diff --git a/doc/manual/development.xml b/doc/manual/development.xml
index 95c1848e3871..17d7103e0d49 100644
--- a/doc/manual/development.xml
+++ b/doc/manual/development.xml
@@ -48,6 +48,25 @@ $ nixos-rebuild switch -I /my/sources
+nixos-rebuild affects only the system profile.
+To install packages to your user profile from expressions in
+/my/sources, use
+nix-env -f /my/sources/nixpkgs,
+or change the default by replacing the symlink in
+~/.nix-defexpr:
+
+
+$ rm -f ~/.nix-defexpr/channels
+$ ln -s /my/sources/nixpkgs ~/.nix-defexpr/nixpkgs
+
+
+
+
+You should not pass the base directory
+/my/sources
+to nix-env, as it will break after interpreting expressions
+in nixos/ as packages.
+