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nixos

A unified NixOS management tool.

Introduction

🚨

This project is undergoing a rewrite to make it more feasible to work on certain features, and also to make development time faster. The rewrite is here, but will be missing many features as I am rewriting them. Use the `main` branch if you are not willing to put up with this.

The rewrite will also bring some substantial UX improvements, and hopefully some new things on the roadmap. Check the [TODO](#todo) section for a list of things that this rewrite will bring.

This is a unification of all the different pick NixOS tooling into one executable. NixOS has its various tools spread out between several large scripts that have become on the verge of unmaintainable. This tool has one goal: to create a modular NixOS CLI that mirrors or enhances the functionality of all current NixOS tooling in nixpkgs, adds on to it if needed, and eventually come to replace it entirely.

  • nixos-rebuild → nixos apply + nixos generation
  • nixos-enter → nixos enter
  • nixos-generate-config → nixos init
  • nixos-version → nixos info
  • nixos-install → nixos install
  • nixos-info → nixos manual
  • nixos-option → nixos option

More to come in the future, see TODO for a list of commands that are planned to be implemented.

Usage

Use this repo as a flake input. A NixOS module is also provided, and this is the recommended way to use this program.

{
  inputs.nixos-cli.url = "github:water-sucks/nixos";

  outputs = { nixpkgs, nixos-cli, ... }: {
    nixosConfigurations.system-name = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      modules = [
        nixos-cli.nixosModules.nixos-cli
        {
          services.nixos-cli = {
            enable = true;
            # Other configuration for nixos-cli
          };
        }
        # other configuration goes here
      ];
    };
  };
}

Legacy

This is primarily a flake-oriented package, since flakes are the future, at least as far as can be seen. However, legacy configurations managed with nix-channel and a configuration.nix, or any other preferred methods such as niv and npins are maintained here as well, albeit they are a little harder to use. The nixos-cli package that manages legacy configurations is completely separated from the flake-enabled nixos-cli, as to not mix usage between the two and separate concerns.

To use the NixOS module in legacy mode, import the default.nix provided in this repository. An example is provided below with fetchTarball:

{ config, system, pkgs, ...}:

let
  # Make sure to specify the full Git revision to fetch in pure evaluation mode,
  # rather than using a branch.
  nixos-cli = import "${builtins.fetchTarball "github:water-sucks/nixos/archive/GITREVORBRANCHDEADBEEFDEADBEEF0000.tar.gz}" {inherit pkgs;};
in {
  imports = [
    nixos-cli.module
  ];

  services.nixos-cli = {
    enable = true;
    package = nixos-cli.nixosLegacy;
    # Other configuration for nixos-cli
  };

  # ... rest of config
}

Cache

There is a Cachix cache available. Add the following to your NixOS configuration to avoid lengthy rebuilds and fetching extra build-time dependencies:

{
  nix.settings = {
    substituters = [ "https://watersucks.cachix.org" ];
    trusted-public-keys = [
      "watersucks.cachix.org-1:6gadPC5R8iLWQ3EUtfu3GFrVY7X6I4Fwz/ihW25Jbv8="
    ];
  };
}

Or if using the Cachix CLI outside a NixOS environment:

$ cachix use watersucks

There are rare cases in which you want to automatically configure a cache when using flakes, such as when installing NixOS configurations using this tool. The following configuration in the flake.nix can help with this (beware though, as this is a fairly undocumented feature!):

{
  nixConfig = {
    extra-substituters = [ "https://watersucks.cachix.org" ];
    extra-trusted-public-keys = [
      "watersucks.cachix.org-1:6gadPC5R8iLWQ3EUtfu3GFrVY7X6I4Fwz/ihW25Jbv8="
    ];
  };

  inputs = {}; # Whatever you normally have here
  outputs = inputs: {}; # Whatever you normally have here
}

Configuration

This can be configured using the NixOS module (the preferred way), which generates a file at /etc/nixos-cli/config.toml. A path to a configuration file can also be specified using the NIXOS_CLI_CONFIG environment variable.

A sample configuration file with all available options, along with some example configuration is located in config.sample.toml.

TODO

Checklist of what needs to happen before this rewrite can be merged back into main and released (in order):

  • ✅ Remove Zig/replace with Go application
  • ✅ Setup CLI interface
  • ✅ Setup basic completions
  • ✅ Setup config
  • ✅ Setup logging
  • ✅ apply
  • ✅ generation
    • ✅ list
    • ✅ switch
    • ✅ rollback
    • ✅ delete
    • ✅ diff
  • ✅ info
  • ✅ enter
  • ✅ repl
  • 🚧 option
  • ✅ init
  • ❌ install
  • ✅ manual

Roadmap (for after rewrite)

  • ❌ Documentation (via man pages)
  • ❌ Remote application of configurations
  • ❌ Remote installation (a la nixos-anywhere)
  • ❌ Container management (a la nixos-container, lower priority)

Check the issues page for more on this; this is just a high-level overview.

Talk!

Join the Matrix room at #nixos-cli:matrix.org! It's open for chatting about NixOS in general, and for making it a better experience for all that involved.

I would like for this to become a standard NixOS tool, which means that I want to cater to potentially many interests. If you would like for any commands to be implemented that you think fit this project, talk to me on Matrix or file a GitHub issue.