nix-hash(1) General Commands Manual nix-hash(1)

nix-hash - compute the cryptographic hash of a path

nix-hash [--flat] [--base32] [--truncate] [--type hashAlgo] path…

nix-hash [--to-base16|--to-base32|--to-base64|--to-sri] [--type hashAlgo] hash…

The command nix-hash computes the cryptographic hash of the contents of each path and prints it on standard output. By default, it computes an MD5 hash, but other hash algorithms are available as well. The hash is printed in hexadecimal. To generate the same hash as nix-prefetch-url you have to specify multiple arguments, see below for an example.

The hash is computed over a serialisation of each path: a dump of the file system tree rooted at the path. This allows directories and symlinks to be hashed as well as regular files. The dump is in the Nix Archive (NAR) format produced by nix-store --dump. Thus, nix-hash path yields the same cryptographic hash as nix-store --dump path | md5sum.

•
--flat
Print the cryptographic hash of the contents of each regular file path. That is, instead of computing the hash of the Nix Archive (NAR) of path, just [directly hash]((@docroot@/store/file-system-object/content-address.md#serial-flat) path as is. This requires path to resolve to a regular file rather than directory. The result is identical to that produced by the GNU commands md5sum and sha1sum.
•
--base16
Print the hash in a hexadecimal representation (default).
•
--base32
Print the hash in a base-32 representation rather than hexadecimal. This base-32 representation is more compact and can be used in Nix expressions (such as in calls to fetchurl).
•
--base64
Similar to –base32, but print the hash in a base-64 representation, which is more compact than the base-32 one.
•
--sri
Print the hash in SRI format with base-64 encoding. The type of hash algorithm will be prepended to the hash string, followed by a hyphen (-) and the base-64 hash body.
•
--truncate
Truncate hashes longer than 160 bits (such as SHA-256) to 160 bits.
•
--type hashAlgo
Use the specified cryptographic hash algorithm, which can be one of md5, sha1, sha256, and sha512.
•
--to-base16
Don’t hash anything, but convert the base-32 hash representation hash to hexadecimal.
•
--to-base32
Don’t hash anything, but convert the hexadecimal hash representation hash to base-32.
•
--to-base64
Don’t hash anything, but convert the hexadecimal hash representation hash to base-64.
•
--to-sri
Don’t hash anything, but convert the hexadecimal hash representation hash to SRI.

Computing the same hash as nix-prefetch-url:

$ nix-prefetch-url file://<(echo test)
1lkgqb6fclns49861dwk9rzb6xnfkxbpws74mxnx01z9qyv1pjpj
$ nix-hash --type sha256 --flat --base32 <(echo test)
1lkgqb6fclns49861dwk9rzb6xnfkxbpws74mxnx01z9qyv1pjpj

Computing hashes:

$ mkdir test
$ echo "hello" > test/world
$ nix-hash test/ (MD5 hash; default)
8179d3caeff1869b5ba1744e5a245c04
$ nix-store --dump test/ | md5sum (for comparison)
8179d3caeff1869b5ba1744e5a245c04  -
$ nix-hash --type sha1 test/
e4fd8ba5f7bbeaea5ace89fe10255536cd60dab6
$ nix-hash --type sha1 --base16 test/
e4fd8ba5f7bbeaea5ace89fe10255536cd60dab6
$ nix-hash --type sha1 --base32 test/
nvd61k9nalji1zl9rrdfmsmvyyjqpzg4
$ nix-hash --type sha1 --base64 test/
5P2Lpfe76upazon+ECVVNs1g2rY=
$ nix-hash --type sha1 --sri test/
sha1-5P2Lpfe76upazon+ECVVNs1g2rY=
$ nix-hash --type sha256 --flat test/
error: reading file `test/': Is a directory
$ nix-hash --type sha256 --flat test/world
5891b5b522d5df086d0ff0b110fbd9d21bb4fc7163af34d08286a2e846f6be03

Converting between hexadecimal, base-32, base-64, and SRI:

$ nix-hash --type sha1 --to-base32 e4fd8ba5f7bbeaea5ace89fe10255536cd60dab6
nvd61k9nalji1zl9rrdfmsmvyyjqpzg4
$ nix-hash --type sha1 --to-base16 nvd61k9nalji1zl9rrdfmsmvyyjqpzg4
e4fd8ba5f7bbeaea5ace89fe10255536cd60dab6
$ nix-hash --type sha1 --to-base64 e4fd8ba5f7bbeaea5ace89fe10255536cd60dab6
5P2Lpfe76upazon+ECVVNs1g2rY=
$ nix-hash --type sha1 --to-sri nvd61k9nalji1zl9rrdfmsmvyyjqpzg4
sha1-5P2Lpfe76upazon+ECVVNs1g2rY=
$ nix-hash --to-base16 sha1-5P2Lpfe76upazon+ECVVNs1g2rY=
e4fd8ba5f7bbeaea5ace89fe10255536cd60dab6