<chapter 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="ch-installing-binary">
<title>Installing a Binary Distribution</title>
<para>If you are using Linux or macOS, the easiest way to install Nix
is to run the following command:
<screen>
$ sh <(curl https://nixos.org/nix/install)
</screen>
As of Nix 2.1.0, the Nix installer will always default to creating a
single-user installation, however opting in to the multi-user
installation is highly recommended.
</para>
<section xml:id="sect-single-user-installation">
<title>Single User Installation</title>
<para>
To explicitly select a single-user installation on your system:
<screen>
sh <(curl https://nixos.org/nix/install) --no-daemon
</screen>
</para>
<para>
This will perform a single-user installation of Nix, meaning that
<filename>/nix</filename> is owned by the invoking user. You should
run this under your usual user account, <emphasis>not</emphasis> as
root. The script will invoke <command>sudo</command> to create
<filename>/nix</filename> if it doesn’t already exist. If you don’t
have <command>sudo</command>, you should manually create
<command>/nix</command> first as root, e.g.:
<screen>
$ mkdir /nix
$ chown alice /nix
</screen>
The install script will modify the first writable file from amongst
<filename>.bash_profile</filename>, <filename>.bash_login</filename>
and <filename>.profile</filename> to source
<filename>~/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/nix.sh</filename>. You can set
the <command>NIX_INSTALLER_NO_MODIFY_PROFILE</command> environment
variable before executing the install script to disable this
behaviour.
</para>
<para>You can uninstall Nix simply by running:
<screen>
$ rm -rf /nix
</screen>
</para>
</section>
<section xml:id="sect-multi-user-installation">
<title>Multi User Installation</title>
<para>
The multi-user Nix installation creates system users, and a system
service for the Nix daemon.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<title>Supported Systems</title>
<listitem>
<para>Linux running systemd, with SELinux disabled</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>macOS</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
You can instruct the installer to perform a multi-user
installation on your system:
<screen>
sh <(curl https://nixos.org/nix/install) --daemon
</screen>
</para>
<para>
The multi-user installation of Nix will create build users between
the user IDs 30001 and 30032, and a group with the group ID 30000.
You should run this under your usual user account,
<emphasis>not</emphasis> as root. The script will invoke
<command>sudo</command> as needed.
</para>
<note><para>
If you need Nix to use a different group ID or user ID set, you
will have to download the tarball manually and <link
linkend="sect-nix-install-binary-tarball">edit the install
script</link>.
</para></note>
<para>
The installer will modify <filename>/etc/bashrc</filename>, and
<filename>/etc/zshrc</filename> if they exist. The installer will
first back up these files with a
<literal>.backup-before-nix</literal> extension. The installer
will also create <filename>/etc/profile.d/nix.sh</filename>.
</para>
<para>You can uninstall Nix with the following commands:
<screen>
sudo rm -rf /etc/profile/nix.sh /etc/nix /nix ~root/.nix-profile ~root/.nix-defexpr ~root/.nix-channels ~/.nix-profile ~/.nix-defexpr ~/.nix-channels
# If you are on Linux with systemd, you will need to run:
sudo systemctl stop nix-daemon.socket
sudo systemctl stop nix-daemon.service
sudo systemctl disable nix-daemon.socket
sudo systemctl disable nix-daemon.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
# If you are on macOS, you will need to run:
sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.nixos.nix-daemon.plist
sudo rm /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.nixos.nix-daemon.plist
</screen>
There may also be references to Nix in
<filename>/etc/profile</filename>,
<filename>/etc/bashrc</filename>, and
<filename>/etc/zshrc</filename> which you may remove.
</para>
</section>
<section xml:id="sect-nix-install-pinned-version-url">
<title>Installing a pinned Nix version from a URL</title>
<para>
NixOS.org hosts version-specific installation URLs for all Nix
versions since 1.11.16, at
<literal>https://nixos.org/releases/nix/nix-VERSION/install</literal>.
</para>
<para>
These install scripts can be used the same as the main
NixOS.org installation script:
<screen>
sh <(curl https://nixos.org/nix/install)
</screen>
</para>
<para>
In the same directory of the install script are sha256 sums, and
gpg signature files.
</para>
</section>
<section xml:id="sect-nix-install-binary-tarball">
<title>Installing from a binary tarball</title>
<para>
You can also download a binary tarball that contains Nix and all
its dependencies. (This is what the install script at
<uri>https://nixos.org/nix/install</uri> does automatically.) You
should unpack it somewhere (e.g. in <filename>/tmp</filename>),
and then run the script named <command>install</command> inside
the binary tarball:
<screen>
alice$ cd /tmp
alice$ tar xfj nix-1.8-x86_64-darwin.tar.bz2
alice$ cd nix-1.8-x86_64-darwin
alice$ ./install
</screen>
</para>
<para>
If you need to edit the multi-user installation script to use
different group ID or a different user ID range, modify the
variables set in the file named
<filename>install-multi-user</filename>.
</para>
</section>
</chapter>
