[Nix-dev] NixOS per-user system configuration

Luca Bruno lethalman88 at gmail.com
Wed Sep 3 14:53:05 CEST 2014


On 03/09/2014 14:43, Alexey Muranov wrote:
> Hello,
>
> i am a beginning user of NixOS, and i am not sure if this my question is mostly about NixOS or about Linux in general, but probably it is about NixOS, because only NixOS has "profiles."
Profiles are a convenience implemented with nix. So in the most general
sense, it's not only nixos. With nix-env in fact you have profiles.

> Is it possible to have different system configurations for different users within a single system generation?
It's either a system configuration, or user configuration :)

> For example, is it possible to always be in text mode (without XServer) if logged in as root, and to have a window manager when logged in as a normal user?
The start of X is done at system level. If you want not to use X, switch
tty.

> Or have different window managers for different users? Or, maybe, even be able to switch window managers for the same user without rebuilding the system?
Not much nixos specific, it's doable also with other distros. If you
install multiple window managers, your display manager will ask you
which one to use.


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