Can I simply nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#etc.etc from within an arbitrary directory without ANY system issues? For example, if there was a default /etc/nixos/configuration.nix while nixos-rebuildinging from a different directory or even just rebuilding from a flake referenced from github.
Would Nix mess up on reboot because of a different /etc/nixos?
I don’t need to clear out /etc/nixos and hard link it to my arbitrary flake directory?
Functionally same questions for home-manager with a default ~/.config/home-manager/home.nix.
I wasn’t able to find this in any other posts unless I’m simply wording the question incorrectly.
You should have no trouble keeping your configuration somewhere else you choose
I’ve had my configuration flake (which includes home-manager as well) in another location for over a year, and the configuration files in /etc/nixos haven’t changed or messed anything up since then.
If you configure system.autoUpgrade wrong it could decide to “update” you to an old config from /etc/nixos. Or you could accidentally forget the --flake arg while rebuilding manually. Those are the only ways I can think of this causing issues.
In either case, bringing up your boot loader and booting the previous generation will instantly fix a mistake like that.
I’d still personally just back up my /etc/nixos and then delete any flake.nix or configuration.nix in that directory if it’s not being used anyway, at best it wastes disk space.
