add NIX_USER_CONF_FILES

Motivation: maintain project-level configuration files.

Document the whole situation a bit better so that it corresponds to the
implementation, and add NIX_USER_CONF_FILES that allows overriding
which user files Nix will load during startup.

2 files changed, 30 insertions, 19 deletions

diff --git a/doc/manual/command-ref/conf-file.xml b/doc/manual/command-ref/conf-file.xml
index 48dce7c95..1820598e5 100644
--- a/doc/manual/command-ref/conf-file.xml
+++ b/doc/manual/command-ref/conf-file.xml
@@ -19,26 +19,30 @@
 
 <refsection><title>Description</title>
 
-<para>Nix reads settings from two configuration files:</para>
+<para>By default Nix reads settings from the following places:</para>
+
+<para>The system-wide configuration file
+<filename><replaceable>sysconfdir</replaceable>/nix/nix.conf</filename>
+(i.e. <filename>/etc/nix/nix.conf</filename> on most systems), or
+<filename>$NIX_CONF_DIR/nix.conf</filename> if
+<envar>NIX_CONF_DIR</envar> is set. Values loaded in this file are not forwarded to the Nix daemon. The
+client assumes that the daemon has already loaded them.
+</para>
 
-<itemizedlist>
+<para>User-specific configuration files:</para>
 
-  <listitem>
-    <para>The system-wide configuration file
-    <filename><replaceable>sysconfdir</replaceable>/nix/nix.conf</filename>
-    (i.e. <filename>/etc/nix/nix.conf</filename> on most systems), or
-    <filename>$NIX_CONF_DIR/nix.conf</filename> if
-    <envar>NIX_CONF_DIR</envar> is set.</para>
-  </listitem>
+<para>
+  If <envar>NIX_USER_CONF_FILES</envar> is set, then each path separated by
+  <literal>:</literal> will be loaded in reverse order.
+</para>
 
-  <listitem>
-    <para>The user configuration file
-    <filename>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nix/nix.conf</filename>, or
-    <filename>~/.config/nix/nix.conf</filename> if
-    <envar>XDG_CONFIG_HOME</envar> is not set.</para>
-  </listitem>
+<para>
+  Otherwise it will look for <filename>nix/nix.conf</filename> files in
+  <envar>XDG_CONFIG_DIRS</envar> and <envar>XDG_CONFIG_HOME</envar>.
 
-</itemizedlist>
+  The default location is <filename>$HOME/.config/nix.conf</filename> if
+  those environment variables are unset.
+</para>
 
 <para>The configuration files consist of
 <literal><replaceable>name</replaceable> =
diff --git a/doc/manual/command-ref/env-common.xml b/doc/manual/command-ref/env-common.xml
index 696d68c34..0217de7b2 100644
--- a/doc/manual/command-ref/env-common.xml
+++ b/doc/manual/command-ref/env-common.xml
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
 
     will cause Nix to look for paths relative to
     <filename>/home/eelco/Dev</filename> and
-    <filename>/etc/nixos</filename>, in that order.  It is also
+    <filename>/etc/nixos</filename>, in this order.  It is also
     possible to match paths against a prefix.  For example, the value
 
     <screen>
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ nixpkgs=https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs-channels/archive/nixos-15.09.tar.gz</sc
     15.09 channel.</para>
 
     <para>A following shorthand can be used to refer to the official channels:
-    
+
     <screen>nixpkgs=channel:nixos-15.09</screen>
     </para>
 
@@ -137,12 +137,19 @@ $ mount -o bind /mnt/otherdisk/nix /nix</screen>
 
 <varlistentry><term><envar>NIX_CONF_DIR</envar></term>
 
-  <listitem><para>Overrides the location of the Nix configuration
+  <listitem><para>Overrides the location of the system Nix configuration
   directory (default
   <filename><replaceable>prefix</replaceable>/etc/nix</filename>).</para></listitem>
 
 </varlistentry>
 
+<varlistentry><term><envar>NIX_USER_CONF_FILES</envar></term>
+
+  <listitem><para>Overrides the location of the user Nix configuration files
+  to load from (defaults to the XDG spec locations). The variable is treated
+  as a list separated by the <literal>:</literal> token.</para></listitem>
+
+</varlistentry>
 
 <varlistentry><term><envar>TMPDIR</envar></term>