Multi-user installation (recommended)
Install Nix via the recommended multi-user installation:
$ sh <(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install) --daemon
We recommend the multi-user install if you are on Linux running systemd, with SELinux disabled and you can authenticate with sudo
.
Single-user installation
Install Nix via the single-user installation:
$ sh <(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install) --no-daemon
Above command will perform a single-user installation of Nix, meaning that nix
is owned by the invoking user. You should run this under your usual user account, not as root
. The script will invoke sudo
to create /nix
if it doesn’t already exist.
Which type of installation should you choose?
This depends on your requirements, but here is a short list of reasons why we recommend multi-user installation:
Pros
- Better build isolation (and that is what Nix is all about)
- Better security (a build can not write somewhere in your home)
- Sharing builds between users
Cons
- Requires
root
to run the daemon - More involved installation (creation of
nixbld* users
, installing a systemd unit, … - Harder to uninstall