Nix modules for darwin, /etc/nixos/configuration.nix
for macOS.
This project aims to bring the convenience of a declarative system approach to macOS. nix-darwin is built up around Nixpkgs, quite similar to NixOS.
The only prerequisite is a Nix implementation, both Nix and Lix are supported.
As the official Nix installer does not include an automated uninstaller, and manual uninstallation on macOS is a complex process, we recommend using one of the following installers instead:
- The Nix installer from Determinate Systems is only recommended for use with flake-based setups. Make sure you use it without the
--determinate
flag. The--determinate
flag installs the Determinate Nix distribution which does not work out of the box with nix-darwin.
- The Lix installer supports both flake-based and channel-based setups.
Despite being an experimental feature in Nix currently, nix-darwin recommends that beginners use flakes to manage their nix-darwin configurations.
Flakes (Recommended for beginners)
Getting started from scratch
If you don't have an existing configuration.nix
, you can run the following commands to generate a basic flake.nix
inside ~/.config/nix-darwin
:
mkdir -p ~/.config/nix-darwin
cd ~/.config/nix-darwin
nix flake init -t nix-darwin
sed -i '' "s/simple/$(scutil --get LocalHostName)/" flake.nix
Make sure to change nixpkgs.hostPlatform
to aarch64-darwin
if you are using Apple Silicon.
Migrating from an existing configuration.nix
Add the following to flake.nix
in the same folder as configuration.nix
:
{
description = "John's darwin system";
inputs = {
nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-24.05-darwin";
nix-darwin.url = "github:LnL7/nix-darwin";
nix-darwin.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
};
outputs = inputs@{ self, nix-darwin, nixpkgs }: {
darwinConfigurations."Johns-MacBook" = nix-darwin.lib.darwinSystem {
modules = [ ./configuration.nix ];
};
};
}
Make sure to replace Johns-MacBook
with your hostname which you can find by running scutil --get LocalHostName
.
Make sure to set nixpkgs.hostPlatform
in your configuration.nix
to either x86_64-darwin
(Intel) or aarch64-darwin
(Apple Silicon).
Unlike NixOS, nix-darwin
does not have an installer, you can just run darwin-rebuild switch
to install nix-darwin. As darwin-rebuild
won't be installed in your PATH
yet, you can use the following command:
nix run nix-darwin -- switch --flake ~/.config/nix-darwin
After installing, you can run darwin-rebuild
to apply changes to your system:
darwin-rebuild switch --flake ~/.config/nix-darwin
Inputs from the flake can also be passed into darwinSystem
. These inputs are then
accessible as an argument inputs
, similar to pkgs
and lib
, inside the configuration.
# in flake.nix
nix-darwin.lib.darwinSystem {
modules = [ ./configuration.nix ];
specialArgs = { inherit inputs; };
}
# in configuration.nix
{ pkgs, lib, inputs }:
# inputs.self, inputs.nix-darwin, and inputs.nixpkgs can be accessed here
Channels
Copy the simple example to ~/.config/nix-darwin/configuration.nix
.
nix-channel --add https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin/archive/master.tar.gz darwin
nix-channel --update
To install nix-darwin
, you can just run darwin-rebuild switch
to install nix-darwin. As darwin-rebuild
won't be installed in your PATH
yet, you can use the following command:
nix-build https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin/archive/master.tar.gz -A darwin-rebuild
./result/bin/darwin-rebuild switch -I darwin-config=$HOME/.config/nix-darwin/configuration.nix
After installing, you can run darwin-rebuild
to apply changes to your system:
darwin-rebuild switch
You can update nix-darwin
using the following command:
nix-channel --update darwin
darwin-help
will open up a local copy of the reference documentation, it can also be found online here.
The documentation is also available as manpages by running man 5 configuration.nix
.
To run the latest version of the uninstaller, you can run the following command:
nix --extra-experimental-features "nix-command flakes" run nix-darwin#darwin-uninstaller
If that command doesn't work for you, you can try the locally installed uninstaller:
darwin-uninstaller
There are basic tests that run sanity checks for some of the modules, you can run them like this:
# run all tests
nix-build release.nix -A tests
# or just a subset
nix-build release.nix -A tests.environment-path
Let's make Nix on macOS awesome!
Don't hesitate to contribute modules or open an issue.
To build your configuration with local changes you can run this. This
flag can also be used to override darwin-config or nixpkgs, for more
information on the -I
flag look at the nix-build manpage.
darwin-rebuild switch -I darwin=.
If you're adding a module, please add yourself to meta.maintainers
, for example
meta.maintainers = [
lib.maintainers.alice or "alice"
];
options.services.alicebot = # ...
The or
operator takes care of graceful degradation when lib
from Nixpkgs
goes out of sync.
Also feel free to contact me if you have questions,
- Matrix - @daiderd:matrix.org, you can find me in #macos:nixos.org
- @LnL7 on twitter