nixos-rebuild Command Examples

Reconfigure a NixOS machine. More information: https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/#sec-changing-config.

• Build and switch to the new configuration, making it the boot default:

sudo nixos-rebuild switch

• Build and switch to the new configuration, making it the boot default and naming the boot entry:

sudo nixos-rebuild switch -p {{name}}

• Build and switch to the new configuration, making it the boot default and installing updates:

sudo nixos-rebuild switch --upgrade

• Rollback changes to the configuration, switching to the previous generation:

sudo nixos-rebuild switch --rollback

• Build the new configuration and make it the boot default without switching to it:

sudo nixos-rebuild boot

• Build and activate the new configuration, but don't make a boot entry (for testing purposes):

sudo nixos-rebuild test

• Build the configuration and open it in a virtual machine:

sudo nixos-rebuild build-vm