pyrox.dev
1<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" xml:id="sec-configuration-syntax">
2 <title>Configuration Syntax</title>
3 <para>
4 The NixOS configuration file
5 <literal>/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</literal> is actually a
6 <emphasis>Nix expression</emphasis>, which is the Nix package
7 manager’s purely functional language for describing how to build
8 packages and configurations. This means you have all the expressive
9 power of that language at your disposal, including the ability to
10 abstract over common patterns, which is very useful when managing
11 complex systems. The syntax and semantics of the Nix language are
12 fully described in the
13 <link xlink:href="https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#chap-writing-nix-expressions">Nix
14 manual</link>, but here we give a short overview of the most
15 important constructs useful in NixOS configuration files.
16 </para>
17 <xi:include href="config-file.section.xml" />
18 <xi:include href="abstractions.section.xml" />
19 <xi:include href="modularity.section.xml" />
20</chapter>