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
       •  --upgrade
       •  --uninstall
       •  --set
       •  --set-flag
       •  --query
       •  --switch-profile
       •  --list-generations
       •  --delete-generations
       •  --switch-generation
       •  --rollback

       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 (by default)
          •  A Nix file, specified via --file
          •  A profile, specified via --from-profile
          •  A Nix expression that is a function which takes  default  expression  as  argument,  specified  via
             --from-expression
       •  A store path

Selectors

       Several  operations, such as nix-env --query and nix-env --install, 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:

       •  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).

              Example

              Common patterns for finding package names with nix-env:

              •  firefox

                 Matches the package name firefox and any version.

              •  firefox-32.0

                 Matches the package name firefox and version 32.0.

              •  gtk\\+

                 Matches the package name gtk+.  The + character must  be  escaped  using  a  backslash  (\)  to
                 prevent  it  from  being interpreted as a quantifier, and the backslash must be escaped in turn
                 with another backslash to ensure that the shell passes it on.

              •  .\*

                 Matches any package name.  This is the default for most commands.

              •  '.*zip.*'

                 Matches any package name containing the string zip.  Note the  dots:  '*zip*'  does  not  work,
                 because in a regular expression, the character * is interpreted as a quantifier.

              •  '.*(firefox|chromium).*'

                 Matches any package name containing the strings firefox or chromium.

Files

       nix-env operates on the following files.

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

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

                                                                                                      nix-env(1)