nix3-derivation-show(1) General Commands Manual nix3-derivation-show(1)

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

nix derivation show - show the contents of a store derivation

nix derivation show [option…] installables…

•
Show the store derivation that results from evaluating the Hello package:
# nix derivation show nixpkgs#hello
{
"/nix/store/s6rn4jz1sin56rf4qj5b5v8jxjm32hlk-hello-2.10.drv": {
  …
}
}
•
Show the full derivation graph (if available) that produced your NixOS system:
# nix derivation show -r /run/current-system
•
Print all files fetched using fetchurl by Firefox’s dependency graph:
# nix derivation show -r nixpkgs#firefox \
| jq -r '.[] | select(.outputs.out.hash and .env.urls) | .env.urls' \
| uniq | sort
Note that .outputs.out.hash selects fixed-output derivations (derivations that produce output with a specified content hash), while .env.urls selects derivations with a urls attribute.

This command prints on standard output a JSON representation of the store derivations to which installables evaluate.

Store derivations are used internally by Nix. They are store paths with extension .drv that represent the build-time dependency graph to which a Nix expression evaluates.

By default, this command only shows top-level derivations, but with --recursive, it also shows their dependencies.

nix derivation show outputs a JSON map of store paths to derivations in the following format:

{{#include ../../protocols/json/derivation.md}}

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--recursive / -r
Include the dependencies of the specified derivations.
•
--stdin
Read installables from the standard input. No default installable applied.

•
--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.
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--debugger
Start an interactive environment if evaluation fails.
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--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 the Nix search path. The Nix search path is initialized from the colon-separated NIX_PATH environment variable, and is used to look up the location of Nix expressions using paths enclosed in angle brackets (i.e., <nixpkgs>).
For instance, passing
-I /home/eelco/Dev
-I /etc/nixos
will cause Nix to look for paths relative to /home/eelco/Dev and /etc/nixos, in that order. This is equivalent to setting the NIX_PATH environment variable to
/home/eelco/Dev:/etc/nixos
It is also possible to match paths against a prefix. For example, passing
-I nixpkgs=/home/eelco/Dev/nixpkgs-branch
-I /etc/nixos
will cause Nix to search for <nixpkgs/path> in /home/eelco/Dev/nixpkgs-branch/path and /etc/nixos/nixpkgs/path.
If a path in the Nix search path starts with http:// or https://, it is interpreted as the URL of a tarball that will be downloaded and unpacked to a temporary location. The tarball must consist of a single top-level directory. For example, passing
-I nixpkgs=https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/archive/master.tar.gz
tells Nix to download and use the current contents of the master branch in the nixpkgs repository.
The URLs of the tarballs from the official nixos.org channels (see the manual page for nix-channel) can be abbreviated as channel:<channel-name>. For instance, the following two flags are equivalent:
-I nixpkgs=channel:nixos-21.05
-I nixpkgs=https://nixos.org/channels/nixos-21.05/nixexprs.tar.xz
You can also fetch source trees using flake URLs and add them to the search path. For instance,
-I nixpkgs=flake:nixpkgs
specifies that the prefix nixpkgs shall refer to the source tree downloaded from the nixpkgs entry in the flake registry. Similarly,
-I nixpkgs=flake:github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-22.05
makes <nixpkgs> refer to a particular branch of the NixOS/nixpkgs repository on GitHub.
•
--override-flake original-ref resolved-ref
Override the flake registries, redirecting original-ref to resolved-ref.
•
--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.
•
--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.

•
--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.

•
--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 will be read from standard input. Implies --impure.

Note

See man nix.conf for overriding configuration settings with command line flags.