Name¶

nix show-derivation - show the contents of a store derivation

Synopsis¶

nix show-derivation [option…] installables…

Examples¶

•

Show the store derivation that results from evaluating the Hello package:

# nix show-derivation nixpkgs#hello
{
"/nix/store/s6rn4jz1sin56rf4qj5b5v8jxjm32hlk-hello-2.10.drv": {


  …
}
}

•

Show the full derivation graph (if available) that produced your NixOS system:

# nix show-derivation -r /run/current-system

•

Print all files fetched using fetchurl by Firefox’s dependency graph:

# nix show-derivation -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.

Description¶

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.

The JSON output is a JSON object whose keys are the store paths of the derivations, and whose values are a JSON object with the following fields:

•

outputs: Information about the output paths of the derivation. This is a JSON object with one member per output, where the key is the output name and the value is a JSON object with these fields:

Example:

"outputs": {
"out": {


  "path": "/nix/store/2543j7c6jn75blc3drf4g5vhb1rhdq29-source",


  "hashAlgo": "r:sha256",


  "hash": "6fc80dcc62179dbc12fc0b5881275898f93444833d21b89dfe5f7fbcbb1d0d62"
}
}

• inputSrcs: A list of store paths on which this derivation depends.
• inputDrvs: A JSON object specifying the derivations on which this derivation depends, and what outputs of those derivations. For example,

"inputDrvs": {
"/nix/store/6lkh5yi7nlb7l6dr8fljlli5zfd9hq58-curl-7.73.0.drv": ["dev"],
"/nix/store/fn3kgnfzl5dzym26j8g907gq3kbm8bfh-unzip-6.0.drv": ["out"]
}

specifies that this derivation depends on the dev output of curl, and the out output of unzip.

• system: The system type on which this derivation is to be built (e.g. x86_64-linux).
• builder: The absolute path of the program to be executed to run the build. Typically this is the bash shell (e.g. /nix/store/r3j288vpmczbl500w6zz89gyfa4nr0b1-bash-4.4-p23/bin/bash).
• args: The command-line arguments passed to the builder.
• env: The environment passed to the builder.

Options¶

•

--recursive / -r
Include the dependencies of the specified derivations.

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.