Uninstall Nix on macOS: Can't Delete Nix Store Partition

[ibehnam]

I've been following the official instructions to uninstall Nix on a Mac, but the final step—removing the Nix Store partition—throws an error.
Tried rm -rf /nix/ but I get:

rm: /nix//store: Permission denied
rm: /nix/: Resource busy

Also tried deleting the partition using Disk Utility but I get Failed to unmount “Nix Store” because it is currently in use.. Apparently process 0 (Kernel) is using it, so macOS won't let me unmount and delete the partition.

What can I do?

[abathur]

Not sure what instructions you're following, but the official instructions for uninstalling Nix on macOS (https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/installation/installing-binary.html#macos) don't list rm -rf /nix/ as a step.

[milosgajdos]

Uninstall instructions for macOS have somehow disappeared if there ever were any. The suggested link is also "half broken" - there is no macos acnhor anymore

[cole-h]

https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/installation/uninstall.html#macos

[milosgajdos]

yeah I revers-engineered it, but thanks for sending the link; whoever will find this thread will find it useful :)

[abathur]

@fricklerhandwerk it sounds like the redirects for these old links aren't working?

• add redirect to track moved uninstall section #8286

[fricklerhandwerk]

The redirects work, but here the semantics changed because the uninstall part is now in its own section. For https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/installation/installing-binary.html#macos-installation indeed a redirect is missing because apparently the anchor changed from macos to macos-installation at some point. Would be great if you could fix that up. :)

[abathur]

So, the old links can't be redirected because of the resection?

Edit: I'm not sure I'm reading you right and I'm not familiar with the redirect system's capabilities to disambiguate. To clarify, can it redirect links from https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/installation/installing-binary.html#macos to https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/installation/uninstall.html#macos? (I'm not worried about mapping them to https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/installation/installing-binary.html#macos-installation.)

[fricklerhandwerk]

So, the old links can't be redirected because of the resection?

I thought so, but actually installing.html#macos was pointing to the uninstall section, so it can be redirected cleanly. I was under the wrong impression the uninstall instructions were somehow nested under installation without addressable subsections. My previous comment was wrong.

To clarify, can it redirect links from https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/installation/installing-binary.html#macos to https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/installation/uninstall.html#macos?

Yes, that is correct and can be done. Check the sample in the PR you linked previously.

[Alvaro-R]

This worked for me:

from: https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/installation/uninstall.html#macos