Introduction to Denix Configurations (Flakes)

The delib.configurations function is used to create lists of nixosConfigurations and homeConfigurations for flakes.

In addition to all hosts, it also adds combinations of each host with every non-inheritanceOnly rice, which allows for quickly switching between rice configurations without editing the code. For example, if the "desktop" host is set to use the "light" rice, executing the following command:

nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#desktop --use-remote-sudo

will use the "desktop" host with the "light" rice. However, if you need to quickly switch to another rice, for example, "dark" you can run the following command:

nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#desktop-dark --use-remote-sudo

In this case, the host remains "desktop", but the rice changes to "dark".

It is important to note that when switching rice in this way, only the value of the ${myConfigName}.rice option changes, while the value of ${myConfigName}.hosts.${hostName}.rice remains the same.

Principle of Configuration List Generation

The configuration list is generated based on the following principle:

• {hostName} - where hostName is the name of any host.
• {hostName}-{riceName} - where hostName is the name of any host, and riceName is the name of any rice where inheritanceOnly is false.

If isHomeManager from the function arguments is equal to true, then a prefix of {homeManagerUser}@ is added to all configurations in the list.

Example

An example of a flake's outputs for nixosConfigurations and homeConfigurations:

outputs = {denix, nixpkgs, ...} @ inputs: let
  mkConfigurations = isHomeManager:
    denix.lib.configurations rec {
      homeManagerNixpkgs = nixpkgs;
      homeManagerUser = "sjohn";
      inherit isHomeManager;

      paths = [./hosts ./modules ./rices];

      specialArgs = {
        inherit inputs isHomeManager homeManagerUser;
      };
    };
in {
  nixosConfigurations = mkConfigurations false;
  homeConfigurations = mkConfigurations true;
}