nix3-edit(1)

📦
version 2.35.3 · 13 versions
, in fedora 44

✨ nix3-edit(1) ✨

okay bestie, welcome to the nix edit manual page 💖 this one lives in the General Commands Manual section, and it's giving ✨powerful but fragile✨ energy, so buckle up.

⚠️ Warning — this program is experimental and its interface is subject to change. no cap. it might glow up and change on you without warning, so don't get too attached to the exact vibes 💀

🌸 Name 🌸

nix edit — open the Nix expression of a Nix package in $EDITOR 🫶

🎀 Synopsis 🎀

nix edit [option…] installable

🦋 Examples 🦋

  • Open the Nix expression of the GNU Hello package:
# nix edit nixpkgs#hello
  • Get the filename and line number used by nix edit:
# nix eval --raw nixpkgs#hello.meta.position
/nix/store/fvafw0gvwayzdan642wrv84pzm5bgpmy-source/pkgs/applications/misc/hello/default.nix:15

🌈 Description 🌈

so basically, this command opens the Nix expression of a derivation in an editor. the filename and line number of the derivation come from its meta.position attribute. and here's the tea: Nixpkgs' stdenv.mkDerivation sets this attribute to the location of the definition of the meta.description, version or name derivation attributes. iconic behaviour honestly 👑

the editor it invokes is specified by the EDITOR environment variable. it defaults to cat (yes, really, cat, it's just gonna dump the file at you 🐱). and if the editor is emacs, nano, vim or kak, it gets passed the line number of the derivation using the argument +<lineno> — so you land exactly on the right line. it's giving precision 💅

✨ Options ✨

🧮 Common evaluation options

  • --arg name expr — pass the value expr as the argument name to Nix functions.
  • --arg-from-file name path — pass the contents of file path as the argument name to Nix functions.
  • --arg-from-stdin name — pass the contents of stdin as the argument name to Nix functions.
  • --argstr name string — pass the string string as the argument name to Nix functions.
  • --debugger — start an interactive environment if evaluation fails. so when it all goes wrong, you get a lil playground to poke at 😭
  • --eval-store store-url — the URL of the Nix store to use for evaluation, i.e. to store derivations (.drv files) and inputs referenced by them.
  • --impure — allow access to mutable paths and repositories. living dangerously, love that for you 🙈
  • --include, -I path — add path to search path entries used to resolve lookup paths.
    • This option may be given multiple times. (spam it, queen)
    • Paths added through -I take precedence over the nix-path configuration setting and the NIX_PATH environment variable. 👑
  • --override-flake original-ref resolved-ref — override the flake registries, redirecting original-ref to resolved-ref.
  • --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.
DEPRECATED — use --no-use-registries instead.
  • --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.
  • --output-lock-file flake-lock-path — write the given lock file instead of flake.lock within the top-level flake.
  • --override-input input-path flake-url — override a specific flake input (e.g. dwarffs/nixpkgs). the input path must not be empty. this implies --no-write-lock-file.
  • --recreate-lock-file — recreate the flake's lock file from scratch.
DEPRECATED — use nix flake update instead.
  • --reference-lock-file flake-lock-path — read the given lock file instead of flake.lock within the top-level flake.
  • --update-input input-path — update a specific flake input (ignoring its previous entry in the lock file).
DEPRECATED — use nix flake update instead.
  • --debug — set the logging verbosity level to ‘debug’.
  • --log-format format — set the format of log output; one of raw, internal-json, bar or bar-with-logs.
  • --print-build-logs, -L — print full build logs on standard error.
  • --quiet — decrease the logging verbosity level. shhh 🤫
  • --verbose, -v — increase the logging verbosity level. tell me everything 🗣️

🎁 Miscellaneous global options

  • --help — show usage information.
  • --offline — disable substituters and consider all previously downloaded files up-to-date.
  • --option name value — set the Nix configuration setting name to value (overriding nix.conf).
  • --refresh — consider all previously downloaded files out-of-date.
  • --repair — during evaluation, rewrite missing or corrupted files in the Nix store. during building, rebuild missing or corrupted store paths.
  • --version — show version information.

👑 Options that change the interpretation of installables

  • --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 is read from standard input. implies --impure.
Note — see man nix.conf for overriding configuration settings with command line flags.

and that's the whole page, bestie 💜 go forth and edit your Nix expressions like the main character you are. this was nix3-edit(1) from the General Commands Manual, signing off — mwah 🎀✨

📦 where this page comes from