Files
Pierre Kisters e597c6e34b install: the template as one commit, without git's dirty warning
create_config locks the template as a path (not the git repository) and
commits everything once, with the user's git identity or, without one,
a fallback passed with -c for that commit only. The template switch no
longer warns that the tree is dirty; the marker and the one-commit rule
are unchanged.
2026-10-02 00:39:50 +02:00

6.4 KiB

Cleanup and installer

How steam-frame-nix-cleanup and install.sh work. What steam-frame-nix writes outside the Nix store, how to remove it, rollback and uninstall: README, Changes outside Nix, Rollback, Uninstall.

Cleanup

steam-frame-nix-cleanup (steamFrame.cleanup.package, module cleanup, imported by every module) is install.sh cleanup, so the same code runs with Nix (on every switch: cleanup --orphans --keep <what the configuration still uses>) and without it, from the script (bash, coreutils, findutils, grep, sed, awk, jq, all in SteamOS' /usr/bin). Home Manager's uninstall = true; runs cleanup --all from the activation. --quiet prints only actions, deferrals and warnings.

It removes an artifact only when it is proven to be its own; anything else is reported as "left alone" and never touched:

Artifact Proof / rule
debugger: VRWebHelper.DebuggerEnabled in steamvr.vrsettings ~/.local/state/steam-frame-nix/steamvr-debugger.armed holds the value before (older versions: the empty marker steamvr-debugger, value before = absent). Restored once SteamVR is stopped; while it runs the runtime drop-in restores it when SteamVR stops. Also the runtime drop-in and restore script themselves.
icons: hicolor/scalable/apps/<name>.svg links to Breeze in the store, listed in ~/.local/state/steam-frame-nix/icon-fallbacks (the icon-fallbacks script of 2026-09)
firefox: user.js in Firefox profiles links to /app/etc/firefox/steam-frame-nix-desktop-user.js (left alone while the profile is in use), older links to *-firefox-*user.js and copies starting with the steam-frame-nix marker comment, and the values they left in prefs.js (only with Firefox closed)
jellyfin the hwdec shim entries in the Jellyfin Flatpak's user override ~/.local/share/flatpak/overrides/org.jellyfin.JellyfinDesktop (nix-flatpak), an empty override file, and the shim copy of earlier versions in ~/.var/app/org.jellyfin.JellyfinDesktop (marker ~/.local/state/steam-frame-nix/jellyfin-hwdec-shim)
ui-state: ~/.local/state/steam-frame-nix/ui-patches/<name>.json the dashboard patches' saved choices; --all only, never --orphans; stray *.json.tmp files
launchers: /run/user/1000/steam-frame-nix/applications the entries of launchers (tmpfs); --all only (switches remove those of removed launchers themselves)
screenshots: /run/user/1000/steam-frame-nix/screenshots a link to */userdata/*/760/remote/250820/screenshots (SteamVR screenshots); kept by --orphans --keep screenshots (while steamUserId is unset)
pet: /run/user/1000/steam-frame-nix/vr-pet icon.png, a link to *-vr-pet-icons/*.png in the store (VR pet), its empty .lock and stray .icon.tmp.* links, then the directory if empty; kept by --orphans --keep pet (while pet.enable)
dirs ~/.local/state/steam-frame-nix and /run/user/1000/steam-frame-nix when empty

Left by older versions

Of the rows above, only older versions wrote: the icon fallback links and their list, the debugger marker steamvr-debugger, Firefox user.js copies and links and their prefs.js values, the Jellyfin hwdec override entries (and an empty override file) and the old shim copy.

Installer

What install.sh install sets up is listed in the README under Set up by install.sh. The installer runs systemctl --user against the outer session's user manager (the nested desktop can't reach it with its own environment) and uses the installed home-manager if there is one, else Home Manager's master.

install --clone takes SteamOS' git, else nix run nixpkgs#git, always with GIT_TERMINAL_PROMPT=0. "The unchanged template": create_config writes the hash of the configuration's files (without .git) to .git/steam-frame-nix-template; it must still match, with at most one commit. create_config locks the template as path: (no "dirty" warning) and commits everything once, with the user's git identity or, missing that, -c user.name=<user> -c user.email=<user>@localhost for that commit only. Any other directory is used as it is, --ref ignored. The template is created and activated only into an empty target without ~/.config/home-manager; with another configuration linked, git clones with that one's helpers. The switch to an existing template is skipped when it is linked, Home Manager is installed and git has a credential helper. The clone goes to .<dir>.clone.XXXXXX next to the target (removed on failure or exit), then replaces the template (checked unchanged again). gh auth login --hostname github.com --git-protocol https, with the Home Manager profile's gh, is offered only for https://github.com/ URLs and with a terminal. Tests: section G of modules/cleanup/check.nix (a logging git, a fake nix, STEAM_FRAME_NIX_TTY instead of /dev/tty).

restart-check (run by the session module's activation after steamFrameUserServices, and by install at its end) compares the keyboard layout drop-in on gamescope-session.service with XKB_DEFAULT_* in the environment of the first readable process in that unit's cgroup (gamescope's own isn't readable), and, while SteamVR runs with the debugger drop-in, looks for a listener on port 8087 in /proc/net/tcp*. Tests use STEAM_FRAME_NIX_PROC and STEAM_FRAME_NIX_CGROUP (section F of modules/cleanup/check.nix).

uninstall removes Nix with nix-installer (from a root-owned copy in /tmp), whose systemctl stop nix.mount fails while a process uses /nix; in the Steam session some always do until logout (e.g. Steam and xdg-desktop-portal, once they mapped a file from the store). So a runtime drop-in, /run/systemd/system/nix.mount.d/50-steam-frame-nix-lazy-unmount.conf with LazyUnmount=yes, makes that stop detach /nix (umount -l): the programs keep their open files until they exit. The drop-in is removed afterwards, also on failure or Ctrl+C. Listed first, for information: the processes whose exe, cwd, root or an fd links into /nix, or whose maps names a file there (only the user's own are readable), except the script itself, its subshells and its process group (the curl | bash pipeline). Tests: section H of modules/cleanup/check.nix (STEAM_FRAME_NIX_PROC as a fake /proc, STEAM_FRAME_NIX_SYSTEM_RUNTIME for the drop-in, a logging nix-installer).