# disko - declarative disk partitioning
Disko takes the NixOS module system and makes it work for disk partitioning
as well.
I wanted to write a curses NixOS installer, and that was the first step that I
hit; the disk formatting is a manual process. Once that's done, the NixOS
system itself is declarative, but the actual formatting of disks is manual.
## Features
* supports LVM, ZFS, btrfs, GPT, mdadm, ext4, ...
* supports recursive layouts
* outputs a NixOS-compatible module
* CLI
## How-to guides
### NixOS installation
During the NixOS installation process, replace the [Partitioning and
formatting](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/index.html#sec-installation-partitioning)
steps with the following:
1. Find a disk layout in ./examples that you like.
2. Write the config based on the example and your disk layout.
4. Run the CLI (`nix run github:nix-community/disko`) to apply the changes.
5. FIXME: Copy the disko module and disk layout around.
6. Continue the NixOS installation.
### Using without NixOS
## Reference
### Module options
TODO: link to generated module options
### Examples
./examples
### CLI
TODO: output of the cli --help
## Installing NixOS module
You can use the NixOS module in one of the following ways:
Flakes (Current recommendation)
If you use nix flakes support:
``` nix
{
inputs.disko.url = "github:nix-community/disko";
inputs.disko.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
outputs = { self, nixpkgs, disko }: {
# change `yourhostname` to your actual hostname
nixosConfigurations.yourhostname = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
# change to your system:
system = "x86_64-linux";
modules = [
./configuration.nix
disko.nixosModules.disko
];
};
};
}
```
niv
First add it to [niv](https://github.com/nmattia/niv):
```console
$ niv add nix-community/disko
```
Then add the following to your configuration.nix in the `imports` list:
```nix
{
imports = [ "${(import ./nix/sources.nix).disko}/modules/disko.nix" ];
}
```
nix-channel
As root run:
```console
$ nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/disko/archive/main.tar.gz disko
$ nix-channel --update
```
Then add the following to your configuration.nix in the `imports` list:
```nix
{
imports = [ ];
}
```
fetchTarball
Add the following to your configuration.nix:
``` nix
{
imports = [ "${builtins.fetchTarball "https://github.com/nix-community/disko/archive/master.tar.gz"}/module.nix" ];
}
```
or with pinning:
```nix
{
imports = let
# replace this with an actual commit id or tag
commit = "f2783a8ef91624b375a3cf665c3af4ac60b7c278";
in [
"${builtins.fetchTarball {
url = "https://github.com/nix-community/disko/archive/${commit}.tar.gz";
# replace this with an actual hash
sha256 = "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000";
}}/module.nix"
];
}
```
## Using the NixOS module
```nix
{
# checkout the example folder for how to configure different diska layouts
disko.devices = {
disk.sda = {
device = "/dev/sda";
type = "disk";
content = {
type = "table";
format = "gpt";
partitions = [
{
type = "partition";
name = "ESP";
start = "1MiB";
end = "100MiB";
bootable = true;
content = {
type = "filesystem";
format = "vfat";
mountpoint = "/boot";
};
}
{
name = "root";
type = "partition";
start = "100MiB";
end = "100%";
part-type = "primary";
bootable = true;
content = {
type = "filesystem";
format = "ext4";
mountpoint = "/";
};
}
];
};
};
};
}
```
this will configure `fileSystems` and other required NixOS options to boot the specified configuration.
If you are on an installer, you probably want to disable `enableConfig`.
disko will create the scripts `disko-create` and `disko-mount` which can be used to create/mount the configured disk layout.