mirror of
https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager
synced 2024-11-23 19:49:45 +01:00
32 lines
1.7 KiB
Markdown
32 lines
1.7 KiB
Markdown
# Introduction to Home Manager {#ch-introduction}
|
|
|
|
Home Manager is a [Nix](https://nix.dev/)-powered tool for reproducible management of the contents of users' home directories.
|
|
This includes programs, configuration files, environment variables and, well… arbitrary files.
|
|
The following example snippet of Nix code:
|
|
|
|
```nix
|
|
programs.git = {
|
|
enable = true;
|
|
userEmail = "joe@example.org";
|
|
userName = "joe";
|
|
};
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
would make available to a user the `git` executable and man pages and a configuration file `~/.config/git/config`:
|
|
|
|
```ini
|
|
[user]
|
|
email = "joe@example.org"
|
|
name = "joe"
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Since Home Manager is implemented in Nix, it provides several benefits:
|
|
|
|
- Contents are reproducible — a home will be the exact same every time it is built, unless of course, an intentional change is made.
|
|
This also means you can have the exact same home on different hosts.
|
|
- Significantly faster and more powerful than various backup strategies.
|
|
- Unlike "dotfiles" repositories, Home Manager supports specifying programs, as well as their configurations.
|
|
- Supported by <http://cache.nixos.org/>, so that you don't have to build from source.
|
|
- If you do want to build some programs from source, there is hardly a tool more useful than Nix for that, and the build instructions can be neatly integrated in your Home Manager usage.
|
|
- Infinitely composable, so that values in different configuration files and build instructions can share a source of truth.
|
|
- Connects you with the [most extensive](https://repology.org/repositories/statistics/total) and [most up-to-date](https://repology.org/repositories/statistics/newest) software package repository on earth, [Nixpkgs](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs).
|