nix3-develop

Warning: This program is experimental and its interface is subject to change.

Name

nix develop - run a bash shell that provides the build environment of a derivation

Synopsis

nix develop [option…] installable

Examples

•

Start a shell with the build environment of the default package of the flake in the current directory:

# nix develop

Typical commands to run inside this shell are:

# configurePhase
# buildPhase
# installPhase

Alternatively, you can run whatever build tools your project uses directly, e.g. for a typical Unix project:

# ./configure --prefix=$out
# make
# make install

•

Run a particular build phase directly:

# nix develop --unpack
# nix develop --configure
# nix develop --build
# nix develop --check
# nix develop --install
# nix develop --installcheck

•

Start a shell with the build environment of GNU Hello:

# nix develop nixpkgs#hello

•

Record a build environment in a profile:

# nix develop --profile /tmp/my-build-env nixpkgs#hello

•

Use a build environment previously recorded in a profile:

# nix develop /tmp/my-build-env

•

Replace all occurrences of the store path corresponding to glibc.dev with a writable directory:

# nix develop --redirect nixpkgs#glibc.dev ~/my-glibc/outputs/dev

Note that this is useful if you’re running a nix develop shell for nixpkgs#glibc in ~/my-glibc and want to compile another package against it.

Description

nix develop starts a bash shell that provides an interactive build environment nearly identical to what Nix would use to build installable. Inside this shell, environment variables and shell functions are set up so that you can interactively and incrementally build your package.

Nix determines the build environment by building a modified version of the derivation installable that just records the environment initialised by stdenv and exits. This build environment can be recorded into a profile using --profile.

The prompt used by the bash shell can be customised by setting the bash-prompt and bash-prompt-suffix settings in nix.conf or in the flake’s nixConfig attribute.

Flake output attributes

If no flake output attribute is given, nix develop tries the following flake output attributes:

	•		devShells.<system>.default
	•		packages.<system>.default

If a flake output name is given, nix develop tries the following flake output attributes:

	•		devShells.<system>.<name>
	•		packages.<system>.<name>
	•		legacyPackages.<system>.<name>

Options

•

--build

Run the build phase.

•

--check

Run the check phase.

•

--command / -c command args

Instead of starting an interactive shell, start the specified command and arguments.

•

--configure

Run the configure phase.

•

--ignore-environment / -i

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

•

--install

Run the install phase.

•

--installcheck

Run the installcheck phase.

•

--keep / -k name

Keep the environment variable name.

•

--phase phase-name

The stdenv phase to run (e.g. build or configure).

•

--profile path

The profile to update.

•

--redirect installable outputs-dir

Redirect a store path to a mutable location.

•

--unpack

Run the unpack phase.

•

--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.