nixos-unified-template

A multi-platform Nix configuration template optimized as development environment (includes direnv, neovim with LSP¹ and such), based on nixos-unified. See ./modules to see what's available. We support home-manager (see ./modules/home), nix-darwin (see ./modules/darwin) and NixOS (see ./modules/nixos).

Platform	Supported By
macOS	✅ home-manager and/or ✅ nix-darwin
NixOS	✅ home-manager and ✅ NixOS
Other Linux	✅ home-manager only

Getting Started

On NixOS

If you use, or intend to use, NixOS:

1. Install NixOS from Graphical ISO image and reboot.
2. Ensure that /etc/nixos/{configuration.nix, hardware-configuration.nix} are in place.
3. In a terminal, become root and initialize our template under /etc/nixos:

   sudo su -
   cd /etc/nixos
   nix --accept-flake-config --extra-experimental-features "nix-command flakes" \
     run github:juspay/omnix -- \
     init github:juspay/nixos-unified-template#nixos -o .
   # Replace HOSTNAME with the hostname you entered above.
   mv configuration.nix hardware-configuration.nix ./configurations/nixos/HOSTNAME/
   nix --extra-experimental-features "nix-command flakes" run

4. At this point, you can move /etc/nixos to anywhere, and initialize a Git repository to track future changes.

On non-NixOS

If you are on macOS or running other Linux distros:

1. Install Nix:

   curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | \
     sh -s -- install --no-confirm --extra-conf "trusted-users = $(whoami)"

2. Open a new terminal; Initialize² your Nix configuration using this repo as template:

   nix --accept-flake-config run github:juspay/omnix -- \
     init github:juspay/nixos-unified-template -o ~/nixconfig
   cd ~/nixconfig

   
   • It will prompt to you choose between home-manager only configuration and nix-darwin configuration (ignore the NixOS template). The latter includes home-manager as well.
   • Optionally, you may edit ./modules/{home,darwin}/*.nix to your liking.

3. Run nix run (or the appropriate command printed by the above command) to activate your configuration.

   • Does this fail to run? See the Troubleshooting section below.

4. Restart your terminal.

After steps 1-4, you should expect to see the starship prompt:

Whenever you modify your configuration in ./modules/*/*.nix, you should re-run nix run to activate the new configuration.

Details

The configuration repo has flake.nix file in the current directory and some ./modules/{home,darwin,nixos}/*.nix files containing the home-manager, nix-darwin and NixOS configurations respectively that you can review. It also has a justfile, which provides a set of recipes analogous to Make targets to interact with the nix flake.

You can then execute nix develop, to ensure you are in the development shell with just installed, followed by just run (or nix run) to activate this configuration in your system.

If you prefer, you can simply execute nix run, but using just will perform some additional validation and ensure you are able to use the other commands in the justfile.

To browse the capabilities of home-manager (and to see what else can go in your ./modules/home/*.nix -- such as shell aliases), consult home-manager options reference. You can also run man home-configuration.nix in the terminal.

What's included

Here we describe just a handful of tools included in this template. See the ./modules directory for more.

neovim

Neovim configured using nixvim is included across all configurations. It is also exposed as a flake app, so you can launch it directly using nix run github:juspay/nixos-unified-template#neovim. See neovim/nixvim.nix.

starship

Prettify your shell prompt with starship. It is configured to show the current git branch, the current directory, Nix devshell status and the exit code of the last command.

direnv

direnv as well as nix-direnv is fully configured and available to use in your shell, with tight starship (see above) prompt integration. See direnv.nix

git configuration

Your ~/.config/git/config is managed entirely in Nix. See git.nix.

comma

Type , followed by the any binary name to run it directly from nixpkgs, using comma.

Garbage collection

Nix garbage collection runs periodically to keep disk space manageable. See gc.nix

By default, home-manager is configured to run garbage collection automatically every week. If your projects use nix-direnv, you don't have to worry about having to download the dependencies again while in a remote area with limited internet access (see prominent features of nix-direnv).

Troubleshooting

error: opening lock file ...

Problem: When using home-manager, nix run shows an error like: error: opening lock file '/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/utkarsh.pandey1/profile.lock': No such file or directory

Solution: This is an instance of nix-community/home-manager#4611. Run sudo mkdir /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/$(whoami)/ && sudo chown $(whoami) /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/$(whoami) and try again.

error: unable to download ... Problem with the SSL CA cert (path? access rights?)

Problem: On macOS, you may see this error: error: unable to download ... Problem with the SSL CA cert (path? access rights?)

Solution: You may be able to resolve this by running:

sudo rm /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
sudo ln -s /nix/var/nix/profiles/default/etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

See NixOS/nix#2899 (comment)

Footnotes

1. Wanna try before you buy?

   git clone https://github.com/srid/rust-nix-template
   cd rust-nix-template
   nix develop
   nix run github:juspay/nixos-unified-template#neovim
   # Type `SPC f f` to open a .rs file
   # Wait for rust-analyzer to finish; go to a symbol and type K
   

   Expect to see:

   ↩

2. We use omnix to initialize this repository template. ↩