cross-posted from: https://anarchist.nexus/post/93090
Is this some declarative joke I am too imperative to understand?
this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2025
155 points (94.8% liked)
linuxmemes
27137 readers
1489 users here now
Hint: :q!
Sister communities:
Community rules (click to expand)
1. Follow the site-wide rules
- Instance-wide TOS: https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
- Lemmy code of conduct: https://join-lemmy.org/docs/code_of_conduct.html
2. Be civil
- Understand the difference between a joke and an insult.
- Do not harrass or attack users for any reason. This includes using blanket terms, like "every user of thing".
- Don't get baited into back-and-forth insults. We are not animals.
- Leave remarks of "peasantry" to the PCMR community. If you dislike an OS/service/application, attack the thing you dislike, not the individuals who use it. Some people may not have a choice.
- Bigotry will not be tolerated.
3. Post Linux-related content
- Including Unix and BSD.
- Non-Linux content is acceptable as long as it makes a reference to Linux. For example, the poorly made mockery of
sudoin Windows. - No porn, no politics, no trolling or ragebaiting.
4. No recent reposts
- Everybody uses Arch btw, can't quit Vim, <loves/tolerates/hates> systemd, and wants to interject for a moment. You can stop now.
5. 🇬🇧 Language/язык/Sprache
- This is primarily an English-speaking community. 🇬🇧🇦🇺🇺🇸
- Comments written in other languages are allowed.
- The substance of a post should be comprehensible for people who only speak English.
- Titles and post bodies written in other languages will be allowed, but only as long as the above rule is observed.
6. (NEW!) Regarding public figures
We all have our opinions, and certain public figures can be divisive. Keep in mind that this is a community for memes and light-hearted fun, not for airing grievances or leveling accusations. - Keep discussions polite and free of disparagement.
- We are never in possession of all of the facts. Defamatory comments will not be tolerated.
- Discussions that get too heated will be locked and offending comments removed.
Please report posts and comments that break these rules!
Important: never execute code or follow advice that you don't understand or can't verify, especially here. The word of the day is credibility. This is a meme community -- even the most helpful comments might just be shitposts that can damage your system. Be aware, be smart, don't remove France.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Info:
nixos-rebuild switch = build the new system configuration (from /etc/nixos/configuration.nix or flakes) and activate it immediately without reboot.
- It builds the new system in
/nix/store. - Updates the GRUB/systemd-boot entries.
- Switches to the new configuration right away (systemd units, services, kernel params if possible, etc.).
- Leaves the old generations available for rollback (
nixos-rebuild switch --rollback).
So: "switch" means build + activate now
I never use nixos, but I just got intrusive thought to make that command get invoked automatically every time the config file is modified.
My most intrusive Linux thought is to symlink vi to emacs (or vice versa).
I will find you, and I will break your fingers.
You cannot [break my fingers] in any way that [Emacs hasn't already hardened].
I'm an advanced Vim user, so we'll see about that.
The true metric of modal vs. modeless editing…
I like how you got two (yes, now three) responses which were simultaneously exactly in agreement with and directly opposing each other.
It doesn't matter what text editor it is, the only correct answer is to alias them all to ed
or nano to $EDITOR, if you like copy-pasting commands from tutorials.
Well, to be fair, that one is easier to undo (and, depending on the command you pasted, might take care of itself when you start a new session).
But yeah ... Running visudo and getting a nano interface should be illegal IMHO.
I had a Nix partition on a beater laptop and it reminded me of Gentoo back in the day. Every update took at least 20 minutes.
I'm only two days into Nixos, but I don't think that would be a problem. I am at 14 generations of my system already, and it asks me every boot which generation I want to start. It's trivial to scroll down and pick an earlier (working) version.
One thing that might be nice would be if that menu indicated how many times each generation had been booted and used for more than 10 min, so I could tell which ones were "real" versions and which were transitional.
It helps to run the garbage collector and clean out the Nix store. Once you get a stable version that works, clear your nix store.
See this built in helper script
If you're new you might have a bunch of stuff in the store from trying out things. You can also delete objects older than a certain period, which is nice.
I'm not even to the point of trying out alternative software, I'm just trying to get the right configs so I can use the dang thing!
I tried to get screenshots working, and now the system is completely unresponsive, mouse never moves etc. Ok, back to previous version. Between here and working, I'm sure I'll go through dozens more versions! I'm trying to only make small changes every time.
I saw the garbage collection for old stuff, but I'm still setting things up for the first time especially since I'm trying Wayland and Hyprland for the first time. Every other generation works, probably! I'm really enjoying the process, except that I need this computer and the downtime is a problem.
Do you know a way to delete either all generations except the current, or maybe the current ly booted one and the one previous to it? (Not the latest one explicitly as I keep breaking things)
I don’t have the command at hand but you can name versions.
Ooh that's handy.
NIXOS_LABEL="changed-some-settings" nixos-rebuild switch
Also, since you’re already 14 versions deep you should probably implement automatic “garbage collection”.
Will do. I'm worried about deleting the one good version while I'm still building the system.
nh os switch --update --ask
Sudo nixos-rebuild switch —flake .#geoff
--impure
nix flake update
sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .
I made aliases because I'm lazy.
nup
nswitch
--upgrade