treffynnon / nix-setup

Getting started

Clone this repo to ~/.nixpkgs and run the setup script:

git clone [email protected]:treffynnon/nix-setup.git ~/.nixpkgs && ~/.nixpkgs/scripts/setup.sh

which will perform the following actions for you:

1. Install nix
2. if on a Mac install nix-darwin
3. install home-manager
4. back-up /etc/shells
5. moves default ZSH zprofile and zshrc to *.local (they still get loaded!)
6. runs darwin-rebuild switch to install all the dependencies with nix

Rebuilding the configuration when you change the files

TERM=xterm-256color darwin-rebuild switch

The TERM environment var is changed here because modern term emulators like kitty confuse the darwin-rebuild util.

Setup cachix

Install to benefit from the binary cache

Install the cachix package to the environment

nix-env -iA cachix -f https://cachix.org/api/v1/install

Configure cachix to be used

cachix use treffynnon

This will use the binaries I have cached there were it can instead of spending time recompiling them on your machine. It is also used by GitHub Actions to speed up the linting/formatting/testing builds.

Pushing to the binary cache

Setup the necessary keys

cachix generate-keypair treffynnon

Set the signing key in ~/.config/cachix/cachix.dhall where it should be set against the secretKey property. If you’re not me then you’ll need to create your own cache on https://cachix.org first as you cannot push to my cache - yoo can read from it, but not push to it.

You can now push binary builds to the cachix repository.

cachix push treffynnon <path to some package in /nix/store>

Setup bash completions

For bash completions to work properly the system must use the nix supplied version of bash as the MacOS version is ancient.

chsh -s /run/current-system/sw/bin/bash

If you want to use Fish shell then:

chsh -s /run/current-system/sw/bin/fish

See https://discourse.nixos.org/t/using-nix-to-install-login-shell-on-non-nixos-platform/2807/3

GPG setup

For the SSH agent and git commits to work the GPG signing key must be present. If you have already got one then import it:

gpg --import /path/to/your.key

Otherwise you can create one using this comprehensive guide - https://blog.tinned-software.net/create-gnupg-key-with-sub-keys-to-sign-encrypt-authenticate/

Setting up hammerspoon

Install Hammerspoon from https://www.hammerspoon.org/

Hammerspoon provides:

• Window management via the keyboard
• kbd:[Caps lock] as kbd:[Esc] when tapped and kbd:[Ctrl] when held

Run Hammerspoon (use Spotlight with kbd:[Command] + kbd:[Space]) - note that it can take sometime to start initially - be patient - and configure it to:

• Run at login
• Enable Accessibility
• (optionally) untick "Show dock icon"

The configuration is in ./home-configs/hammerspoon.nix and ./home-configs/hammerspoon.

Environment variables

Private or secret environment vars you don’t want to commit into a repository can be stored in ~/.env with the following format.

MY_VAR=MY_VALUE

Uninstalling

You can reverse the setup process by running the remove script:

./scripts/remove.sh

Making changes

Building the code

If you modify any of the configurations in the nix configuration then you need to rebuild the environment.

darwin-rebuild switch

It will probably ask you to enter a password, which can get annoying so you can modify the sudoers file to allow passwordless invocation of darwin-rebuild for your user. Create a /etc/sudoers.d/nix-darwin file with this content:

<home-user> ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: /run/current-system/sw/bin/darwin-rebuild (where home-user is name of home directory)

Formatting code

This project uses:

• alejandra
• statix
• LuaFormatter
• luacheck

to keep the code and configurations in a consistent state. They are also applied as a github action to test the setup in CI too.

To easily run the formatters locally you can use the supplied nix-shell:

nix-shell
format

Managing development environments

Direnv and Lorri

I no longer use lorri because I am using nix-direnv instead.

Install Lorri (not currently a Nix package due to their rapid development cycles while in beta).

Put a .envrc file inside your project with:

.envrc

eval "$(lorri direnv)"

and a file for the nix-shell (shell.nix):

let
  # nix1809 = import (builtins.fetchGit {
  #   name = "nixos-18_09";
  #   url = https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs.git;
  #   ref = "refs/tags/18.09";
  # }) {};
  nix1809 = import (
    builtins.fetchTarball {
      name = "nixos-18_09";
      url = "https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/archive/18.09.tar.gz";
      sha256 = "1ib96has10v5nr6bzf7v8kw7yzww8zanxgw2qi1ll1sbv6kj6zpd";
    }
  ) {};
in
  with import <nixpkgs> {};
    stdenv.mkDerivation {
      name = "ftr-beast";
      buildInputs = [
        bashInteractive
        nix1809.nodejs-8_x
      ];
    }

Start lorri with lorri daemon and leave it running in a shell.

Now when you cd into the projects directory Lorri/direnv will install the dependencies and drop you into a Nix shell.

MacOS Catalina

Before upgrading to Catalina:

• https://gist.github.com/chrisandreae/e61e06f08ec0a650a0b3b41788d41724
• NixOS/nix#2925

Useful links

Nix

• https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/unstable/#trivial-builder-writeScriptBin
• https://github.com/nmattia/homies/blob/master/git/default.nix
• https://github.com/rummik/nixos-config/blob/master/config/nodejs.nix
• https://discourse.nixos.org/t/bootstrapping-new-system/3455/9
• https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#ssec-builtins
• https://rycee.gitlab.io/home-manager/options.html
• https://medium.com/@ejpcmac/about-using-nix-in-my-development-workflow-12422a1f2f4c
• https://github.com/direnv/direnv#setup
• https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz/package-managers/nix/nix-darwin
• https://www.softinio.com/post/moving-from-homebrew-to-nix-package-manager/
• http://chriswarbo.net/git/nix-helpers/git/branches/master/index.html
• http://chriswarbo.net/projects/nixos/useful_hacks.html
• https://github.com/samdroid-apps/nix-articles
• https://matthewbauer.us/blog/all-the-versions.html

Flakes

• https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Flakes
• https://fasterthanli.me/series/building-a-rust-service-with-nix/part-10
• https://determinate.systems/posts/nix-github-actions
• https://nixos-and-flakes.thiscute.world
• https://www.tweag.io/blog/2020-05-25-flakes
• https://zero-to-nix.com
• https://github.com/dustinlyons/nixos-config

Lua and nix

• https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/55302/files

Dot files managed by nix

• https://github.com/danieldk/nix-home/tree/master/cfg
• https://github.com/jwiegley/nix-config/blob/master/overlays/30-apps.nix
• https://github.com/Jomik/dotfiles/tree/master/.config/nixpkgs
• https://rycee.net/posts/2017-07-02-manage-your-home-with-nix.html

Building C/C++ projects with nix

• https://gist.github.com/CMCDragonkai/41593d6d20a5f7c01b2e67a221aa0330

OSX

OSX settings values

• https://gist.github.com/smgt/3227665 - list of OSX settings
• https://github.com/joeyhoer/starter/tree/master/system and https://github.com/joeyhoer/starter/tree/master/apps *

OSX security settings

• http://macos.duh.to/#application-layer-firewall

OSX screen management woes

OSX multiple monitors losing position and rotation settings

• https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/42835/primary-display-randomly-changes/296905#296905
• https://github.com/lucasvickers/osx-display-positioner
• https://superuser.com/questions/1105308/mac-3-monitor-setup-my-desktop-set-keep-switching-places-between-monitors/1220526
• https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/249865/set-position-of-secondary-screen

Spaces merging together on disconnecting additional monitors

• https://superuser.com/questions/917958/how-can-i-stop-osx-from-combining-spaces-when-i-unplug-a-monitor

Todo

• https://github.com/jasonrudolph/keyboard#features

install confs for

• Karabiner-Elements
• Lulu - this has an interactive installer so probably too hard to do with nix
• Netiquette - this has an interactive installer so probably too hard to do with nix