diff --git a/home-manager/home-manager b/home-manager/home-manager
index deabe70c9..990e1e5e8 100644
--- a/home-manager/home-manager
+++ b/home-manager/home-manager
@@ -186,6 +186,18 @@ function doBuildAttr() {
         --argstr confAttr "$HOME_MANAGER_CONFIG_ATTRIBUTE"
 }
 
+function doBuildFlake() {
+    local extraArgs=("$@")
+
+    if [[ -v VERBOSE ]]; then
+        extraArgs=("${extraArgs[@]}" "--verbose")
+    fi
+
+    nix build \
+        "${extraArgs[@]}" \
+        "${PASSTHROUGH_OPTS[@]}"
+}
+
 # Presents news to the user. Takes as argument the path to a "news
 # info" file as generated by `buildNews`.
 function presentNews() {
@@ -246,43 +258,31 @@ function doBuild() {
         return 1
     fi
 
-    setFlakeAttribute
-    if [[ -v FLAKE_CONFIG_URI ]]; then
-        nix build \
-            "${PASSTHROUGH_OPTS[@]}" \
-             ${DRY_RUN+--dry-run} \
-             ${NO_OUT_LINK+--no-link} \
-            "$FLAKE_CONFIG_URI.activationPackage" \
-            || return
-    fi
-
     setWorkDir
 
-    local newsInfo
-    newsInfo=$(buildNews)
-
-    doBuildAttr \
-                ${NO_OUT_LINK+--no-out-link} \
-                --attr activationPackage \
+    setFlakeAttribute
+    if [[ -v FLAKE_CONFIG_URI ]]; then
+        doBuildFlake \
+            "${DRY_RUN+--dry-run} \
+            "${NO_OUT_LINK+--no-link} \
+            "$FLAKE_CONFIG_URI.activationPackage" \
+            || return
+    else
+        doBuildAttr \
+            ${NO_OUT_LINK+--no-out-link} \
+            --attr activationPackage \
         || return
 
-    presentNews "$newsInfo"
+        local newsInfo
+        newsInfo=$(buildNews)
+
+        presentNews "$newsInfo"
+    fi
 }
 
 function doSwitch() {
-    setFlakeAttribute
-    if [[ -v FLAKE_CONFIG_URI ]]; then
-        nix run \
-            "${PASSTHROUGH_OPTS[@]}" \
-            "$FLAKE_CONFIG_URI.activationPackage" \
-            || return
-    fi
-
     setWorkDir
 
-    local newsInfo
-    newsInfo=$(buildNews)
-
     local generation
 
     # Build the generation and run the activate script. Note, we
@@ -291,12 +291,23 @@ function doSwitch() {
     # before activation completes.
     generation="$WORK_DIR/generation"
 
-    doBuildAttr \
-                --out-link "$generation" \
-                --attr activationPackage \
-        && "$generation/activate" || return
+    setFlakeAttribute
+    if [[ -v FLAKE_CONFIG_URI ]]; then
+        doBuildFlake \
+            --out-link "$generation" \
+            "$FLAKE_CONFIG_URI.activationPackage" \
+            && "$generation/activate" || return
+    else
+        doBuildAttr \
+            --out-link "$generation" \
+            --attr activationPackage \
+            && "$generation/activate" || return
 
-    presentNews "$newsInfo"
+        local newsInfo
+        newsInfo=$(buildNews)
+
+        presentNews "$newsInfo"
+    fi
 }
 
 function doListGens() {
@@ -393,13 +404,13 @@ function buildNews() {
     output="$WORK_DIR/news-info.sh"
 
     doBuildAttr \
-                --out-link "$output" \
-                --no-build-output \
-                --quiet \
-                --arg check false \
-                --argstr newsReadIdsFile "$(newsReadIdsFile)" \
-                --attr newsInfo \
-                > /dev/null
+        --out-link "$output" \
+        --no-build-output \
+        --quiet \
+        --arg check false \
+        --argstr newsReadIdsFile "$(newsReadIdsFile)" \
+        --attr newsInfo \
+        > /dev/null
 
     echo "$output"
 }
@@ -616,8 +627,7 @@ while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
             shift
             ;;
         --debug|--keep-failed|--keep-going|--show-trace\
-            |--substitute|--no-substitute|--impure\
-            |--no-write-lock-file)
+            |--substitute|--no-substitute|--impure)
             PASSTHROUGH_OPTS+=("$opt")
             ;;
         -v|--verbose)