# NixOS module {#sec-install-nixos-module} 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 `home-manager` tool. It also opens up additional possibilities, for example, to automatically configure user environments in NixOS declarative containers or on systems deployed through NixOps. To make the NixOS module available for use you must `import` 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 ``` shell $ sudo nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/archive/master.tar.gz home-manager $ sudo nix-channel --update ``` and if you follow a Nixpkgs version 24.11 channel, you can run ``` shell $ sudo nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/archive/release-24.11.tar.gz home-manager $ sudo nix-channel --update ``` It is then possible to add ``` nix imports = [ ]; ``` to your system `configuration.nix` file, which will introduce a new NixOS option called `home-manager.users` whose type is an attribute set that maps user names to Home Manager configurations. For example, a NixOS configuration may include the lines ``` 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 = "24.11"; }; ``` and after a `sudo nixos-rebuild switch` the user eve's environment should include a basic Bash configuration and the packages atool and httpie. :::{.note} If `nixos-rebuild switch` does not result in the environment you expect, you can take a look at the output of the Home Manager activation script output using ``` shell $ systemctl status "home-manager-$USER.service" ``` ::: If you do not plan on having Home Manager manage your shell configuration then you must add either ``` bash . "$HOME/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh" ``` or ``` bash . "/etc/profiles/per-user/$USER/etc/profile.d/hm-session-vars.sh" ``` to your shell configuration, depending on whether [home-manager.useUserPackages](#nixos-opt-home-manager.useUserPackages) is enabled. This file can be sourced directly by POSIX.2-like shells such as [Bash](https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/) or [Z shell](http://zsh.sourceforge.net/). [Fish](https://fishshell.com) users can use utilities such as [foreign-env](https://github.com/oh-my-fish/plugin-foreign-env) or [babelfish](https://github.com/bouk/babelfish). :::{.note} By default packages will be installed to `$HOME/.nix-profile` but they can be installed to `/etc/profiles` if ``` nix home-manager.useUserPackages = true; ``` is added to the system configuration. This is necessary if, for example, you wish to use `nixos-rebuild build-vm`. This option may become the default value in the future. ::: :::{.note} By default, Home Manager uses a private `pkgs` instance that is configured via the `home-manager.users..nixpkgs` options. To instead use the global `pkgs` that is configured via the system level `nixpkgs` options, set ``` nix home-manager.useGlobalPkgs = true; ``` This saves an extra Nixpkgs evaluation, adds consistency, and removes the dependency on `NIX_PATH`, which is otherwise used for importing Nixpkgs. ::: :::{.note} Home Manager will pass `osConfig` as a module argument to any modules you create. This contains the system's NixOS configuration. ``` nix { lib, pkgs, osConfig, ... }: ``` ::: Once installed you can see [Using Home Manager](#ch-usage) for a more detailed description of Home Manager and how to use it.