nixpkgs/nixos/doc/manual/configuration/config-file.xml
Vladimír Čunát 4c3ec0e325
nixos docs: run the formatting tool (no content change)
As documented in the docs themselves :-)
2019-03-22 14:44:11 +01:00

212 lines
6.8 KiB
XML
Raw Blame History

This file contains ambiguous Unicode characters

This file contains Unicode characters that might be confused with other characters. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.

<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 doesnt exist (that is, doesnt 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 its 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 NixOSs 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>