This commit deprecates profile management from the activation script.
The profile management is instead the responsibility of the driving
software, for example, the `home-manager` tool in the case of
standalone installs.
The legacy behavior is still available for backwards compatibility but
may be removed in the future.
The new behavior resolves (or moves us closer to resolving) a number
of long standing open issues:
- `home-manager switch --rollback`, which performs a rollback to the
previous Home Manager generation before activating. While it was
previously possible to accomplish this by activating an old
generation, it did always create a new profile generation.
This option has been implemented as part of this commit.
- `home-manager switch --specialisation NAME`, which switches to the
named specialisation. While it was previously possible to accomplish
this by manually running the specialisation activate script, it did
always create a new profile generation.
This option has been implemented as part of this commit.
- `home-manager switch --test`, which activates the configuration but
does not create a new profile generation.
This option has _not_ been implemented here since it relies on the
current configuration being activated on login, which we do not
currently do.
- When using the "Home Manager as a NixOS module" installation method
we previously created an odd `home-manager` per-user "shadow
profile" for the user. This is no longer necessary.
This has been implemented as part of this commit.
Fixes#3450
Includes the following changes:
- Remove unused reference definition.
- Sort reference definitions.
- Internally reference "Words of warning" section.
- Consistently reference.
- Fix typo.
- Format HTML code.
- Link only to first occurence per section.
- Simplify list formatting.
- Adapt 'Installation' section to manual.
- Fix punctuation.
- Wrap text at 80 characters.
- Simplify link phrasing.
- Add missing punctuation.
PR #4363
This removes the Nix Pills reference, because they are not a good
introduction to the Nix ecosystem, but rather a thorough explanation
of many disparate things. Reading through them might give some light
bulb moments for an intermediate reader, but that does not mean that
they're good for a beginner.
I've also removed the mention of infinite recursion without source
location. That's an old meme for a problem that has been mostly
solved. Mentioning it here has two effects:
- Propagate the outdated meme.
- Make users insensitive to bad errors. Learned helplessness. That
kind of thing. What we really want is for them to report bad error
messages, so that they can be fixed. And they can be fixed; just
report them at `NixOS/nix`.
In the manual:
* Add chapter Nix Flakes
* Add links to sections of chapter "Using Home Manager"
In README.md:
* Remove section "Nix Flakes"
* Add manual reference at the buttom of section "Installation"
The docs implied that fish was not really supported, but if fish is
managed by Home Manager, the generated config does use fenv to source
the session-vars file. Update the installation instructions and FAQ to
mention that fish does work, and mention fenv in the README.
Austin Horstman