diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/manual/src/command-ref/files/profiles.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/manual/src/command-ref/files/profiles.md | 74 |
1 files changed, 74 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/manual/src/command-ref/files/profiles.md b/doc/manual/src/command-ref/files/profiles.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b5c737880 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/command-ref/files/profiles.md @@ -0,0 +1,74 @@ +## Profiles + +A directory that contains links to profiles managed by [`nix-env`] and [`nix profile`]: + +- `$XDG_STATE_HOME/nix/profiles` for regular users +- `$NIX_STATE_DIR/profiles/per-user/root` if the user is `root` + +A profile is a directory of symlinks to files in the Nix store. + +### Filesystem layout + +Profiles are versioned as follows. When using a profile named *path*, *path* is a symlink to *path*`-`*N*`-link`, where *N* is the version of the profile. +In turn, *path*`-`*N*`-link` is a symlink to a path in the Nix store. +For example: + +```console +$ ls -l ~alice/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile* +lrwxrwxrwx 1 alice users 14 Nov 25 14:35 /home/alice/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile -> profile-7-link +lrwxrwxrwx 1 alice users 51 Oct 28 16:18 /home/alice/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile-5-link -> /nix/store/q69xad13ghpf7ir87h0b2gd28lafjj1j-profile +lrwxrwxrwx 1 alice users 51 Oct 29 13:20 /home/alice/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile-6-link -> /nix/store/6bvhpysd7vwz7k3b0pndn7ifi5xr32dg-profile +lrwxrwxrwx 1 alice users 51 Nov 25 14:35 /home/alice/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile-7-link -> /nix/store/mp0x6xnsg0b8qhswy6riqvimai4gm677-profile +``` + +Each of these symlinks is a root for the Nix garbage collector. + +The contents of the store path corresponding to each version of the +profile is a tree of symlinks to the files of the installed packages, +e.g. + +```console +$ ll -R ~eelco/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile-7-link/ +/home/eelco/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile-7-link/: +total 20 +dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 1 1970 bin +-r--r--r-- 2 root root 1402 Jan 1 1970 manifest.nix +dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jan 1 1970 share + +/home/eelco/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile-7-link/bin: +total 20 +lrwxrwxrwx 5 root root 79 Jan 1 1970 chromium -> /nix/store/ijm5k0zqisvkdwjkc77mb9qzb35xfi4m-chromium-86.0.4240.111/bin/chromium +lrwxrwxrwx 7 root root 87 Jan 1 1970 spotify -> /nix/store/w9182874m1bl56smps3m5zjj36jhp3rn-spotify-1.1.26.501.gbe11e53b-15/bin/spotify +lrwxrwxrwx 3 root root 79 Jan 1 1970 zoom-us -> /nix/store/wbhg2ga8f3h87s9h5k0slxk0m81m4cxl-zoom-us-5.3.469451.0927/bin/zoom-us + +/home/eelco/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile-7-link/share/applications: +total 12 +lrwxrwxrwx 4 root root 120 Jan 1 1970 chromium-browser.desktop -> /nix/store/4cf803y4vzfm3gyk3vzhzb2327v0kl8a-chromium-unwrapped-86.0.4240.111/share/applications/chromium-browser.desktop +lrwxrwxrwx 7 root root 110 Jan 1 1970 spotify.desktop -> /nix/store/w9182874m1bl56smps3m5zjj36jhp3rn-spotify-1.1.26.501.gbe11e53b-15/share/applications/spotify.desktop +lrwxrwxrwx 3 root root 107 Jan 1 1970 us.zoom.Zoom.desktop -> /nix/store/wbhg2ga8f3h87s9h5k0slxk0m81m4cxl-zoom-us-5.3.469451.0927/share/applications/us.zoom.Zoom.desktop + +… +``` + +Each profile version contains a manifest file: +- [`manifest.nix`](@docroot@/command-ref/files/manifest.nix.md) used by [`nix-env`](@docroot@/command-ref/nix-env.md). +- [`manifest.json`](@docroot@/command-ref/files/manifest.json.md) used by [`nix profile`](@docroot@/command-ref/new-cli/nix3-profile.md) (experimental). + +## User profile link + +A symbolic link to the user's current profile: + +- `~/.nix-profile` +- `$XDG_STATE_HOME/nix/profile` if [`use-xdg-base-directories`] is set to `true`. + +By default, this symlink points to: + +- `$XDG_STATE_HOME/nix/profiles/profile` for regular users +- `$NIX_STATE_DIR/profiles/per-user/root/profile` for `root` + +The `PATH` environment variable should include `/bin` subdirectory of the profile link (e.g. `~/.nix-profile/bin`) for the user environment to be visible to the user. +The [installer](@docroot@/installation/installing-binary.md) sets this up by default, unless you enable [`use-xdg-base-directories`]. + +[`nix-env`]: @docroot@/command-ref/nix-env.md +[`nix profile`]: @docroot@/command-ref/new-cli/nix3-profile.md +[`use-xdg-base-directories`]: @docroot@/command-ref/conf-file.md#conf-use-xdg-base-directories |