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nixpkgs/doc/functions.xml
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<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xml:id="chap-functions">
<title>Functions reference</title>
<para>
The nixpkgs repository has several utility functions to manipulate Nix expressions.
</para>
<section xml:id="sec-pkgs-overridePackages">
<title>pkgs.overridePackages</title>
<para>
This function inside the nixpkgs expression (<varname>pkgs</varname>)
can be used to override the set of packages itself.
</para>
<para>
Warning: this function is expensive and must not be used from within
the nixpkgs repository.
</para>
<para>
Example usage:
<programlisting>let
pkgs = import &lt;nixpkgs&gt; {};
newpkgs = pkgs.overridePackages (self: super: {
foo = super.foo.override { ... };
};
in ...</programlisting>
</para>
<para>
The resulting <varname>newpkgs</varname> will have the new <varname>foo</varname>
expression, and all other expressions depending on <varname>foo</varname> will also
use the new <varname>foo</varname> expression.
</para>
<para>
The behavior of this function is similar to <link
linkend="sec-modify-via-packageOverrides">config.packageOverrides</link>.
</para>
<para>
The <varname>self</varname> parameter refers to the final package set with the
applied overrides. Using this parameter may lead to infinite recursion if not
used consciously.
</para>
<para>
The <varname>super</varname> parameter refers to the old package set.
It's equivalent to <varname>pkgs</varname> in the above example.
</para>
</section>
</chapter>