---
name: "nix-store-delete"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "nix-bin"
version: "2.26.3+dfsg-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/nix-store-delete"
---

# nix-store-delete(1)

delete store paths

## Name

`nix-store --delete` - delete store paths

## Synopsis

`nix-store` `--delete` \[`--ignore-liveness`\] *paths…*

## Description

The operation `--delete` deletes the store paths *paths* from the Nix store, but only if it is safe to do so; that is, when the path is not reachable from a root of the garbage collector. This means that you can only delete paths that would also be deleted by `nix-store --gc`. Thus, `--delete` is a more targeted version of `--gc`.

With the option `--ignore-liveness`, reachability from the roots is ignored. However, the path still won’t be deleted if there are other paths in the store that refer to it (i.e., depend on it).

{{#include ./opt-common.md}}

{{#include ../opt-common.md}}

{{#include ../env-common.md}}

## Example

```
$ nix-store --delete /nix/store/zq0h41l75vlb4z45kzgjjmsjxvcv1qk7-mesa-6.4
0 bytes freed (0.00 MiB)
error: cannot delete path `/nix/store/zq0h41l75vlb4z45kzgjjmsjxvcv1qk7-mesa-6.4' since it is still alive
```