.\" -*- mode: troff; coding: utf-8 -*-
.TH "nix-profiles" "5" ""
.SS
Profiles
.LP
A directory that contains links to profiles managed by \fB\f(CRnix-env\fR\fR and \fB\f(CRnix profile\fR\fR:
.IP "\(bu" 3
\f(CR$XDG_STATE_HOME/nix/profiles\fR for regular users
.if n \
.sp -1
.if t \
.sp -0.25v
.IP "\(bu" 3
\f(CR$NIX_STATE_DIR/profiles/per-user/root\fR if the user is \f(CRroot\fR
.LP
A profile is a directory of symlinks to files in the Nix store.
.SS
Filesystem layout
.LP
Profiles are versioned as follows. When using a profile named \fIpath\fR, \fIpath\fR is a symlink to \fIpath\fR\f(CR-\fR\fIN\fR\f(CR-link\fR, where \fIN\fR is the version of the profile.
In turn, \fIpath\fR\f(CR-\fR\fIN\fR\f(CR-link\fR is a symlink to a path in the Nix store.
For example:
.LP
.EX
$ ls -l \(tialice/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 alice users 14 Nov 25 14:35 /home/alice/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile -> profile-7-link
lrwxrwxrwx 1 alice users 51 Oct 28 16:18 /home/alice/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile-5-link -> /nix/store/q69xad13ghpf7ir87h0b2gd28lafjj1j-profile
lrwxrwxrwx 1 alice users 51 Oct 29 13:20 /home/alice/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile-6-link -> /nix/store/6bvhpysd7vwz7k3b0pndn7ifi5xr32dg-profile
lrwxrwxrwx 1 alice users 51 Nov 25 14:35 /home/alice/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile-7-link -> /nix/store/mp0x6xnsg0b8qhswy6riqvimai4gm677-profile
.EE
.PP
Each of these symlinks is a root for the Nix garbage collector.
.PP
The contents of the store path corresponding to each version of the
profile is a tree of symlinks to the files of the installed packages,
e.g.
.LP
.EX
$ ll -R \(tieelco/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile-7-link/
/home/eelco/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile-7-link/:
total 20
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan  1  1970 bin
-r--r--r-- 2 root root 1402 Jan  1  1970 manifest.nix
dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jan  1  1970 share

/home/eelco/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile-7-link/bin:
total 20
lrwxrwxrwx 5 root root 79 Jan  1  1970 chromium -> /nix/store/ijm5k0zqisvkdwjkc77mb9qzb35xfi4m-chromium-86.0.4240.111/bin/chromium
lrwxrwxrwx 7 root root 87 Jan  1  1970 spotify -> /nix/store/w9182874m1bl56smps3m5zjj36jhp3rn-spotify-1.1.26.501.gbe11e53b-15/bin/spotify
lrwxrwxrwx 3 root root 79 Jan  1  1970 zoom-us -> /nix/store/wbhg2ga8f3h87s9h5k0slxk0m81m4cxl-zoom-us-5.3.469451.0927/bin/zoom-us

/home/eelco/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile-7-link/share/applications:
total 12
lrwxrwxrwx 4 root root 120 Jan  1  1970 chromium-browser.desktop -> /nix/store/4cf803y4vzfm3gyk3vzhzb2327v0kl8a-chromium-unwrapped-86.0.4240.111/share/applications/chromium-browser.desktop
lrwxrwxrwx 7 root root 110 Jan  1  1970 spotify.desktop -> /nix/store/w9182874m1bl56smps3m5zjj36jhp3rn-spotify-1.1.26.501.gbe11e53b-15/share/applications/spotify.desktop
lrwxrwxrwx 3 root root 107 Jan  1  1970 us.zoom.Zoom.desktop -> /nix/store/wbhg2ga8f3h87s9h5k0slxk0m81m4cxl-zoom-us-5.3.469451.0927/share/applications/us.zoom.Zoom.desktop

…
.EE
.PP
Each profile version contains a manifest file:
- \fB\f(CRmanifest.nix\fR\fR used by \fB\f(CRnix-env\fR\fR.
- \fB\f(CRmanifest.json\fR\fR used by \fB\f(CRnix profile\fR\fR (experimental).
.SS
User profile link
.LP
A symbolic link to the user\(cqs current profile:
.IP "\(bu" 3
\f(CR\(ti/.nix-profile\fR
.if n \
.sp -1
.if t \
.sp -0.25v
.IP "\(bu" 3
\f(CR$XDG_STATE_HOME/nix/profile\fR if \fB\f(CRuse-xdg-base-directories\fR\fR is set to \f(CRtrue\fR.
.LP
By default, this symlink points to:
.IP "\(bu" 3
\f(CR$XDG_STATE_HOME/nix/profiles/profile\fR for regular users
.if n \
.sp -1
.if t \
.sp -0.25v
.IP "\(bu" 3
\f(CR$NIX_STATE_DIR/profiles/per-user/root/profile\fR for \f(CRroot\fR
.LP
The \f(CRPATH\fR environment variable should include \f(CR/bin\fR subdirectory of the profile link (e.g. \f(CR\(ti/.nix-profile/bin\fR) for the user environment to be visible to the user.
The \fBinstaller\fR sets this up by default, unless you enable \fB\f(CRuse-xdg-base-directories\fR\fR.