Nix Installation Guide: Difference between revisions

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== Single-user install ==

To install Nix from any Linux distribution, use the following two commands. (Note: This assumes you have the permission to use <code>sudo</code>, and you are logged in as the user you want to install Nix for.)

=== Stable Nix ===

To install stable Nix from any Linux distribution, use the following two commands. (Note: This assumes you have the permission to use <code>sudo</code>, and you are logged in as the user you want to install Nix for.)

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After that being done, you can use all Nix commands as a normal user without any special permissions (for example by using <code>sudo</code>).

==== User namespaces ====

==== Troubleshooting ====

===== User namespaces =====

If the installation fails with the following error:

<pre>

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enabled by default on Linux which requires user namespaces.

If possible enable them; the procedure depends on the distribution. In last resort, you can disable the sandbox: create the file <code>~/.config/nix/nix.conf</code> and include the line <code>sandbox = false</code>.

=== Unstable Nix ===

To install unstable Nix with flakes support, you can use the [https://github.com/numtide/nix-unstable-installer unofficial installer by @numtide]. Instructions are available in the README of the repository.

== Nix store on an unusual filesystem ==

=== Case insensitive filesystem on Linux ===

Most Linux filesystems are case sensitive. If your nix store is on a case insensitive filesystem like CIFS on Linux, derivation outputs cannot contain two files differing only in case in the same directory. Nix can work around this by adding <code>use-case-hack = true</code> to your nix configuration (<code>/etc/nix/nix.conf</code> for a multi-user-install or <code>~/.config/nix/nix.conf</code> otherwise). Unfortunately, this will change the hash of some derivations and thus make the binary cache useless.

~~=== WSL ===~~

~~The same caveats as NFS below apply.~~

=== NFS ===

~~Without special care, concurrent use of Nix if the nix store is on a NFS filesystem may corrupt Nix's sqlite database.~~

~~To prevent this, add <code>use-sqlite-wal = false</code> to your nix configuration and recompile nix with this patch:~~

~~<syntaxHighlight lang="diff">~~

With a Nix store residing on an NFS filesystem, concurrent use of Nix may corrupt Nix's sqlite database. To prevent this, set <code>use-sqlite-wal = false</code>. Since [https://github.com/NixOS/nix/pull/5475 nix/pull/5475 nix/pull/5475] and it's backports to the stable branches, a patch that was previously described in this wiki is no longer needed for using Nix on WSL (Windows' Subsystem for Linux) and NFS filesystems.

~~---~~ a~~/src/libstore/~~sqlite.cc

~~+++ b/src/libstore/sqlite.cc~~

~~@@ -28~~,~~7 +28,7 @@ namespace nix {~~

~~SQLite::SQLite(const Path & path)~~

{

~~if (sqlite3_open_v2(path.c_str(), &db,~~

- ~~SQLITE_OPEN_READWRITE | SQLITE_OPEN_CREATE, 0) != SQLITE_OK)~~

~~+ SQLITE_OPEN_READWRITE | SQLITE_OPEN_CREATE, "unix~~-~~dotfile") !~~= ~~SQLITE_OK)~~

~~throw Error(format("cannot open SQLite database '%s'") % path);~~

}</~~syntaxHighlight~~>

~~(source:~~ [https://github.com/NixOS/nix/~~issues~~/~~2357 this issue])~~

~~Nix is hard to build by hand, but you can still use vanilla nix without concurrent use, so you can install~~ nix ~~with a NFS store as follows:~~

* Install nix with the vanilla binary installer

* Create a file <code>~/~~.config~~/~~nixpkgs~~/~~config.nix<~~/~~code> as follows,~~ and ~~place~~ the patch ~~above alongside it.~~

~~<syntaxHighlight lang="nix">~~

{

~~packageOverrides = pkgs: {~~

~~nix = pkgs.nix.overrideAttrs~~ (~~old: {~~

~~patches = (old.patches or []) ++ [ ./nfs.patch ];~~

});

};

}

~~</syntaxHighlight>~~

* Run <code>nix-env -iA nixpkgs.nix</code> to compile and ~~install the new, patched nix.~~

* From then on, you can use nix concurrently without risk of corrupting the sqlite database.

== Installing without root permissions ==

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 == Single-user install ==
-To install Nix from any Linux distribution, use the following two commands. (Note: This assumes you have the permission to use <code>sudo</code>, and you are logged in as the user you want to install Nix for.)
+=== Stable Nix ===
+To install stable Nix from any Linux distribution, use the following two commands. (Note: This assumes you have the permission to use <code>sudo</code>, and you are logged in as the user you want to install Nix for.)
 <syntaxHighlight lang="console">
@@ Line 19: / Line 21: @@
 After that being done, you can use all Nix commands as a normal user without any special permissions (for example by using <code>sudo</code>).
-==== User namespaces ====
+==== Troubleshooting ====
+===== User namespaces =====
 If the installation fails with the following error:
 <pre>
@@ Line 29: / Line 33: @@
 enabled by default on Linux which requires user namespaces.
 If possible enable them; the procedure depends on the distribution. In last resort, you can disable the sandbox: create the file <code>~/.config/nix/nix.conf</code> and include the line <code>sandbox = false</code>.
+=== Unstable Nix ===
+To install unstable Nix with flakes support, you can use the [https://github.com/numtide/nix-unstable-installer unofficial installer by @numtide]. Instructions are available in the README of the repository.
 == Nix store on an unusual filesystem ==
 === Case insensitive filesystem on Linux ===
 Most Linux filesystems are case sensitive. If your nix store is on a case insensitive filesystem like CIFS on Linux, derivation outputs cannot contain two files differing only in case in the same directory. Nix can work around this by adding <code>use-case-hack = true</code> to your nix configuration (<code>/etc/nix/nix.conf</code> for a multi-user-install or <code>~/.config/nix/nix.conf</code> otherwise). Unfortunately, this will change the hash of some derivations and thus make the binary cache useless.
-=== WSL ===
-The same caveats as NFS below apply.
 === NFS ===
-Without special care, concurrent use of Nix if the nix store is on a NFS filesystem may corrupt Nix's sqlite database.
-To prevent this, add <code>use-sqlite-wal = false</code> to your nix configuration and recompile nix with this patch:
-<syntaxHighlight lang="diff">
+With a Nix store residing on an NFS filesystem, concurrent use of Nix may corrupt Nix's sqlite database. To prevent this, set <code>use-sqlite-wal = false</code>. Since [https://github.com/NixOS/nix/pull/5475 nix/pull/5475 nix/pull/5475] and it's backports to the stable branches, a patch that was previously described in this wiki is no longer needed for using Nix on WSL (Windows' Subsystem for Linux) and NFS filesystems.
---- a/src/libstore/sqlite.cc
-+++ b/src/libstore/sqlite.cc
-@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ namespace nix {
- SQLite::SQLite(const Path & path)
- {
-     if (sqlite3_open_v2(path.c_str(), &db,
--            SQLITE_OPEN_READWRITE | SQLITE_OPEN_CREATE, 0) != SQLITE_OK)
-+            SQLITE_OPEN_READWRITE | SQLITE_OPEN_CREATE, "unix-dotfile") != SQLITE_OK)
-         throw Error(format("cannot open SQLite database '%s'") % path);
- }</syntaxHighlight>
-(source: [https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/2357 this issue])
-Nix is hard to build by hand, but you can still use vanilla nix without concurrent use, so you can install nix with a NFS store as follows:
-* Install nix with the vanilla binary installer
-* Create a file <code>~/.config/nixpkgs/config.nix</code> as follows, and place the patch above alongside it.
-<syntaxHighlight lang="nix">
-{
-        packageOverrides = pkgs: {
-                nix = pkgs.nix.overrideAttrs (old: {
-                                patches = (old.patches or []) ++ [ ./nfs.patch ];
-                       });
-        };
-}
-</syntaxHighlight>
-* Run <code>nix-env -iA nixpkgs.nix</code> to compile and install the new, patched nix.
-* From then on, you can use nix concurrently without risk of corrupting the sqlite database.
 == Installing without root permissions ==