nix3-run(1) General Commands Manual nix3-run(1)

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

nix run - run a Nix application

nix run [option…] installable args…

•
Run the default app from the blender-bin flake:
# nix run blender-bin
•
Run a non-default app from the blender-bin flake:
# nix run blender-bin#blender_2_83
Tip: you can find apps provided by this flake by running nix flake show blender-bin.
•
Run vim from the nixpkgs flake:
# nix run nixpkgs#vim
Note that vim (as of the time of writing of this page) is not an app but a package. Thus, Nix runs the eponymous file from the vim package.
•
Run vim with arguments:
# nix run nixpkgs#vim -- --help

nix run builds and runs installable, which must evaluate to an app or a regular Nix derivation.

If installable evaluates to an app (see below), it executes the program specified by the app definition.

If installable evaluates to a derivation, it will try to execute the program <out>/bin/<name>, where out is the primary output store path of the derivation, and name is the first of the following that exists:

  • The meta.mainProgram attribute of the derivation.
  • The pname attribute of the derivation.
  • The name part of the value of the name attribute of the derivation.

For instance, if name is set to hello-1.10, nix run will run $out/bin/hello.

If no flake output attribute is given, nix run tries the following flake output attributes:

  • apps.<system>.default
  • packages.<system>.default

If an attribute name is given, nix run tries the following flake output attributes:

  • apps.<system>.<name>
  • packages.<system>.<name>
  • legacyPackages.<system>.<name>

An app is specified by a flake output attribute named apps.<system>.<name>. It looks like this:

apps.x86_64-linux.blender_2_79 = {
  type = "app";
  program = "${self.packages.x86_64-linux.blender_2_79}/bin/blender";
};

The only supported attributes are:

  • type (required): Must be set to app.
  • program (required): The full path of the executable to run. It must reside in the Nix store.

•
--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 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.