NixOS configuration editors: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:39, 31 August 2022

Creating graphical editors for NixOS configurations is hard because of the amount and complexity of options and the resulting possibilities.

Text editors

To improve the editing experience of configuration.nix, it is recommend to use a text editor with syntax highlighting and language server (autocompletion, formatting, refactoring).

Editing as normal user

The configuration files in /etc/nixos/ are owned by root, so for every "save" operation, the editor will ask for the sudo password. To avoid this, we can move the config files to a user's home folder:

mkdir ~/etc
sudo mv /etc/nixos ~/etc/
sudo chown -R $(id -un):users ~/etc/nixos
sudo ln -s ~/etc/nixos /etc/

Now you can run codium /etc/nixos to edit the config with VSCodium, and sudo nixos-rebuild switch to build the config.

It's also a good idea to track the config files with git, and to make backups.

Graphical editors

It is also possible to use a graphical config manager, which can't express all features of NixOS, but is simple to use.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 Creating graphical editors for NixOS configurations is hard because of the amount and complexity of options and the resulting possibilities.
-To improve the editing experience it is highly recommend to use a text editor with syntax highlighting and language server (autocompletion and suggestions based on NixOS config schema) if possible.
+== Text editors ==
-It is also possible to use graphical config manager which can't express all features of NixOS but is simply to use.
-== Implementations ==
+To improve the editing experience of <code>configuration.nix</code>, it is recommend to use a text editor with syntax highlighting and language server (autocompletion, formatting, refactoring).
+See also: [[Editor Modes for Nix Files]]
+=== Editing as normal user ===
+The configuration files in <code>/etc/nixos/</code> are owned by root, so for every "save" operation, the editor will ask for the sudo password. To avoid this, we can move the config files to a user's home folder:
+<pre>
+mkdir ~/etc
+sudo mv /etc/nixos ~/etc/
+sudo chown -R $(id -un):users ~/etc/nixos
+sudo ln -s ~/etc/nixos /etc/
+</pre>
+Now you can run <code>codium /etc/nixos</code> to edit the config with VSCodium, and <code>sudo nixos-rebuild switch</code> to build the config.
+It's also a good idea to track the config files with <code>git</code>, and to make backups.
+== Graphical editors ==
+It is also possible to use a graphical config manager, which can't express all features of NixOS, but is simple to use.
 === nix-gui by lapp0 ===
@@ Line 40: / Line 60: @@
 * https://www.reddit.com/r/NixOS/comments/cu4dle/should_nix_have_a_gui/
 * https://www.reddit.com/r/nosyntax - structural editors
-* [[Editor Modes for Nix Files]]
+* [[Nixos-rebuild#Specifying a different configuration location]]
+* https://discourse.nixos.org/t/use-vscode-editor-configuration-nix-cant-save/14119

Revision as of 11:39, 31 August 2022

Text editors

Editing as normal user

Graphical editors

nix-gui by lapp0

nixos-manager by pmiddend

nixos-conf-editor by vlinkz

Nixos-Gui by Celestialme

See also