Change the configuration folder

[danielo515]

Hello, nix newie here.
I want to use nix-darwin to have reproducible configurations for my mac, ideally with a one-line install script.
Up until now I have been managing this with a weird mix of chezmoi and other tools, but I wanted to start from scratch nix style.

The installation instructions ask me to put my config files directly on /etc/nix-darwin which feels a bit weird to me.
I see previously the location was ~/.config/nix-darwin which is much more aligned with my expectations.
However, I tried following that path, but the installation failed. Then I just moved the files to /etc/nix-darwin and everything started to work just fine.

Is there any guidance you can offer to being able to have my nix-config files live in the same place as my other dotfiles used to live (which is my chezmoi folder)

[Enzime]

You can set environment.etc.nix-darwin.source = "/Users/.../.config/nix-darwin"; so that nix-darwin will create a symlink at /etc/nix-darwin and then darwin-rebuild switch will work without requiring --flake

[danielo515]

Thanks for your answer.

I saw somethig similar but different in the docs here:

https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin/wiki/Changing-the-configuration.nix-location

but it says that then I will need to change the initial "command" to kickstart my configuration dotfiles.
It also says something weird, which is this:

By default nix-darwin looks for ~/.nixpkgs/darwin-configuration.nix

That is different from where the config is in reality (/etc/nix-darwin) and wonder if the docs is no longer valid.

Where is that config mentioned? where should I put it? Can I use a relative symlink like ~/.config/nix-darwin ?

[Enzime]

I've removed that page from the wiki, it hasn't been maintained and it's no longer accurate.

You can add the code I mentioned inside your nix-darwin configuration files, and you can't use a relative symlink as far as I'm aware