Terms and Definitions in Nix Project: Difference between revisions

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|| Nix

|| Profiles simplify managing and switching between ''user environments'', and thus control which applications and system configurations are in active use. Generally, a ''profile'' is a link to a ''generation'', and the corresponding '''profiles''' folder collects a list of generations. A standalone Nix installation (i.e. on a Linux distro that is not NixOS) operates mainly on ''user'' profiles. In NixOS, there is also a ''system'' profile that manages the system-wide configuration (e.g. ''/etc'', the kernel, ''initrd'', ''systemd''). Other tools like [[Home Manager]] may also have their own profiles. By default, a user's active profile is stored at ''~/.nix-profile'':

$ ls -l ~/.nix-profile

lrwxrwxrwx ... /home/username/.nix-profile ->

|| Nix

|| A ''store path'' produced by a derivation. These are generally analogous to built packages, or pieces of them.

$ ls -ld /nix/store/*-firefox-9*/

dr-xr-xr-x ... /nix/store/v4b8...3d0w-firefox-92.0/

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