nix-env(1)

Name

nix-env - manipulate or query Nix user environments

Synopsis

nix-env operation [options] [arguments…] [--option name value] [--arg name value] [--argstr name value] [{--file | -f} path] [{--profile | -p} path] [--system-filter system] [--dry-run]

Description

The command nix-env is used to manipulate Nix user environments. User environments are sets of software packages available to a user at some point in time. In other words, they are a synthesised view of the programs available in the Nix store. There may be many user environments: different users can have different environments, and individual users can switch between different environments.

nix-env takes exactly one operation flag which indicates the subcommand to be performed. The following operations are available:

•

--install ⟨./nix-env/install.md⟩

•

--upgrade ⟨./nix-env/upgrade.md⟩

•

--uninstall ⟨./nix-env/uninstall.md⟩

•

--set ⟨./nix-env/set.md⟩

•

--set-flag ⟨./nix-env/set-flag.md⟩

•

--query ⟨./nix-env/query.md⟩

•

--switch-profile ⟨./nix-env/switch-profile.md⟩

•

--list-generations ⟨./nix-env/list-generations.md⟩

•

--delete-generations ⟨./nix-env/delete-generations.md⟩

•

--switch-generation ⟨./nix-env/switch-generation.md⟩

•

--rollback ⟨./nix-env/rollback.md⟩

These pages can be viewed offline:

•

man nix-env-<operation>.

Example: man nix-env-install

•

nix-env --help --<operation>

Example: nix-env --help --install

Package sources

nix-env can obtain packages from multiple sources:

•

An attribute set of derivations from:

•

The default Nix expression ⟨@docroot@/command-ref/files/default-nix-expression.md⟩ (by default)

•

A Nix file, specified via --file

•

A profile ⟨@docroot@/command-ref/files/profiles.md⟩\c , specified via --from-profile

•

A Nix expression that is a function which takes default expression as argument, specified via --from-expression

•

A store path ⟨@docroot@/store/store-path.md⟩

Selectors

Several operations, such as nix-env --query ⟨./nix-env/query.md⟩ and nix-env --install ⟨./nix-env/install.md⟩\c , take a list of arguments that specify the packages on which to operate.

Packages are identified based on a name part and a version part of a symbolic derivation name ⟨@docroot@/language/derivations.md#attr-name⟩\c :

•

name: Everything up to but not including the first dash (-) that is not followed by a letter.

•

version: The rest, excluding the separating dash.

Example

nix-env parses the symbolic derivation name apache-httpd-2.0.48 as:

{
  "name": "apache-httpd",
  "version": "2.0.48"
}

Example

nix-env parses the symbolic derivation name firefox.* as:

{
  "name": "firefox.*",
  "version": ""
}

The name parts of the arguments to nix-env are treated as extended regular expressions and matched against the name parts of derivation names in the package source. The match is case-sensitive. The regular expression can optionally be followed by a dash (-) and a version number; if omitted, any version of the package will match. For details on regular expressions, see regex(7) ⟨https://linux.die.net/man/7/regex⟩\c .

Files

nix-env operates on the following files.

{{#include ./files/default-nix-expression.md}}

{{#include ./files/profiles.md}}