1229e735ac
this adds support for structural includes to nixos-render-docs. structural includes provide a way to denote the (sub)structure of the nixos manual in the markdown source files, very similar to how we used literal docbook blocks before, and are processed by nixos-render-docs without involvement of xml tooling. this will ultimately allow us to emit the nixos manual in other formats as well, e.g. html, without going through docbook at all. alternatives to this source layout were also considered: a parallel structure using e.g. toml files that describe the document tree and links to each part is possible, but much more complicated to implement than the solution chosen here and makes it harder to follow which files have what substructure. it also makes it much harder to include a substructure in the middle of a file. much the same goes for command-line arguments to the converter, only that command-lined arguments are even harder to specify correctly and cannot be reasonably pulled together from many places without involving another layer of tooling. cli arguments would also mean that the manual structure would be fixed in default.nix, which is also not ideal.
47 lines
1.5 KiB
Markdown
47 lines
1.5 KiB
Markdown
# Declarative Package Management {#sec-declarative-package-mgmt}
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With declarative package management, you specify which packages you want
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on your system by setting the option
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[](#opt-environment.systemPackages). For instance, adding the
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following line to `configuration.nix` enables the Mozilla Thunderbird
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email application:
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```nix
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environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.thunderbird ];
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```
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The effect of this specification is that the Thunderbird package from
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Nixpkgs will be built or downloaded as part of the system when you run
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`nixos-rebuild switch`.
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::: {.note}
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Some packages require additional global configuration such as D-Bus or
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systemd service registration so adding them to
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[](#opt-environment.systemPackages) might not be sufficient. You are
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advised to check the [list of options](#ch-options) whether a NixOS
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module for the package does not exist.
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:::
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You can get a list of the available packages as follows:
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```ShellSession
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$ nix-env -qaP '*' --description
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nixos.firefox firefox-23.0 Mozilla Firefox - the browser, reloaded
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...
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```
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The first column in the output is the *attribute name*, such as
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`nixos.thunderbird`.
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Note: the `nixos` prefix tells us that we want to get the package from
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the `nixos` channel and works only in CLI tools. In declarative
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configuration use `pkgs` prefix (variable).
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To "uninstall" a package, simply remove it from
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[](#opt-environment.systemPackages) and run `nixos-rebuild switch`.
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```{=include=} sections
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customizing-packages.section.md
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adding-custom-packages.section.md
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```
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