nixpkgs/nixos/doc/manual/from_md/installation/changing-config.chapter.xml

<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xml:id="sec-changing-config">
  <title>Changing the Configuration</title>
  <para>
    The file <literal>/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</literal> contains
    the current configuration of your machine. Whenever you’ve
    <link linkend="ch-configuration">changed something</link> in that
    file, you should do
  </para>
  <programlisting>
# nixos-rebuild switch
</programlisting>
  <para>
    to build the new configuration, make it the default configuration
    for booting, and try to realise the configuration in the running
    system (e.g., by restarting system services).
  </para>
  <warning>
    <para>
      This command doesn't start/stop
      <link linkend="opt-systemd.user.services">user services</link>
      automatically. <literal>nixos-rebuild</literal> only runs a
      <literal>daemon-reload</literal> for each user with running user
      services.
    </para>
  </warning>
  <warning>
    <para>
      These commands must be executed as root, so you should either run
      them from a root shell or by prefixing them with
      <literal>sudo -i</literal>.
    </para>
  </warning>
  <para>
    You can also do
  </para>
  <programlisting>
# nixos-rebuild test
</programlisting>
  <para>
    to build the configuration and switch the running system to it, but
    without making it the boot default. So if (say) the configuration
    locks up your machine, you can just reboot to get back to a working
    configuration.
  </para>
  <para>
    There is also
  </para>
  <programlisting>
# nixos-rebuild boot
</programlisting>
  <para>
    to build the configuration and make it the boot default, but not
    switch to it now (so it will only take effect after the next
    reboot).
  </para>
  <para>
    You can make your configuration show up in a different submenu of
    the GRUB 2 boot screen by giving it a different <emphasis>profile
    name</emphasis>, e.g.
  </para>
  <programlisting>
# nixos-rebuild switch -p test
</programlisting>
  <para>
    which causes the new configuration (and previous ones created using
    <literal>-p test</literal>) to show up in the GRUB submenu
    <quote>NixOS - Profile 'test'</quote>. This can be useful to
    separate test configurations from <quote>stable</quote>
    configurations.
  </para>
  <para>
    Finally, you can do
  </para>
  <programlisting>
$ nixos-rebuild build
</programlisting>
  <para>
    to build the configuration but nothing more. This is useful to see
    whether everything compiles cleanly.
  </para>
  <para>
    If you have a machine that supports hardware virtualisation, you can
    also test the new configuration in a sandbox by building and running
    a QEMU <emphasis>virtual machine</emphasis> that contains the
    desired configuration. Just do
  </para>
  <programlisting>
$ nixos-rebuild build-vm
$ ./result/bin/run-*-vm
</programlisting>
  <para>
    The VM does not have any data from your host system, so your
    existing user accounts and home directories will not be available
    unless you have set <literal>mutableUsers = false</literal>. Another
    way is to temporarily add the following to your configuration:
  </para>
  <programlisting language="bash">
users.users.your-user.initialHashedPassword = &quot;test&quot;;
</programlisting>
  <para>
    <emphasis>Important:</emphasis> delete the $hostname.qcow2 file if
    you have started the virtual machine at least once without the right
    users, otherwise the changes will not get picked up. You can forward
    ports on the host to the guest. For instance, the following will
    forward host port 2222 to guest port 22 (SSH):
  </para>
  <programlisting>
$ QEMU_NET_OPTS=&quot;hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22&quot; ./result/bin/run-*-vm
</programlisting>
  <para>
    allowing you to log in via SSH (assuming you have set the
    appropriate passwords or SSH authorized keys):
  </para>
  <programlisting>
$ ssh -p 2222 localhost
</programlisting>
</chapter>