Configuration is part of everyday life as a software user. You either configure your tools through graphical interfaces or through text-based files in different formats.
After many years as a Linux user, I eventually got tired of endlessly reconfiguring my software. This became especially painful when moving from one machine to another, setting up a new laptop from work, or rebuilding my environment after a fresh installation. I wanted a way to keep my configuration portable and carry it over to another machine with less hassle as possible.
At first, I settled on a dotfiles repository. It worked well enough and was a huge improvement over manual setup, but it was still limited. Dotfiles gave me control over application configuration, but not over the actual packages, services, system settings, and full operating-system environment.
Then I discovered NixOS and its ecosystem, and it completely changed how I think about managing an operating system. For me, NixOS is currently one of the most powerful and forward-looking ways to manage a reproducible environment. I doubt I will switch away from it anytime soon.
Repository to store and share my personalized nixos configuration. It unlocks ability to reproduce my setup on new host in few commands assuming that it has nixos already installed.
| name | host |
|---|---|
| viva | Apple MacBook Pro M1 Max |
| nano | Dell Precision 7540 |
Thanks to and
it
is possible to install nixos on apple silicon.
Below lists of essential packages that give my system needed vibe.
| name | description |
|---|---|
| niri | wayland compositor |
| noctalia | desktop shell |
| nautilus | file browser |
| zen | internet browser |
| ghostty | terminal emulator |
| name | description |
|---|---|
| tuigreet | tui greeter |
| nushell | terminal shell |
| starship | terminal shell prompt |
| yazi | file browser |
| gitui | tui git |
| name | description |
|---|---|
| helix | modal text editor |
| zed | editor |
| name | description |
|---|---|
| stylix | theming |
| berkeley-mono | fonts |
| nerd-icons | icons |
| awww | wallpaper daemon |
This configuration is intended for NixOS systems. Extensive documentation on how
to install NixOS is available online. If you want to run NixOS on Apple machine,
refer to
.
You need the following experimental features to be enabled:
- flakes
- nix-command
Clone the repository wherever you keep your configuration files. I usually keep
mine under ~/.config..
git clone https://github.com/thatwhichisdev/nix-config.git ~/.config/nix-configMy configuration contains a few private flakes such as berkeley-mono and
nix-assets. You will need to remove those inputs and their usages, since you
won't have access to them and build will fail. I use those private flakes to
keep licensed assets out of the public repository.
Before building a system configuration, you can check the flake for evaluation errors and other issues.
nix flake checkTo format repository simply run
nix fmtBuild and switch to a host configuration with nixos-rebuild.
sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#<host>Or using nix helper, which wraps common nixos rebuild flows and asks for elevated privileges when needed.
nh os switch -H <host>Replace <host> with the host you want to build. In my case, this is either
viva either nano.
Updating should be done with care, sometimes updates on unstable inputs may introduce regressions.
nix flake updateTo update a single input:
nix flake update <input-name>The code in this project is licensed under MIT license. Check
for further details.