Using the Home Manager

Installing a new Configuration

You should create a file that contains your home configuration. This file can easily be kept in version control with git for instance. The file looks like this:

(use-modules (home))

(home "/data/alice" '())

Home Reference

Scheme Procedure: (use-home-modules module-name ...)

Import home modules with name module-name. For instance,

(use-home-modules openbox hexchat)

is equivalent to:

(use-modules (home openbox)
             (home hexchat))

Data Type: home

This data type represents the configuration of a home directory. It is the type of the data a home configuration file must return. It is composed of the following fields:

• data-directory: The read-write directory that contains the user files.
• base-configuration (default: a base-home-configuration object that takes the data-directory value into account, see below): A base-home-configuration object that contains configuration for required parts of the home configuration.
• configurations (default: '()): A list of additional configurations.

By default, when no base-configuration is given, the configuration contains instructions for these symlinks to be created:

• ~/.guix-profile → `${basedir}/.guix-profile`
• ~/.config/guix → `${basedir}/.config/guix`
• ~/.local → `${basedir}/.local`
• ~/.cache → `${basedir}/.cache`

Data Type: base-home-configuration

This is the type of a basic home directory configuration that contains information for basic required configurations. It contains the following fields:

• guix-symlink: The path to the default guix profile, in a read-write directory.
• guix-config-symlink: The path to the configuration directory of guix.
• local-symlink: The path to a read-write directory that corresponds to the .local directory.
• cache-symlink: The path to a read-write directory that corresponds to the .cache directory.

Scheme Variable: root-home-type

The type of the root service, to which every service is folded. Its value is an association list that associates paths relative to the home directory with a path in the filesystem or a file-like object.

It also contains a default extension point, whose value must be an association list that is concatenated to the already configured association list.