Managing Dotfiles with Nix

Managing dotfiles across different systems can be tricky. This repo demonstrates how to use Nix ( with flake ) to handle dotfiles in a way that's easy to manage and works on various systems like NixOS, macOS, and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

Why Use Nix?

Nix offers a different way to manage software and system settings. It provides:

• Consistency: Keeps your settings the same across all your systems.
• No Conflicts: Avoids issues with different software versions.
• Flexibility: Lets you organize settings into parts you can reuse.

And the most important thing: you can leverage the biggest reuseable configuration repository in the world: Nixpkgs to make your life easier. E.g. to setup a self-hosted Jellyfin server, maybe all you need to do is add this to your configuration:

services.jellyfin.enable = true;

How the Repository is Organized

Here's how it's laid out:

flake.nix

flake.nix is the entry point of this repo, it loads configuration for each host from hosts/*.

config/

This folder has static settings for apps like SSH and Vim. And we will use Nix function builtins.readFile read these files and use them in our configuration whenever needed.

home/

Home-manager settings are split into:

• features/: Modules for tools and apps. For example, we put git settings in features/cli/git.nix, and vscode settings in features/application/vscode.nix.
• flavors/: Pre-made setups like minimal or development environments, usually it's a combination of features.

hosts/

Settings specific to each device/system are here. It's the entry point for each host, you will put your own hosts in here but let me show you some examples:

• desktop-nixos-workstation/: Main setup for a NixOS desktop.
• laptop-macos-work/: MacBook setup using home-manager.
• laptop-nixos-aha/: NixOS laptop setup.
• laptop-wsl-windows/: WSL setup using home-manager.
• server-nixos-gateway/: NixOS server setup.

lib/

Common Nix functions and tools are here, which you can use in different settings.

I provide a simple SSH function to read all .pub files in a directory and return them as a list of strings.

nixos/

NixOS-specific settings, it's similar to home/ for home-manager, but this is for NixOS only:

• features/: Individual NixOS features like services/applicatoins/cli.
• flavors/: Pre-made NixOS setups for different needs, usually it's a combination of features + some settings for specific needs.
• hardware/: Settings for specific hardware like GPUs.
• modules/: Custom NixOS modules for extra features.

overlays/

Custom package overlays for Nixpkgs.

e.g. I added a new function mkLinuxOnly to pkgs so I can import Linux-only packages easily with pkgs.mkLinuxOnly [ linux-only-package ].

pkgs/

This folder has custom package definitions for software not in the standard Nix repositories.

How I'm Using This

I'm using this structure to manage most of my devices which include x86 desktops/laptops, Windows WSL, Apple Silicon Macs, x86 servers, etc. there is usually what I do:

First Setup Only

1. Install NixOS or nix + standalone Home-Manager for non-NixOS. Enable flake.
2. Clone this repository.
3. add new hosts to hosts/* and adjust the settings.
4. Run the installation script:

   ./install.sh

For NixOS Devices

just run nixos-rebuild switch to apply the configuration.

For Non-NixOS Devices

run home-manager switch to apply the configuration.

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I really hope this guide helps you manage your dotfiles or organize your nix configuration more easily. Happy Nixing!