Warning
This program is experimental and its interface is subject to change.
Name
nix why-depends
- show why a package has another package in its closure
Synopsis
nix why-depends
[option...] package dependency
Examples
-
Show one path through the dependency graph leading from Hello to Glibc:
# nix why-depends nixpkgs#hello nixpkgs#glibc /nix/store/v5sv61sszx301i0x6xysaqzla09nksnd-hello-2.10 └───bin/hello: …...................../nix/store/9l06v7fc38c1x3r2iydl15ksgz0ysb82-glibc-2.32/lib/ld-linux-x86-64.… → /nix/store/9l06v7fc38c1x3r2iydl15ksgz0ysb82-glibc-2.32
-
Show all files and paths in the dependency graph leading from Thunderbird to libX11:
# nix why-depends --all nixpkgs#thunderbird nixpkgs#xorg.libX11 /nix/store/qfc8729nzpdln1h0hvi1ziclsl3m84sr-thunderbird-78.5.1 ├───lib/thunderbird/libxul.so: …6wrw-libxcb-1.14/lib:/nix/store/adzfjjh8w25vdr0xdx9x16ah4f5rqrw5-libX11-1.7.0/lib:/nix/store/ssf… │ → /nix/store/adzfjjh8w25vdr0xdx9x16ah4f5rqrw5-libX11-1.7.0 ├───lib/thunderbird/libxul.so: …pxyc-libXt-1.2.0/lib:/nix/store/1qj29ipxl2fyi2b13l39hdircq17gnk0-libXdamage-1.1.5/lib:/nix/store… │ → /nix/store/1qj29ipxl2fyi2b13l39hdircq17gnk0-libXdamage-1.1.5 │ ├───lib/libXdamage.so.1.1.0: …-libXfixes-5.0.3/lib:/nix/store/adzfjjh8w25vdr0xdx9x16ah4f5rqrw5-libX11-1.7.0/lib:/nix/store/9l0… │ │ → /nix/store/adzfjjh8w25vdr0xdx9x16ah4f5rqrw5-libX11-1.7.0 …
-
Show why Glibc depends on itself:
# nix why-depends nixpkgs#glibc nixpkgs#glibc /nix/store/9df65igwjmf2wbw0gbrrgair6piqjgmi-glibc-2.31 └───lib/ld-2.31.so: …che Do not use /nix/store/9df65igwjmf2wbw0gbrrgair6piqjgmi-glibc-2.31/etc/ld.so.cache. --… → /nix/store/9df65igwjmf2wbw0gbrrgair6piqjgmi-glibc-2.31
-
Show why Geeqie has a build-time dependency on
systemd
:# nix why-depends --derivation nixpkgs#geeqie nixpkgs#systemd /nix/store/drrpq2fqlrbj98bmazrnww7hm1in3wgj-geeqie-1.4.drv └───/: …atch.drv",["out"]),("/nix/store/qzh8dyq3lfbk3i1acbp7x9wh3il2imiv-gtk+3-3.24.21.drv",["dev"]),("/… → /nix/store/qzh8dyq3lfbk3i1acbp7x9wh3il2imiv-gtk+3-3.24.21.drv └───/: …16.0.drv",["dev"]),("/nix/store/8kp79fyslf3z4m3dpvlh6w46iaadz5c2-cups-2.3.3.drv",["dev"]),("/nix… → /nix/store/8kp79fyslf3z4m3dpvlh6w46iaadz5c2-cups-2.3.3.drv └───/: ….3.1.drv",["out"]),("/nix/store/yd3ihapyi5wbz1kjacq9dbkaq5v5hqjg-systemd-246.4.drv",["dev"]),("/… → /nix/store/yd3ihapyi5wbz1kjacq9dbkaq5v5hqjg-systemd-246.4.drv
Description
Nix automatically determines potential runtime dependencies between
store paths by scanning for the hash parts of store paths. For
instance, if there exists a store path
/nix/store/9df65igwjmf2wbw0gbrrgair6piqjgmi-glibc-2.31
, and a file
inside another store path contains the string 9df65igw…
, then the
latter store path refers to the former, and thus might need it at
runtime. Nix always maintains the existence of the transitive closure
of a store path under the references relationship; it is therefore not
possible to install a store path without having all of its references
present.
Sometimes Nix packages end up with unexpected runtime dependencies; for instance, a reference to a compiler might accidentally end up in a binary, causing the former to be in the latter's closure. This kind of closure size bloat is undesirable.
nix why-depends
allows you to diagnose the cause of such issues. It
shows why the store path package depends on the store path
dependency, by showing a shortest sequence in the references graph
from the former to the latter. Also, for each node along this path, it
shows a file fragment containing a reference to the next store path in
the sequence.
To show why derivation package has a build-time rather than runtime
dependency on derivation dependency, use --derivation
.
Options
-
--all
/-a
Show all edges in the dependency graph leading from package to dependency, rather than just a shortest path.
-
For each edge in the dependency graph, show the files in the parent that cause the dependency.
Common evaluation options
-
--arg
name exprPass the value expr as the argument name to Nix functions.
-
--arg-from-file
name pathPass the contents of file path as the argument name to Nix functions.
-
--arg-from-stdin
namePass the contents of stdin as the argument name to Nix functions.
-
--argstr
name stringPass the string string as the argument name to Nix functions.
-
Start an interactive environment if evaluation fails.
-
--eval-store
store-urlThe URL of the Nix store to use for evaluation, i.e. to store derivations (
.drv
files) and inputs referenced by them. -
Allow access to mutable paths and repositories.
-
--include
/-I
pathAdd 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 theNIX_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://
orhttps://
, 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 thenixpkgs
repository.The URLs of the tarballs from the official
nixos.org
channels (see the manual page fornix-channel
) can be abbreviated aschannel:<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 thenixpkgs
entry in the flake registry. Similarly,-I nixpkgs=flake:github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-22.05
makes
<nixpkgs>
refer to a particular branch of theNixOS/nixpkgs
repository on GitHub. -
--override-flake
original-ref resolved-refOverride the flake registries, redirecting original-ref to resolved-ref.
Common flake-related options
-
Commit changes to the flake's lock file.
-
--inputs-from
flake-urlUse the inputs of the specified flake as registry entries.
-
Don't allow lookups in the flake registries.
DEPRECATED
Use
--no-use-registries
instead. -
Do not allow any updates to the flake's lock file.
-
Do not write the flake's newly generated lock file.
-
--output-lock-file
flake-lock-pathWrite the given lock file instead of
flake.lock
within the top-level flake. -
--override-input
input-path flake-urlOverride a specific flake input (e.g.
dwarffs/nixpkgs
). This implies--no-write-lock-file
. -
Recreate the flake's lock file from scratch.
DEPRECATED
Use
nix flake update
instead. -
--reference-lock-file
flake-lock-pathRead the given lock file instead of
flake.lock
within the top-level flake. -
--update-input
input-pathUpdate a specific flake input (ignoring its previous entry in the lock file).
DEPRECATED
Use
nix flake update
instead.
Logging-related options
-
Set the logging verbosity level to 'debug'.
-
--log-format
formatSet the format of log output; one of
raw
,internal-json
,bar
orbar-with-logs
. -
--print-build-logs
/-L
Print full build logs on standard error.
-
Decrease the logging verbosity level.
-
--verbose
/-v
Increase the logging verbosity level.
Miscellaneous global options
-
Show usage information.
-
Disable substituters and consider all previously downloaded files up-to-date.
-
--option
name valueSet the Nix configuration setting name to value (overriding
nix.conf
). -
Consider all previously downloaded files out-of-date.
-
During evaluation, rewrite missing or corrupted files in the Nix store. During building, rebuild missing or corrupted store paths.
-
Show version information.
Options that change the interpretation of installables
-
Operate on the store derivation rather than its outputs.
-
--expr
exprInterpret installables as attribute paths relative to the Nix expression expr.
-
--file
/-f
fileInterpret 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.