nix3-shell(1)

Name

nix shell - run a shell in which the specified packages are available

Synopsis

nix shell [option…] installables…

Examples

•

Start a shell providing youtube-dl from the nixpkgs flake:

# nix shell nixpkgs#youtube-dl
# youtube-dl --version
2020.11.01.1

•

Start a shell providing GNU Hello from NixOS 20.03:

# nix shell nixpkgs/nixos-20.03#hello

•

Run GNU Hello:

# nix shell nixpkgs#hello -c hello --greeting 'Hi everybody!'
Hi everybody!

•

Run GNU Hello in a chroot store:

# nix shell --store ~/my-nix nixpkgs#hello -c hello

•

Start a shell providing GNU Hello in a chroot store:

# nix shell --store ~/my-nix nixpkgs#hello nixpkgs#bashInteractive -c bash

Note that it’s necessary to specify bash explicitly because your default shell (e.g. /bin/bash) generally will not exist in the chroot.

Description

nix shell runs a command in an environment in which the $PATH variable provides the specified installables. If no command is specified, it starts the default shell of your user account specified by $SHELL.

Options

•

--command / -c command args
Command and arguments to be executed, defaulting to $SHELL

•

--ignore-environment / -i
Clear the entire environment (except those specified with --keep).

•

--keep / -k name
Keep the environment variable name.

•

--unset / -u name
Unset the environment variable name.

Common evaluation options:

•

--arg name expr
Pass the value expr as the argument name to Nix functions.

•

--argstr name string
Pass the string string as the argument name to Nix functions.

•

--eval-store store-url
The Nix store to use for evaluations.

•

--impure
Allow access to mutable paths and repositories.

•

--include / -I path
Add path to the list of locations used to look up <...> file names.

•

--override-flake original-ref resolved-ref
Override the flake registries, redirecting original-ref to resolved-ref.

Common flake-related options:

•

--commit-lock-file
Commit changes to the flake’s lock file.

•

--inputs-from flake-url
Use the inputs of the specified flake as registry entries.

•

--no-registries
Don’t allow lookups in the flake registries. This option is deprecated; use --no-use-registries.

•

--no-update-lock-file
Do not allow any updates to the flake’s lock file.

•

--no-write-lock-file
Do not write the flake’s newly generated lock file.

•

--override-input input-path flake-url
Override a specific flake input (e.g. dwarffs/nixpkgs). This implies --no-write-lock-file.

•

--recreate-lock-file
Recreate the flake’s lock file from scratch.

•

--update-input input-path
Update a specific flake input (ignoring its previous entry in the lock file).

Options that change the interpretation of installables:

•

--derivation
Operate on the store derivation rather than its outputs.

•

--expr expr
Interpret installables as attribute paths relative to the Nix expression expr.

•

--file / -f file
Interpret installables as attribute paths relative to the Nix expression stored in file. If file is the character -, then a Nix expression will be read from standard input.