ActivityWatch is an open-source time-tracking software that helps you track how much time you spend on various activities using your computer. In this tutorial, we will guide you on how to install ActivityWatch on the latest version of NixOS.
Before we begin, make sure that you have the following:
The first step is to ensure that your NixOS system is up to date. Open a terminal window and execute the following commands:
sudo nix-channel --update
sudo nixos-rebuild switch
The above commands will update your channels and rebuild your system with the latest updates.
ActivityWatch is written in the Python programming language, so we need to install Python 3. Execute the following command to install Python 3:
sudo nix-env -iA nixos.python3
Now that we have installed Python 3, we can proceed to install ActivityWatch. Execute the following command to install ActivityWatch:
sudo nix-env -i activitywatch
ActivityWatch runs as a service in the background. To start the service, execute the following command:
sudo systemctl start activitywatch
You can verify that the service is running by executing the following command:
sudo systemctl status activitywatch
If the service is running, you should see an output similar to the following:
● activitywatch.service - ActivityWatch time tracker
Loaded: loaded (/nix/store/rpmcqdn2gnfqbb0jck7x4fp4a4j7h63c-activitywatch-0.11.0/share/aw-server/systemd/activitywatch.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2021-06-25 09:15:00 UTC; 1s ago
Main PID: 3829 (python3)
Tasks: 12 (limit: 4690)
Memory: 80.7M
CGroup: /system.slice/activitywatch.service
└─3829 /nix/store/90q70kwic5xhj5ylklp5gi5if5rp5l4n-python3-3.9.5/bin/python3 /nix/store/rpmcqdn2gnfqbb0jck7x4fp4a4j7h63c-activitywatch-0.11.0/bin/aw-server
By default, ActivityWatch stores its data in the ~/.local/share/activitywatch directory. You can modify the configuration by editing the ~/.config/activitywatch file.
You can also access the ActivityWatch web interface by going to http://localhost:5600 in your web browser.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed ActivityWatch on NixOS Latest.
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