Manager start your X session. That is, you have something
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like
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```nix
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{
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# …
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services.xserver.enable = true;
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# …
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}
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```
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in your system configuration and
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```nix
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{
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# …
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xsession.enable = true;
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xsession.windowManager = "…";
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# …
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}
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```
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in your Home Manager configuration.
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[Nix]: https://nixos.org/nix/
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[NixOS]: https://nixos.org/
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[Nixpkgs]: https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/
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