nixos-and-flakes-book/docs/best-practices/simplify-nixos-related-commands.md

# Simplifying NixOS-Related Commands

To simplify NixOS-related commands, I utilize [just](https://github.com/casey/just), which proves to be very convenient.

Alternatively, you can also use similar tools like Makefile or [cargo-make](https://github.com/sagiegurari/cargo-make) for this purpose. Here, I will provide my approach as a reference.

Below is an example of how my Justfile looks:

> The latest Justfile I'm using: [ryan4yin/nix-config/Justfile](https://github.com/ryan4yin/nix-config/blob/main/Justfile)

```Makefile
# just is a command runner, Justfile is very similar to Makefile, but simpler.

############################################################################
#
#  Nix commands related to the local machine
#
############################################################################

deploy:
  nixos-rebuild switch --flake . --use-remote-sudo

debug:
  nixos-rebuild switch --flake . --use-remote-sudo --show-trace --verbose

update:
  nix flake update

history:
  nix profile history --profile /nix/var/nix/profiles/system

gc:
  # remove all generations older than 7 days
  sudo nix profile wipe-history --profile /nix/var/nix/profiles/system  --older-than 7d

  # garbage collect all unused nix store entries
  sudo nix store gc --debug

############################################################################
#
#  Idols, Commands related to my remote distributed building cluster
#
############################################################################

add-idols-ssh-key:
  ssh-add ~/.ssh/ai-idols

aqua: add-idols-ssh-key
  nixos-rebuild --flake .#aquamarine --target-host aquamarine --build-host aquamarine switch --use-remote-sudo

aqua-debug: add-idols-ssh-key
  nixos-rebuild --flake .#aquamarine --target-host aquamarine --build-host aquamarine switch --use-remote-sudo --show-trace --verbose

ruby: add-idols-ssh-key
  nixos-rebuild --flake .#ruby --target-host ruby --build-host ruby switch --use-remote-sudo

ruby-debug: add-idols-ssh-key
  nixos-rebuild --flake .#ruby --target-host ruby --build-host ruby switch --use-remote-sudo --show-trace --verbose

kana: add-idols-ssh-key
  nixos-rebuild --flake .#kana --target-host kana --build-host kana switch --use-remote-sudo

kana-debug: add-idols-ssh-key
  nixos-rebuild --flake .#kana --target-host kana --build-host kana switch --use-remote-sudo --show-trace --verbose

idols: aqua ruby kana

idols-debug: aqua-debug ruby-debug kana-debug
```


By Save this `Justfile` to the root directory of your Nix flake. Then, I can use `just deploy` to deploy the configuration to my local machine, and `just idols` to deploy the configuration to all my remote servers.

This approach simplifies the execution of NixOS commands by abstracting them behind target names in the Justfile, providing a more user-friendly and convenient experience.