Where Is the Nix Store?
The Nix store, profiles and config files on Linux and macOS, and why you must never move the store.
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Every Nix package unpacks to /nix/store under a hash addressed path, identically on Linux and macOS (the Mac installer creates a synthetic APFS volume for it). Your environment is a symlink farm: ~/.nix-profile points into /nix/var/nix/profiles, with per user profiles beneath.
Never relocate /nix by hand; the hash addressing breaks and the whole store goes incoherent. Settings split three ways: /etc/nix/nix.conf for the daemon, ~/.config/nix/nix.conf for per user options like flakes and tokens. Enabling use-xdg-base-directories moves the profile links and surprises tools expecting the old ones.
Where Nix stores this, by platform
/nix/store
Immutable package outputs (/nix/store/<hash>-<name>). Profiles in /nix/var/nix/profiles (per user under per-user/<user>). Daemon config /etc/nix/nix.conf, user config ~/.config/nix/nix.conf. Logs in /nix/var/log/nix/drvs.
/nix/store
Same layout as Linux; the installer provisions a synthetic APFS volume for /nix. Same profile and config split (daemon vs ~/.config/nix/nix.conf). No native Windows support; use WSL paths inside a distro.
Frequently asked questions
Can I move the Nix store to a bigger disk?
Not by copying. Relocating breaks hash integrity, so reclaim space with nix-collect-garbage instead, or reinstall choosing a custom store at build time. Treat /nix as fixed for the life of the install.
Why is the nix command not found after installing?
The shell init is missing. Source /nix/etc/profile.d/nix.sh (or add ~/.nix-profile/bin to PATH) so the profile links resolve. Multi user installs need the build users group and daemon running too.
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