This detailed tutorial explains how to do package management operations such as installing, removing, updating, and upgrading packages using Nix package manager in Linux.
We will start this guide with a brief introduction followed by a commonly used Nix commands with examples.
Table of Contents
A Brief Introduction to Nix Package Manager
Nix is a package manager that makes installing and managing software easy and reliable on Linux and Unix systems. It solves common problems like software conflicts and makes sure every software install is predictable and safe.
With Nix, you can have different versions of a program on your computer without them interfering with each other. This means you can update, add, or remove software without worrying about breaking anything.
Nix is smart about how it handles software. It keeps track of all the bits and pieces that each program needs to run. This way, when you install a program, it doesn't mess up another program. If something goes wrong with a new software update, Nix lets you go back to the way things were before, easily.
The Nix package manager is not just for individual users but also great for developers and people managing servers. It helps keep everyone on the same page by making sure they all use the same software setup. This reduces surprises when moving software from one computer to another.
Nix has a big collection of software to choose from, and it's all maintained by a community of users. It is a solid choice for managing software whether you're working alone or with a team.
For more details about Nix, refer our previous guide:
Getting Started with Nix Package Manager
Make sure you have installed Nix package manager. If you haven't installed Nix yet, please refer the Nix installation guide given below.
Once Nix package manager is setup, you can start using it to install and manage your applications right away.
Nix has many commands. The main command for the package management is nix-env. This command is used to list, install, update, rollback, remove, query packages. Let us see some commands with examples.
Tip: In case, you are not aware already, you don't need to be a root
or sudo
user to do all package management operations using Nix.
Updating Nix channels
A Nix channel is just a URL that points to a place that contains a set of Nix expressions and a manifest. By default, Nixpkgs channel is automatically added to your list of “subscribed” channels when you install Nix.
To stay up to date with Nix channel, run the following command:
$ nix-channel --update
Sample output:
downloading Nix expressions from ‘https://d3g5gsiof5omrk.cloudfront.net/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-17.09pre108299.ec9a23332f/nixexprs.tar.xz’... downloading ‘https://d3g5gsiof5omrk.cloudfront.net/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-17.09pre108299.ec9a23332f/nixexprs.tar.xz’... [8335/8656 KiB, 206.5 KiB/s] unpacking channels...
You can also manually add a channel to your system as shown below.
$ nix-channel --add https://nixos.org/channels/nixpkgs-unstable
After subscribing (adding) a channel, do not forget to update the channel to obtain the latest available Nix expressions using command:
$ nix-channel --update
To remove a channel, just run:
$ nix-channel --remove nixpkgs
Search/Query Available Packages in a Channel
To view the list of available packages in the subscribed channel, run:
$ nix-env --query --available
Or shortly:
$ nix-env -qa
Here, The options -q
indicates the query operation and -a
indicates all available (i.e., installable) packages.
Sample output:
0ad-0.0.26 0ad-data-0.0.26 0verkill-unstable-2011-01-13 0x-unstable-2022-07-11 0xproto-1.603 0xtools-1.2.4 1oom-1.0 1password-8.10.27 1password-8.10.28-21.BETA 1password-cli-2.26.1 2048-cli-unstable-2019-12-10 2048-cli-unstable-2019-12-10 2048-in-terminal-unstable-2022-06-13 20kly-1.5.0 2bwm-0.3 2fa-1.2.0 3270font-3.0.1 389-ds-base-2.4.3 3dpong-0.5 3llo-1.3.1 3mux-1.1.0 3proxy-0.9.4 4th-3.64.1 [...]
If you want to query a particular package, the command would be:
$ nix-env -qa firefox
Output:
firefox-115.9.1esr firefox-124.0.1 firefox-124.0.1 firefox-124.0.1 firefox-125.0b3 firefox-125.0b3
You can also use the following command to search for a particular package.
$ nix-env -qaP | grep python3-3
Sample output:
[...] nixpkgs.python312 python3-3.12.2 nixpkgs.python313 python3-3.13.0a5 nixpkgs.python313Full python3-3.13.0a5 nixpkgs.python39 python3-3.9.19 nixpkgs.python39Full python3-3.9.19
List Installed Packages
To list all installed packages, simply run:
$ nix-env -q
It is also possible to see the status of the available package. Look at the below example.
$ nix-env -qas gcc
Sample output:
IPS gcc-13.2.0
Here, "I" indicates that the specified package is installed, "P" indicates the package is present on our system, and "S" indicates that whether there is a so-called substitute for the package.
You can query/list packages using regular expressions. Here are some examples of regular expressions.
chromium
Matches the package name chromium and any version.
chromium-123.0.6312.86
Matches the package name chromium and version 123.0.6312.86
.
Example:
$ nix-env -qa chromium-123.0.6312.86
gtk\\+
Matches the package name gtk+. The + character must be escaped using a backslash to prevent it from being interpreted as a quantifier, and the backslash must be escaped in turn with another backslash to ensure that the shell passes it on.
.\*
Matches any package name. This is the default for most commands.
'.*zip.*'
Matches any package name containing the string zip. Note the dots: '*zip*' does not work, because in a regular expression, the character * is interpreted as a quantifier.
'.*(firefox|chromium).*'
Matches any package name containing the strings firefox or chromium.
Installing Packages
As I mentioned in the previous tutorial, all packages will be stored in Nix Store, usually the directory /nix/store.
To install a package, just run:
$ nix-env --install gcc
Or (shortly),
$ nix-env -i gcc
The above command will install the latest available gcc package.
Sample output of the above command would be:
installing ‘gcc-13.2.0’ download-from-binary-cache.pl: still waiting for ‘https://cache.nixos.org/zx0i63k1qswsfjj3kxhwk1vqa9i5ys8i.narinfo’ after 5 seconds... download-from-binary-cache.pl: still waiting for ‘https://cache.nixos.org/dyj2k6ch35r1ips4vr97md2i0yvl4r5c.narinfo’ after 5 seconds... download-from-binary-cache.pl: still waiting for ‘https://cache.nixos.org/g25gnfmd8i392ahiip9nwfv80szqbkcs.narinfo’ after 5 seconds... these paths will be fetched (38.94 MiB download, 150.45 MiB unpacked): /nix/store/7n45x3waczv1smsdkax2dy4j2zhbfk82-glibc-2.25-bin /nix/store/dyj2k6ch35r1ips4vr97md2i0yvl4r5c-gcc-13.2.0 /nix/store/f05gsfcilsczwic8aga0cgl0sygbw5lc-zlib-1.2.11 /nix/store/f111ij1fc83965m48bf2zqgiaq88fqv5-glibc-2.25 /nix/store/g25gnfmd8i392ahiip9nwfv80szqbkcs-gcc-13.2.0-man /nix/store/n5k6yqf81jp4qbay2czaqciimhxikcq8-linux-headers-4.4.10 /nix/store/vrr9maj9lqj2xwndlx3kh07vhnc111i2-glibc-2.25-dev /nix/store/xfrkm34sk0a13ha9bpki61l2k5g1v8dh-gcc-13.2.0-lib /nix/store/zx0i63k1qswsfjj3kxhwk1vqa9i5ys8i-gcc-13.2.0-info fetching path ‘/nix/store/zx0i63k1qswsfjj3kxhwk1vqa9i5ys8i-gcc-13.2.0-info’... [...] fetching path ‘/nix/store/dyj2k6ch35r1ips4vr97md2i0yvl4r5c-gcc-13.2.0’... *** Downloading ‘https://cache.nixos.org/nar/00y98z7i8a1a8d3nkv4dbbfbwwvznccbvmjdhaay0gqc0gfgb020.nar.xz’ to ‘/nix/store/dyj2k6ch35r1ips4vr97md2i0yvl4r5c-gcc-13.2.0’... % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 100 29.5M 100 29.5M 0 0 373k 0 0:01:21 0:01:21 --:--:-- 365k building path(s) ‘/nix/store/nxx0bfg3n685fl0l3m2gbjqannh0wb9i-user-environment’ created 78 symlinks in user environment
Let us check if gcc is installed or not using command:
$ gcc -v
Sample output:
Using built-in specs. COLLECT_GCC=gcc COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/nix/store/dyj2k6ch35r1ips4vr97md2i0yvl4r5c-gcc-13.2.0/libexec/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/5.4.0/lto-wrapper Target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu Configured with: Thread model: posix gcc version 13.2.0 (GCC)
As you noticed in the above output, the gcc has been in a sub-directory named dyj2k6ch35r1ips4vr97md2i0yvl4r5c-gcc-13.2.0
under /nix/store
.
Here, we call the directory dyj2k6ch35r1ips4vr97md2i0yvl4r5c-gcc-13.2.0
as an unique identifier. This subdirectory holds all required dependencies and libraries of gcc package.
Test Packages without Installing using Nix
Another notable feature of Nix package manager is that you can test a package without installing it on your system. Refer the following guide to know how to test a package without installing it.
Upgrading Packages
To upgrade a package to the next available version, just run:
$ nix-env --upgrade vim
Or, just:
$ nix-env -u vim
The above command will only upgrade vim package if there is a “newer” version.
Also, you can upgrade all installed packages at once by running the following command:
$ nix-env -u
Rollback Packages
You installed a package, but it is not useful or not working properly. You need the lower version of the same package. What will you do? Simple. Just rollback to the previous working version using the following command:
$ nix-env --rollback
Uninstalling Packages
To uninstall a package, run:
$ nix-env -e gcc
The above command will uninstall the package called gcc from your system.
You can remove multiple packages as shown below.
$ nix-env -e gcc vim
Sample output:
uninstalling ‘vim-9.1.0148’ uninstalling ‘gcc-13.2.0’ building path(s) ‘/nix/store/mxpikbq3l08379h8ik8mrj3fcw6mh6y4-user-environment’ created 6 symlinks in user environment
Removing Unused Packages
When a package is uninstalled, it's not removed from Nix Store (i.e /nix/store/ directory). Only, the symlinks will removed from your profile.
To actually remove uninstalled packages, run:
$ nix-collect-garbage -d
Sample output:
finding garbage collector roots... deleting garbage... deleting ‘/nix/store/s4jr4dc9gghldr3xza23rw0gm9kp21kl-nix-prefetch-scripts.drv’ deleting ‘/nix/store/km2gyzlvs9vkrr52wxfyhinv4r52ksrj-nix-prefetch-bzr.drv’ deleting ‘/nix/store/7mi73sdc1p349vmpb5nyxsrv8ayk5hly-bazaar-2.7.0.drv’ [...] deleting ‘/nix/store/8ckmcs9hx1qm0yxdnv892vrvx49zm1sq-setup-hook-2.0.sh’ deleting ‘/nix/store/trash’ deleting unused links... note: currently hard linking saves -0.00 MiB 1447 store paths deleted, 12.65 MiB freed
You should run this command periodically to get rid of unused packages from your system.
Nix Commands Cheatsheet
Here's a neat cheatsheet for the Nix package manager commands. Print it and keep it near your desk for easy reference.
Action | Command | Example |
---|---|---|
Install Package | nix-env -i <package-name> | nix-env -i firefox |
Uninstall Package | nix-env -e <package-name> | nix-env -e firefox |
Search for Package | nix-env -qaP <pattern> | nix-env -qaP python |
Update Package | nix-env -u <package-name> | nix-env -u firefox |
List Installed Packages | nix-env -q | nix-env -q |
Roll Back Changes | nix-env --rollback | nix-env --rollback |
Garbage Collection | nix-collect-garbage -d | nix-collect-garbage -d |
This cheatsheet covers the basic commands you'll use to manage packages with Nix, offering a straightforward guide to getting started and maintaining your system.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here's most frequently asked questions (FAQ) about Nix package manager.
A: Nix is a powerful package manager for Linux and Unix systems that focuses on reproducibility, reliability, and portability. It allows users to install, manage, and switch between different versions of software and their dependencies easily.
A: To install a package, use the nix-env -i
command followed by the package name. For example, nix-env -i firefox
installs the Firefox web browser.
A: To uninstall a package, use the nix-env -e
command followed by the package name. For example, nix-env -e thunderbird
uninstalls the Thunderbird email client.
A: To search for a package, use nix-env -qaP <pattern>
. For example, to find packages related to Python, you can use nix-env -qaP python
.
A: Yes, to update a specific package, run nix-env -u <package-name>
. To update all installed packages, simply use nix-env -u
.
A: To list all installed packages, use the command nix-env -q
.
A: To list all available packages from a channel, run nix-env -qa
.
A: Nix keeps track of changes in "generations." To roll back to the previous generation, use nix-env --rollback
. You can list available generations with nix-env --list-generations
.
A: Use nix-collect-garbage -d
to remove unused packages and free up space. This command cleans up packages not referenced by any profile.
Conclusion
The Nix package manager offers a robust and flexible way to manage software packages on Linux and Unix systems.
Its approach to handling packages ensures that you can install, update, and switch between different versions of software without conflicts or dependencies issues.
Although Nix may have a bit of a learning curve, especially for those new to its concepts, the benefits of precise, reproducible package management are significant.
Whether you're a developer, system administrator, or just a curious user, taking the time to learn Nix can greatly enhance your control over software environments and streamline your workflow.
That's all for now. I hope you've gotten a clear idea of the basic usage of the Nix package manager. What we've covered here should be enough to get you started with Nix.
Of course, there are so many commands. To learn more Nix commands, I strongly recommend you to refer the Nix official manual given below.
Resource: