nix3-develop - Man Page

run a bash shell that provides the build environment of a derivation

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

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.

Run a series of script commands:

# nix develop --command bash -c "mkdir build && cmake .. && make"

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, bash-prompt-prefix, 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.
--install
Run the install phase.
--installcheck
Run the installcheck phase.
--phase phase-name
The stdenv phase to run (e.g. build or configure).
--profile path
The profile to operate on.
--redirect installable outputs-dir
Redirect a store path to a mutable location.
--unpack
Run the unpack phase.

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.
--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.
--include / -I path
Add path to search path entries used to resolve lookup paths
This option may be given multiple times.
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.

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.
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). 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.

Logging-related options

--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.
--verbose / -v
Increase the logging verbosity level.

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 environment variables

--ignore-env / -i
Clear the entire environment, except for those specified with --keep-env-var.
--keep-env-var / -k name
Keep the environment variable name, when using --ignore-env.
--set-env-var / -s name value
Sets an environment variable name with value.
--unset-env-var / -u name
Unset the environment variable name.

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.