Since Nix 2.4 is just around the corner, I’m wondering if there exists now an official way to uninstall Nix from your macOS machine? I found some guides that do this, but they require multiple steps and a restart in between them, which is not very user friendly. Is it possible to make it easier, or automated somehow?
3 Likes
There is not an official tool yet (though I’m not sure an uninstall is necessary, in your case?)
This is very frequently requested. I’ve laid out roughly what I think it would take to be able to add an --uninstall flag to the installer in Anyone up for picking at some Nix ~onboarding improvements? and Installer test suite? :) small project(s), high-leverage, help wanted but I am not aware of anyone currently working on any of them.
IIRC the reboot step is just for macOS to clean up the empty root /nix directory (some people get confused when they follow uninstall steps and still see the /nix directory, then throw a fit about the uninstall steps not working). I’ll give more detail than you probably need in case others land here via search:
- There’s no way around needing to reboot to have macOS remove the directory that I am aware of. It isn’t friendly, but it’s a system limitation we have to live with (unless/until Apple add some way for us to imperatively clean it up).
- You can skip the reboot step if you understand the consequences. If you:
- do not plan to reinstall, you understand that you’ll have a /nix directory hanging around until your next reboot.
- plan to then install Nix 2.3.x: go ahead and reboot. IIRC the 2.3.x installer will be confused by the presence of the /nix directory and the install will fail.
- plan to then install Nix 2.4.x (prerelease or release): you shouldn’t need to reboot. This installer should not be confused by the dangling directory.
2 Likes
I’m working on a tool that utilizes Nix under the hood and I want to install Nix for the user automatically. Of course should the user decide to uninstall my tool I would like it to clean up after itself, hence my interest in a proper uninstaller :).
1 Like
Yes. It is a sore spot. I’d like to see it as well. As laid out in the discourse threads I linked, I think it’s definitely ~within reach. The installer is already a lot easier to work on than it was this time last year; a framework for building a proper test suite on it will go a long way towards making this easier to pick at.
1 Like
For what it’s worth I put together a simple shell script that cleaned up my Mac after upgrading to Monterey via a clean installation and migration-assistant. In case anyone wants to use, or better still, improve it: nixbits/nix-uninstall.sh at 32f15fbb9927566a3052f7a7e0642508363399d6 · jacix/nixbits · GitHub
For additional clarity, there are now uninstall instructions in the manual @ Installing a Binary Distribution