9.3 How to enable flakes

Flakes are still an experimental feature, so a fresh Nix install refuses every nix flake command until you switch them on. This short lesson shows the exact configuration line for plain Nix and the snippet for NixOS. The whole process takes about a minute.

In this video

• The one line for your Nix configuration, and why it enables two features at once, not one
• Where the setting goes on NixOS versus a non-NixOS install, per user or for everyone
• What needs a rebuild and what works immediately without restarting anything

After this lesson

Flakes and the new nix command work on your machine, and you are ready for the hands-on lessons that follow.