Installing the Nix package manager

A minimal guide to getting started with the Nix package manager on any Linux or OSX machine.

There is a lot to explain about Nix that I am intentionally omitting here. This is only what you need to know to get a working installation.

1. Install Nix

This first step requires you to be a sudoer (it will prompt you for your password), but do not type “sudo” yourself. It’s important for all of these steps to be performed as your own user, not as root.

Run this command:

This creates the /nix directory, which is owned by root. Nix manages absolutely everything in this directory; you should never touch it.

2. Choose a channel

Channels are stable sets of packages. Go to nixos.org/channels and find the highest-numbered channel.

Channels are released every six months. At the time of writing, “nixos-16.03” (from March 2016) is the latest channel, so that’s what we’ll use in the following steps; but you should replace 16.03 with the version you’re using.

3. Set up environment variables

Add the following lines to the end of ~/.bashrc (or ~/.zshrc, or whatever the config file for the shell you use):

Remember to replace 16.03 with the actual channel you’re using.

4. Add the channel

Run the following commands in a new shell, because you’ll need the .bashrc changes made by step 3:

Again, replace 16.03 with the channel you’re using.

5. Play

Run this to show that it’s working!

Uninstall

If you want to remove everything related to Nix: