Installation

This section describes how to install and configure Nix for first-time use.

The current recommended option on Linux and MacOS is multi-user.

Multi-user

This installation offers better sharing, improved isolation, and more security over a single user installation.

This option requires either:

  • Linux running systemd, with SELinux disabled
  • MacOS
$ bash <(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install) --daemon

Single-user

Single-user is not supported on Mac.

This installation has less requirements than the multi-user install, however it cannot offer equivalent sharing, isolation, or security.

This option is suitable for systems without systemd.

$ bash <(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install) --no-daemon

Distributions

The Nix community maintains installers for several distributions.

They can be found in the nix-community/nix-installers repository.