How do I change the default location for nushell configration files

Question

I noticed the default location for nushell's configuration files on Mac OS is ~/Library/Application Support/nushell/, is it possible to change it to another location?

Answer 1

Issuing nu --help gives the option

--config <String> - start with an alternate config file

So, starting it with nu --config another/location/config.nu should do it.

Answer 2

Only symbolic link worked for me on macos m1:

mv ~/Library/Application\ Support/nushell ~/.config/
ln -s ~/.config/nushell ~/Library/Application\ Support/

• https://github.com/nushell/nushell/issues/10746
• https://github.com/nushell/nushell/issues/893

Answer 3

I think it's better to set the NU_CONFIG_DIR environment variable to the desired directory path,so if you are using bash open nano ~/.bash_profile or if you are using zsh open nano ~/.zprofile and put this line into it :

export NU_CONFIG_DIR=/path/to/custom/location

now save and exit then apply the changes to your current shell session like below if you are under bash :

source ~/.bash_profile

and if you are under zsh

source ~/.zprofile

that's it,nushell will use the specified directory (/path/to/custom/location) as the location for its configuration files, such as config.toml and history.txt!

Answer 4

Nushell now supports using the XDG_CONFIG_HOME environment variable to specify the location for config files. The variable must be set before Nushell is launched.

I'm not a macOS user, so I hope my process and terminology are correct here. I believe there are several ways to set these variables:

1. From this Stack Overflow answer, use launchctl setenv XDG_CONFIG_HOME <path>.

2. If that doesn't, work, a user on the Nushell Discord server reported that they needed to create a LaunchAgent in their user-level ~/Library/LaunchAgents like:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" 
   "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
   <plist version="1.0">
   <dict>
       <key>Label</key>
       <string>me.oscarvarto.environment</string>
       <key>ProgramArguments</key>
       <array>
           <string>/bin/sh</string>
           <string>-c</string>
           <string>
               launchctl setenv XDG_CONFIG_HOME /Users/oscarvarto/.config &&
               launchctl setenv XDG_CACHE_HOME /Users/oscarvarto/.cache &&
               launchctl setenv XDG_DATA_HOME /Users/oscarvarto/.local/share &&
               launchctl setenv XDG_STATE_HOME /Users/oscarvarto/.local/state &&
               launchctl setenv XDG_RUNTIME_DIR /Users/oscarvarto/.local/run &&
               launchctl setenv XDG_BIN_HOME /Users/oscarvarto/.local/bin
           </string>
       </array>
       <key>RunAtLoad</key>
       <true/>
       <key>ServiceIPC</key>
       <false/>
   </dict>
   </plist>