Name¶

nix develop - run a bash shell that provides the build environment of a derivation

Synopsis¶

nix develop [option…] installable

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.

Description¶

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 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.
• --ignore-environment / -i
  Clear the entire environment (except those specified with --keep).
• --install
  Run the install phase.
• --installcheck
  Run the installcheck phase.
• --keep / -k name
  Keep the environment variable name.
• --phase phase-name
  The stdenv phase to run (e.g. build or configure).
• --profile path
  The profile to update.
• --redirect installable outputs-dir
  Redirect a store path to a mutable location.
• --unpack
  Run the unpack phase.
• --unset / -u name
  Unset the environment variable name.

Common evaluation options:

• --arg name expr
  Pass the value expr as the argument name to Nix functions.
• --argstr name string
  Pass the string string as the argument name to Nix functions.
• --eval-store store-url
  The Nix store to use for evaluations.
• --impure
  Allow access to mutable paths and repositories.
• --include / -I path
  Add path to the list of locations used to look up <...> file names.
• --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. This option is deprecated; use --no-use-registries.
• --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.
• --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.
• --update-input input-path
  Update a specific flake input (ignoring its previous entry in the lock file).

Options that change the interpretation of installables:

• --derivation
  Operate on the store derivation rather than its outputs.
• --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.