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

Name

nix search - search for packages

Synopsis

nix search [option...] installable regex...

Examples

• Show all packages in the nixpkgs flake:

  # nix search nixpkgs ^
  * legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.AMB-plugins (0.8.1)
    A set of ambisonics ladspa plugins
  
  * legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.ArchiSteamFarm (4.3.1.0)
    Application with primary purpose of idling Steam cards from multiple accounts simultaneously
  …
  

• Show packages in the nixpkgs flake containing blender in its name or description:

  # nix search nixpkgs blender
  * legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.blender (2.91.0)
    3D Creation/Animation/Publishing System
  

• Search for packages underneath the attribute gnome3 in Nixpkgs:

  # nix search nixpkgs#gnome3 vala
  * legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.gnome3.vala (0.48.9)
    Compiler for GObject type system
  

• Show all packages in the flake in the current directory:

  # nix search . ^
  

• Search for Firefox or Chromium:

  # nix search nixpkgs 'firefox|chromium'
  

• Search for packages containing git and either frontend or gui:

  # nix search nixpkgs git 'frontend|gui'
  

• Search for packages containing neovim but hide ones containing either gui or python:

  # nix search nixpkgs neovim --exclude 'python|gui'
  

  or

  # nix search nixpkgs neovim --exclude 'python' --exclude 'gui'
  

Description

nix search searches installable (which can be evaluated, that is, a flake or Nix expression, but not a store path or store derivation path) for packages whose name or description matches all of the regular expressions regex. For each matching package, It prints the full attribute name (from the root of the installable), the version and the meta.description field, highlighting the substrings that were matched by the regular expressions.

To show all packages, use the regular expression ^. In contrast to .*, it avoids highlighting the entire name and description of every package.

Note that in this context, ^ is the regex character to match the beginning of a string, not the delimiter for selecting a derivation output.

Flake output attributes

If no flake output attribute is given, nix search searches for packages:

• Directly underneath packages.<system>.

• Underneath legacyPackages.<system>, recursing into attribute sets that contain an attribute recurseForDerivations = true.

Options

• --exclude / -e regex

  Hide packages whose attribute path, name or description contain regex.

• --json

  Produce output in JSON format, suitable for consumption by another program.

Common evaluation options

• --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.

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.

  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.

Logging-related options

• --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.

Miscellaneous global options

• --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.

Options that change the interpretation of installables

• --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.