# Installing a Binary Distribution

If you are using Linux or macOS, the easiest way to install Nix is to run the following command:

    $ bash <(curl https://nixos.org/nix/install)

This will perform a single-user installation of Nix, meaning that `/nix` is owned by the invoking user. You should run this under your usual user account, not as root. The script will invoke `sudo` to create `/nix` if it doesn’t already exist. If you don’t have `sudo`, you should manually create `/nix` first as root, e.g.:

    $ mkdir /nix
    $ chown alice /nix

The install script will modify the first writable file from amongst `.bash_profile`, `.bash_login` and `.profile` to source `~/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/nix.sh`. You can set the `NIX_INSTALLER_NO_MODIFY_PROFILE` environment variable before executing the install script to disable this behaviour.

You can also download a binary tarball that contains Nix and all its dependencies. (This is what the install script at `https://nixos.org/nix/install` does automatically.) You should unpack it somewhere (e.g. in `/tmp`), and then run the script named `install` inside the binary tarball:

    alice$ cd /tmp
    alice$ tar xfj nix-1.8-x86_64-darwin.tar.bz2
    alice$ cd nix-1.8-x86_64-darwin
    alice$ ./install

Nix can be uninstalled using `rpm -e nix` or `dpkg -r nix` on RPM- and Dpkg-based systems, respectively. After this you should manually remove the Nix store and other auxiliary data, if desired:

    $ rm -rf /nix

You can uninstall Nix simply by running:

    $ rm -rf /nix