<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
      xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
      xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
      version="5.0"
      xml:id="sec-single-user">

<title>Single-User Mode</title>

<para>In single-user mode, all Nix operations that access the database
in <filename><replaceable>prefix</replaceable>/var/nix/db</filename>
or modify the Nix store in
<filename><replaceable>prefix</replaceable>/store</filename> must be
performed under the user ID that owns those directories.  This is
typically <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem>.  (If you
install from RPM packages, that’s in fact the default ownership.)
However, on single-user machines, it is often convenient to
<command>chown</command> those directories to your normal user account
so that you don’t have to <command>su</command> to <systemitem
class="username">root</systemitem> all the time.</para>

</section>