--- title: TIL: Symlinking NixOS Dotfiles | daily.dev description: A quick tip on managing dotfiles on NixOS without home-manager by using systemd-tmpfiles to declaratively configure symlinks. The author explains objections to... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/til-symlinking-nixos-dotfiles-mmgxvnnk9 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: TIL: Symlinking NixOS Dotfiles | daily.dev og:description: A quick tip on managing dotfiles on NixOS without home-manager by using systemd-tmpfiles to declaratively configure symlinks. The author explains objections to... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/til-symlinking-nixos-dotfiles-mmgxvnnk9 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/mmGxVNnk9.png og:image:alt: TIL: Symlinking NixOS Dotfiles og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- [matklad](https://daily.dev/sources/matklad) [Read post](https://api.daily.dev/r/mmGxVNnk9) # [TIL: Symlinking NixOS Dotfiles](https://api.daily.dev/r/mmGxVNnk9 "Go to post") A quick tip on managing dotfiles on NixOS without home-manager by using systemd-tmpfiles to declaratively configure symlinks. The author explains objections to home-manager (extra dependency, per-user packages, requires system rebuild to change config) and shows how systemd.tmpfiles.rules in NixOS configuration can symlink dotfiles from a repo directory into \~/.config without any additional tooling. [#nixos](/tags/nixos "Check all #nixos posts") May 21•2m read time•From [matklad.github.io](https://api.daily.dev/r/mmGxVNnk9 "matklad.github.io") [](https://api.daily.dev/r/mmGxVNnk9 "Go to post") 310 Impressions1 Upvote Comment Bookmark Copy Share your thoughtsPost [](https://daily.dev/sources/matklad) [matklad](https://daily.dev/sources/matklad "https://daily.dev/sources/matklad") Matthias Noback's expertise in PHP and domain-driven design (DDD) offers readers insights into buil... Read more 33 Followers • 474 Upvotes #### Would you recommend this post? Copy link WhatsApp Facebook X New Squad Copy linkShare with your friends 1 ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"TIL: Symlinking NixOS Dotfiles","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/til-symlinking-nixos-dotfiles-mmgxvnnk9","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/til-symlinking-nixos-dotfiles-mmgxvnnk9"},"datePublished":"2026-05-21T22:36:42.736Z","dateModified":"2026-05-21T22:37:00.891Z","description":"A quick tip on managing dotfiles on NixOS without home-manager by using systemd-tmpfiles to declaratively configure symlinks. The author explains objections to...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--1KxV4ohY--/f_auto/v1722860400/public/Placeholder%2007","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--1KxV4ohY--/f_auto/v1722860400/public/Placeholder%2007","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"matklad","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"matklad","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/c34dbbf360354a179786e8a127718b12","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/matklad"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/til-symlinking-nixos-dotfiles-mmgxvnnk9","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"nixos","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"matklad","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/matklad"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"TIL: Symlinking NixOS Dotfiles"}]} ```