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<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
version="5.0"
xml:id="sec-configuration-file">
<title>NixOS Configuration File</title>
<para>
The NixOS configuration file generally looks like this:
<programlisting>
{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{ <replaceable>option definitions</replaceable>
}
</programlisting>
The first line (<literal>{ config, pkgs, ... }:</literal>) denotes that this
is actually a function that takes at least the two arguments
<varname>config</varname> and <varname>pkgs</varname>. (These are explained
later.) The function returns a <emphasis>set</emphasis> of option definitions
(<literal>{ <replaceable>...</replaceable> }</literal>). These definitions
have the form <literal><replaceable>name</replaceable> =
<replaceable>value</replaceable></literal>, where
<replaceable>name</replaceable> is the name of an option and
<replaceable>value</replaceable> is its value. For example,
<programlisting>
{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{ <xref linkend="opt-services.httpd.enable"/> = true;
<xref linkend="opt-services.httpd.adminAddr"/> = "alice@example.org";
<xref linkend="opt-services.httpd.documentRoot"/> = "/webroot";
}
</programlisting>
defines a configuration with three option definitions that together enable
the Apache HTTP Server with <filename>/webroot</filename> as the document
root.
</para>
<para>
Sets can be nested, and in fact dots in option names are shorthand for
defining a set containing another set. For instance,
<xref linkend="opt-services.httpd.enable"/> defines a set named
<varname>services</varname> that contains a set named
<varname>httpd</varname>, which in turn contains an option definition named
<varname>enable</varname> with value <literal>true</literal>. This means that
the example above can also be written as:
<programlisting>
{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{ services = {
httpd = {
enable = true;
adminAddr = "alice@example.org";
documentRoot = "/webroot";
};
};
}
</programlisting>
which may be more convenient if you have lots of option definitions that
share the same prefix (such as <literal>services.httpd</literal>).
</para>
<para>
NixOS checks your option definitions for correctness. For instance, if you
try to define an option that doesn’t exist (that is, doesn’t have a
corresponding <emphasis>option declaration</emphasis>),
<command>nixos-rebuild</command> will give an error like:
<screen>
The option `services.httpd.enable' defined in `/etc/nixos/configuration.nix' does not exist.
</screen>
Likewise, values in option definitions must have a correct type. For
instance, <option>services.httpd.enable</option> must be a Boolean
(<literal>true</literal> or <literal>false</literal>). Trying to give it a
value of another type, such as a string, will cause an error:
<screen>
The option value `services.httpd.enable' in `/etc/nixos/configuration.nix' is not a boolean.
</screen>
</para>
<para>
Options have various types of values. The most important are:
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>
Strings
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Strings are enclosed in double quotes, e.g.
<programlisting>
<xref linkend="opt-networking.hostName"/> = "dexter";
</programlisting>
Special characters can be escaped by prefixing them with a backslash
(e.g. <literal>\"</literal>).
</para>
<para>
Multi-line strings can be enclosed in <emphasis>double single
quotes</emphasis>, e.g.
<programlisting>
<xref linkend="opt-networking.extraHosts"/> =
''
127.0.0.2 other-localhost
10.0.0.1 server
'';
</programlisting>
The main difference is that it strips from each line a number of spaces
equal to the minimal indentation of the string as a whole (disregarding
the indentation of empty lines), and that characters like
<literal>"</literal> and <literal>\</literal> are not special (making it
more convenient for including things like shell code). See more info
about this in the Nix manual
<link
xlink:href="https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#ssec-values">here</link>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
Booleans
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
These can be <literal>true</literal> or <literal>false</literal>, e.g.
<programlisting>
<xref linkend="opt-networking.firewall.enable"/> = true;
<xref linkend="opt-networking.firewall.allowPing"/> = false;
</programlisting>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
Integers
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
For example,
<programlisting>
<xref linkend="opt-boot.kernel.sysctl"/>."net.ipv4.tcp_keepalive_time" = 60;
</programlisting>
(Note that here the attribute name
<literal>net.ipv4.tcp_keepalive_time</literal> is enclosed in quotes to
prevent it from being interpreted as a set named <literal>net</literal>
containing a set named <literal>ipv4</literal>, and so on. This is
because it’s not a NixOS option but the literal name of a Linux kernel
setting.)
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
Sets
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Sets were introduced above. They are name/value pairs enclosed in braces,
as in the option definition
<programlisting>
<xref linkend="opt-fileSystems"/>."/boot" =
{ device = "/dev/sda1";
fsType = "ext4";
options = [ "rw" "data=ordered" "relatime" ];
};
</programlisting>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
Lists
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
The important thing to note about lists is that list elements are
separated by whitespace, like this:
<programlisting>
<xref linkend="opt-boot.kernelModules"/> = [ "fuse" "kvm-intel" "coretemp" ];
</programlisting>
List elements can be any other type, e.g. sets:
<programlisting>
swapDevices = [ { device = "/dev/disk/by-label/swap"; } ];
</programlisting>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
Packages
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Usually, the packages you need are already part of the Nix Packages
collection, which is a set that can be accessed through the function
argument <varname>pkgs</varname>. Typical uses:
<programlisting>
<xref linkend="opt-environment.systemPackages"/> =
[ pkgs.thunderbird
pkgs.emacs
];
<xref linkend="opt-services.postgresql.package"/> = pkgs.postgresql_10;
</programlisting>
The latter option definition changes the default PostgreSQL package used
by NixOS’s PostgreSQL service to 10.x. For more information on
packages, including how to add new ones, see
<xref linkend="sec-custom-packages"/>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</para>
</section>
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