Requirements

• nix

Installation

First install the nix package manager.

sh <(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install) --daemon

Once nix is installed, we don't even have to clone the repository. We can just use the flake to install everything.

nix --extra-experimental-features "nix-command flakes" run home-manager -- --extra-experimental-features "nix-command flakes" switch --flake "github:jfortunato/dotfiles?dir=nix"

The experimental features can be added to the nix configuration file to avoid having to specify them every time.

Some files may need to be removed from the home directory, like a pre-existing .bashrc or .profile.

Restart after running the above command to ensure all changes take effect.

Install vim plugins

vim

Usage

Instead of working with a remote git repository, we can clone the repository and work with it locally.

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/jfortunato/dotfiles.git .dotfiles

Now we can work locally and tell home-manager to use the flake in the local repository.

home-manager switch --flake ~/.dotfiles/nix

Updating Packages

All the packages can be updated by running:

hm-update-packages

This runs a custom script that essentially runs nix flake update --flake ~/.dotfiles/nix --commit-lock-file and gives some additional output to display the changes. However since I'd like package updates to happen more frequently I'd rather not pollute the commit history with a bunch of these commits. Instead I can just live on a different branch, update as often as needed, and then periodically squash merge back into the main branch.