This project provides a basic method to manage system configuration using Nix on any Linux distribution. It builds on the many modules that already exist in NixOS.

Warning: System Manager is a work in progress, you can expect things not to work or to break.

In order to use System Manager, you will first need to install Nix. You can either use your distro's package manager, or use one of the different options to install Nix, like the official installer or this new installer.

A basic Nix flake using System Manager would look something like this:

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";

    system-manager = {
      url = "github:numtide/system-manager";
      inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
    };
  };

  outputs = { self, flake-utils, nixpkgs, system-manager }: {
    systemConfigs.default = system-manager.lib.makeSystemConfig {
      modules = [
        ./modules
      ];
    };
  };
}

And you would then put your System Manager modules in the modules directory, which should contain a default.nix file which functions as the entrance point.

A simple System Manager module could look something like this:

{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }:

{
  config = {
    nixpkgs.hostPlatform = "x86_64-linux";

    environment = {
      etc = {
        "foo.conf".text = ''
          launch_the_rockets = true
        '';
      };
      systemPackages = [
        pkgs.ripgrep
        pkgs.fd
        pkgs.hello
      ];
    };

    systemd.services = {
      foo = {
        enable = true;
        serviceConfig = {
          Type = "oneshot";
          RemainAfterExit = true;
        };
        wantedBy = [ "system-manager.target" ];
        script = ''
          ${lib.getBin pkgs.hello}/bin/hello
          echo "We launched the rockets!"
        '';
      };
    };
  };
}

Once the configuration is defined, you can activate it using the system-manager CLI:

nix run 'github:numtide/system-manager' -- switch --flake '.'

Currently it is possible to configure files under /etc/ and systemd services. More features may follow later.

System Manager is currently only supported on NixOS and Ubuntu. However, it can be used on other distributions by enabling the following:

{
  config = {
    system-manager.allowAnyDistro = true;
  }
}

Looking for help or customization?

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