home-manager/doc/installation.xml

<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
      xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
      xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
      version="5.0"
      xml:id="ch-installation">
 <title>Installing Home Manager</title>
 <para>
  Home Manager can be used in three primary ways:
  <orderedlist>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     Using the standalone <command>home-manager</command> 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 independent of the system as a whole. See
     <xref linkend="sec-install-standalone"/> for instructions on how to
     perform this installation.
    </para>
   </listitem>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     As a module within a NixOS system configuration. This allows the user
     profiles to be built together with the system when running
     <command>nixos-rebuild</command>. See
     <xref linkend="sec-install-nixos-module"/> for a description of this
     setup.
    </para>
   </listitem>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     As a module within a
     <link xlink:href="https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin/">nix-darwin</link>
     system configuration. This allows the user profiles to be built together
     with the system when running <command>darwin-rebuild</command>. See
     <xref linkend="sec-install-nix-darwin-module"/> for a description of this
     setup.
    </para>
   </listitem>
  </orderedlist>
 </para>
 <section xml:id="sec-install-standalone">
  <title>Standalone installation</title>

  <orderedlist>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     Make sure you have a working Nix installation. If you are not using NixOS
     then it may be necessary to run
    </para>
<screen>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>mkdir -m 0755 -p /nix/var/nix/{profiles,gcroots}/per-user/$USER</userinput>
</screen>
    <para>
     since Home Manager uses these directories to manage your profile
     generations. On NixOS these should already be available.
    </para>
    <para>
     Also 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
     <literal>nix-instantiate '&lt;nixpkgs&gt;' -A hello</literal> 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
     <link xlink:href="https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#conf-allowed-users"><literal>allowed-users</literal></link>
     Nix option. On NixOS you can control this option using the
     <link xlink:href="https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/options.html#opt-nix.allowedUsers"><literal>nix.allowedUsers</literal></link>
     system option.
    </para>
   </listitem>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     Add the Home Manager channel that you wish to follow. This is done by
     running
    </para>
<screen>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>nix-channel --add https://github.com/rycee/home-manager/archive/master.tar.gz home-manager</userinput>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>nix-channel --update</userinput>
</screen>
    <para>
     if you are following Nixpkgs master or an unstable channel and
    </para>
<screen>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>nix-channel --add https://github.com/rycee/home-manager/archive/release-20.03.tar.gz home-manager</userinput>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>nix-channel --update</userinput>
</screen>
    <para>
     if you follow a Nixpkgs version 20.03 channel.
    </para>
    <para>
     On NixOS you may need to log out and back in for the channel to become
     available. On non-NixOS you may have to add
<programlisting language="bash">
export NIX_PATH=$HOME/.nix-defexpr/channels${NIX_PATH:+:}$NIX_PATH
</programlisting>
     to your shell (see
     <link xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/2033">nix#2033</link>).
    </para>
   </listitem>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     Run the Home Manager installation command and create the first Home
     Manager generation:
    </para>
<screen>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>nix-shell '&lt;home-manager&gt;' -A install</userinput>
</screen>
    <para>
     Once finished, Home Manager should be active and available in your user
     environment.
    </para>
   </listitem>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     If you do not plan on having Home Manager manage your shell configuration
     then you must source the
    </para>
<programlisting language="bash">
$HOME/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh
</programlisting>
    <para>
     file in your shell configuration. Unfortunately, we currently only support
     POSIX.2-like shells such as
     <link xlink:href="https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/">Bash</link> or
     <link xlink:href="http://zsh.sourceforge.net/">Z shell</link>.
    </para>
    <para>
     For example, if you use Bash then add
    </para>
<programlisting language="bash">
. &quot;$HOME/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh&quot;
</programlisting>
    <para>
     to your <literal>~/.profile</literal> file.
    </para>
   </listitem>
  </orderedlist>

  <para>
   If instead of using channels you want to run Home Manager from a Git
   checkout of the repository then you can use the
   <literal>programs.home-manager.path</literal> option to specify the absolute
   path to the repository.
  </para>
 </section>
 <section xml:id="sec-install-nixos-module">
  <title>NixOS module</title>

  <para>
   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 <command>home-manager</command> tool. It also
   opens up additional possibilities, for example, to automatically configure
   user environments in NixOS declarative containers or on systems deployed
   through NixOps.
  </para>

  <para>
   To make the NixOS module available for use you must <option>import</option>
   it into your system configuration. This is most conveniently done by adding
   a Home Manager channel, for example
  </para>

<screen>
<prompt>#</prompt> <userinput>nix-channel --add https://github.com/rycee/home-manager/archive/master.tar.gz home-manager</userinput>
<prompt>#</prompt> <userinput>nix-channel --update</userinput>
</screen>

  <para>
   if you are following Nixpkgs master or an unstable channel and
  </para>

<screen>
<prompt>#</prompt> <userinput>nix-channel --add https://github.com/rycee/home-manager/archive/release-20.03.tar.gz home-manager</userinput>
<prompt>#</prompt> <userinput>nix-channel --update</userinput>
</screen>

  <para>
   if you follow a Nixpkgs version 20.03 channel.
  </para>

  <para>
   It is then possible to add
  </para>

<programlisting language="nix">
imports = [ &lt;home-manager/nixos&gt; ];
</programlisting>

  <para>
   to your system <filename>configuration.nix</filename> file, which will
   introduce a new NixOS option called <option>home-manager.users</option>
   whose type is an attribute set that maps user names to Home Manager
   configurations.
  </para>

  <para>
   For example, a NixOS configuration may include the lines
  </para>

<programlisting language="nix">
users.users.eve.isNormalUser = true;
home-manager.users.eve = { pkgs, ... }: {
  home.packages = [ pkgs.atool pkgs.httpie ];
  programs.bash.enable = true;
};
</programlisting>

  <para>
   and after a <command>nixos-rebuild switch</command> the user eve's
   environment should include a basic Bash configuration and the packages atool
   and httpie.
  </para>

  <note>
   <para>
    By default packages will be installed to
    <filename>$HOME/.nix-profile</filename> but they can be installed to
    <filename>/etc/profiles</filename> if
   </para>
<programlisting language="nix">
home-manager.useUserPackages = true;
</programlisting>
   <para>
    is added to the system configuration. This is necessary if, for example,
    you wish to use <command>nixos-rebuild build-vm</command>. This option may
    become the default value in the future.
   </para>
  </note>

  <note>
   <para>
    By default, Home Manager uses a private <literal>pkgs</literal> instance
    that is configured via the <option>home-manager.users.&lt;name&gt;.nixpkgs</option> options.
    To instead use the global <literal>pkgs</literal> that is configured via
    the system level <option>nixpkgs</option> options, set
   </para>
<programlisting language="nix">
home-manager.useGlobalPkgs = true;
</programlisting>
  <para>
   This saves an extra Nixpkgs evaluation, adds consistency, and removes the
   dependency on <envar>NIX_PATH</envar>, which is otherwise used for
   importing Nixpkgs.
   </para>
  </note>
 </section>
 <section xml:id="sec-install-nix-darwin-module">
  <title>nix-darwin module</title>

  <para>
   Home Manager provides a module that allows you to prepare user
   environments directly from the nix-darwin configuration file, which often is
   more convenient than using the <command>home-manager</command> tool.
  </para>

  <para>
   To make the NixOS module available for use you must <option>import</option>
   it into your system configuration. This is most conveniently done by adding
   a Home Manager channel, for example
  </para>

<screen>
<prompt>#</prompt> <userinput>nix-channel --add https://github.com/rycee/home-manager/archive/master.tar.gz home-manager</userinput>
<prompt>#</prompt> <userinput>nix-channel --update</userinput>
</screen>

  <para>
   if you are following Nixpkgs master or an unstable channel and
  </para>

<screen>
<prompt>#</prompt> <userinput>nix-channel --add https://github.com/rycee/home-manager/archive/release-20.03.tar.gz home-manager</userinput>
<prompt>#</prompt> <userinput>nix-channel --update</userinput>
</screen>

  <para>
   if you follow a Nixpkgs version 20.03 channel.
  </para>

  <para>
   It is then possible to add
  </para>

<programlisting language="nix">
imports = [ &lt;home-manager/nix-darwin&gt; ];
</programlisting>

  <para>
   to your nix-darwin <filename>configuration.nix</filename> file, which will
   introduce a new NixOS option called <option>home-manager</option> whose type
   is an attribute set that maps user names to Home Manager configurations.
  </para>

  <para>
   For example, a nix-darwin configuration may include the lines
  </para>

<programlisting language="nix">
home-manager.users.eve = { pkgs, ... }: {
  home.packages = [ pkgs.atool pkgs.httpie ];
  programs.bash.enable = true;
};
</programlisting>

  <para>
   and after a <command>darwin-rebuild --switch</command> the user eve's
   environment should include a basic Bash configuration and the packages atool
   and httpie.
  </para>

  <note>
   <para>
    By default user packages will not be ignored in favor of
    <option>environment.systemPackages</option>, but they will be intalled to
    <option>/etc/profiles/per-user/$USERNAME</option> if
   </para>

<programlisting language="nix">
home-manager.useUserPackages = true;
</programlisting>

   <para>
    is added to the nix-darwin configuration. This option may become the default
    value in the future.
   </para>
  </note>
 </section>
</chapter>