Declarative dotfiles management using GNU Stow and Nix/NixOS, with a robust systemd-based architecture.

• Declarative & Automated: Integrates stow into NixOS's declarative model. stow is installed automatically.
• Multi-User Support: Configure different dotfiles for different users on the same system.
• Flexible Package Toggling: Easily enable or disable dotfile packages using boolean flags.
• Robust Logging & Debugging: Each user's stow operation runs as a dedicated systemd service, providing excellent logging via journalctl.
• Clean Separation: Separates the NixOS module logic from the operational shell script.
• No Manual Steps: Dotfiles are applied automatically and reliably during nixos-rebuild switch.

# flake.nix
inputs.stow-nix.url = "github:lonerOrz/stow-nix";

Import the module into your NixOS configuration. Define the settings for each user under programs.stow.users. The module will automatically create and trigger a systemd service for each enabled user.

# configuration.nix
{
  imports = [ inputs.stow-nix.nixosModules.default ];

  programs.stow = {
    users = {
      # Replace 'your-username' with the actual username.
      # This user must exist in your NixOS configuration.
      "your-username" = {
        enable = true;
        dotPath = "~/.dotfiles"; # Path to your stow directory. '~' is expanded automatically.
        backupSuffix = "bak";   # Optional: suffix for backups.
        group = {
          # List of packages to manage.
          # 'true' means the package will be stowed.
          nvim.enable = true;
          bash.enable = true;

          # 'false' means the package will be ignored.
          git.enable = false;
        };
      };

      # You can add another user here.
      # "another-user" = {
      #   enable = true;
      #   dotPath = "/home/another-user/dots"; # Absolute paths also work.
      #   group = { zsh = true; };
      # };
    };
  };
}

Your dotfiles will be automatically applied for all enabled users via their respective systemd services.

sudo nixos-rebuild switch

Because each operation runs as a service, you can easily check its status and logs using journalctl.

# Check the status of the service for a specific user
_sudo systemctl status stow-nix-your-username.service_

# View the detailed logs for a specific user
_sudo journalctl -u stow-nix-your-username.service_

For formatting and testing:

nix develop

• Improve argument parsing reliability.
  • Add support for package names containing spaces.
• Enhance symlinking reliability (perhaps with a Python-based implementation).
• Implement a test suite to verify module behavior.

MIT