Nixos on xow.se https://www.xow.se/tags/nixos/ Recent content in Nixos on xow.se Hugo en-us Sun, 10 May 2026 18:59:19 +0200 NixOS - Cleaning up old generations https://www.xow.se/notes/nixos-cleaning-up-old-generations-ytuf/ Sun, 10 May 2026 18:59:19 +0200 https://www.xow.se/notes/nixos-cleaning-up-old-generations-ytuf/ <p>Eventually every new NixOS user is going to run out of disk space. Or, atleast I did.</p> <p>Here’s how I did my housekeeping:</p> <div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;"><code class="language-sh" data-lang="sh"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#75715e"># Keep 5 system generations</span> </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>sudo nix-env --profile /nix/var/nix/profiles/system --delete-generations +5 </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#75715e"># Same for your user profile</span> </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>nix-env --delete-generations old </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#75715e"># Run garbage collection (this actually frees space)</span> </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>sudo nix-collect-garbage -d </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#75715e"># Clean boot entries (removes old kernels from /boot)</span> </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>sudo /run/current-system/bin/switch-to-configuration boot </span></span></code></pre></div> Eventually every new NixOS user is going to run out of disk space. Or, atleast I did.

Here’s how I did my housekeeping:

# Keep 5 system generations
sudo nix-env --profile /nix/var/nix/profiles/system --delete-generations +5

# Same for your user profile
nix-env --delete-generations old

# Run garbage collection (this actually frees space)
sudo nix-collect-garbage -d

# Clean boot entries (removes old kernels from /boot)
sudo /run/current-system/bin/switch-to-configuration boot
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