2.3 KiB
Using Home Manager
Your use of Home Manager is centered around the configuration file,
which is typically found at ~/.config/home-manager/home.nix in the
standard installation or ~/.config/home-manager/flake.nix in a Nix
flake based installation.
::: {.note}
The default configuration used to be placed in ~/.config/nixpkgs¸ so
you may see references to that elsewhere. The old directory still works
but Home Manager will print a warning message when used.
:::
This configuration file can be built and activated.
Building a configuration produces a directory in the Nix store that contains all files and programs that should be available in your home directory and Nix user profile, respectively. The build step also checks that the configuration is valid and it will fail with an error if you, for example, assign a value to an option that does not exist or assign a value of the wrong type. Some modules also have custom assertions that perform more detailed, module specific, checks.
Concretely, if your configuration contains
programs.emacs.enable = "yes";
then building it, for example using home-manager build, will result in
an error message saying something like
$ home-manager build
error: A definition for option `programs.emacs.enable' is not of type `boolean'. Definition values:
- In `/home/jdoe/.config/home-manager/home.nix': "yes"
(use '--show-trace' to show detailed location information)
The message indicates that you must provide a Boolean value for this
option, that is, either true or false. The documentation of each
option will state the expected type, for
programs.emacs.enable you will see "Type: boolean". You
there also find information about the default value and a description of
the option. You can find the complete option documentation in
Home Manager Configuration Options or directly in the terminal by running
man home-configuration.nix
Once a configuration is successfully built, it can be activated. The
activation performs the steps necessary to make the files, programs, and
services available in your user environment. The home-manager switch
command performs a combined build and activation.
usage/configuration.md
usage/rollbacks.md
usage/dotfiles.md
usage/graphical.md
usage/updating.md