nix3-search - Man Page

search for packages

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

Synopsis

nix search [option…] installable regex…

Examples

Show all packages in the nixpkgs flake:

# nix search nixpkgs ^
* legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.AMB-plugins (0.8.1)
A set of ambisonics ladspa plugins

* legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.ArchiSteamFarm (4.3.1.0)
Application with primary purpose of idling Steam cards from multiple accounts simultaneously
…

Show packages in the nixpkgs flake containing blender in its name or description:

# nix search nixpkgs blender
* legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.blender (2.91.0)
3D Creation/Animation/Publishing System

Search for packages underneath the attribute gnome3 in Nixpkgs:

# nix search nixpkgs#gnome3 vala
* legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.gnome3.vala (0.48.9)
Compiler for GObject type system

Show all packages in the flake in the current directory:

# nix search . ^

Search for Firefox or Chromium:

# nix search nixpkgs 'firefox|chromium'

Search for packages containing git and either frontend or gui:

# nix search nixpkgs git 'frontend|gui'

Search for packages containing neovim but hide ones containing either gui or python:

# nix search nixpkgs neovim --exclude 'python|gui'

# nix search nixpkgs neovim --exclude 'python' --exclude 'gui'

nix search searches installable that can be evaluated, that is, a flake or Nix expression, but not a store path or deriving path ) for packages whose name or description matches all of the regular expressions regex. For each matching package, It prints the full attribute name (from the root of the installable ), the version and the meta.description field, highlighting the substrings that were matched by the regular expressions.

To show all packages, use the regular expression ^. In contrast to .*, it avoids highlighting the entire name and description of every package.

Note that in this context, ^ is the regex character to match the beginning of a string, not the delimiter for selecting a derivation output .

Flake output attributes

If no flake output attribute is given, nix search searches for packages:

Directly underneath packages.<system>.
Underneath legacyPackages.<system>, recursing into attribute sets that contain an attribute recurseForDerivations = true.

Options

--exclude / -e regex
Hide packages whose attribute path, name or description contain regex.
--json
Produce output in JSON format, suitable for consumption by another program.
--no-pretty
Print compact JSON output on a single line, even when the output is a terminal. Some commands may print multiple JSON objects on separate lines.

            See `--pretty`.

--pretty
Print multi-line, indented JSON output for readability.

            Default: indent if output is to a terminal.

            This option is only effective when `--json` is also specified.

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 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.