2014-08-24 18:18:18 +01:00
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<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
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xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
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xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
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version="5.0"
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xml:id="sec-ad-hoc-packages">
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<title>Ad-Hoc Package Management</title>
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<para>With the command <command>nix-env</command>, you can install and
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uninstall packages from the command line. For instance, to install
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Mozilla Thunderbird:
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<screen>
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2015-08-05 16:29:08 +01:00
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$ nix-env -iA nixos.thunderbird</screen>
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2014-08-24 18:18:18 +01:00
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If you invoke this as root, the package is installed in the Nix
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profile <filename>/nix/var/nix/profiles/default</filename> and visible
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to all users of the system; otherwise, the package ends up in
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<filename>/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/<replaceable>username</replaceable>/profile</filename>
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and is not visible to other users. The <option>-A</option> flag
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specifies the package by its attribute name; without it, the package
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is installed by matching against its package name
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(e.g. <literal>thunderbird</literal>). The latter is slower because
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it requires matching against all available Nix packages, and is
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ambiguous if there are multiple matching packages.</para>
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<para>Packages come from the NixOS channel. You typically upgrade a
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package by updating to the latest version of the NixOS channel:
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<screen>
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$ nix-channel --update nixos
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</screen>
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and then running <literal>nix-env -i</literal> again. Other packages
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in the profile are <emphasis>not</emphasis> affected; this is the
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crucial difference with the declarative style of package management,
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where running <command>nixos-rebuild switch</command> causes all
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packages to be updated to their current versions in the NixOS channel.
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You can however upgrade all packages for which there is a newer
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version by doing:
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<screen>
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$ nix-env -u '*'
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</screen>
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</para>
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<para>A package can be uninstalled using the <option>-e</option>
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flag:
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<screen>
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$ nix-env -e thunderbird
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</screen>
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</para>
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<para>Finally, you can roll back an undesirable
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<command>nix-env</command> action:
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<screen>
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$ nix-env --rollback
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</screen>
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</para>
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<para><command>nix-env</command> has many more flags. For details,
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see the
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>nix-env</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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manpage or the Nix manual.</para>
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</section>
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