Technical Notes

Manpages - nix3-copy.1

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

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Name

nix copy - copy paths between Nix stores

Synopsis

nix copy [/option/…] installables

Examples

  • Copy Firefox from the local store to a binary cache in /tmp/cache:
# nix copy --to file:///tmp/cache $(type -p firefox)

Note the file:// - without this, the destination is a chroot store, not a binary cache.

  • Copy all store paths from a local binary cache in /tmp/cache to the local store:
# nix copy --all --from file:///tmp/cache
  • Copy the entire current NixOS system closure to another machine via SSH:
# nix copy --substitute-on-destination --to ssh://server /run/current-system

The -s flag causes the remote machine to try to substitute missing store paths, which may be faster if the link between the local and remote machines is slower than the link between the remote machine and its substituters (e.g. https://cache.nixos.org).

  • Copy a closure from another machine via SSH:
# nix copy --from ssh://server /nix/store/a6cnl93nk1wxnq84brbbwr6hxw9gp2w9-blender-2.79-rc2
  • Copy Hello to a binary cache in an Amazon S3 bucket:
# nix copy --to s3://my-bucket?region=eu-west-1 nixpkgs#hello

or to an S3-compatible storage system:

# nix copy --to s3://my-bucket?region=eu-west-1&endpoint=example.com nixpkgs#hello

Note that this only works if Nix is built with AWS support.

  • Copy a closure from /nix/store to the chroot store /tmp/nix/nix/store:
# nix copy --to /tmp/nix nixpkgs#hello --no-check-sigs

Description

nix copy copies store path closures between two Nix stores. The source store is specified using --from and the destination using --to. If one of these is omitted, it defaults to the local store.

Options

  • --from store-uri URL of the source Nix store.
  • --no-check-sigs Do not require that paths are signed by trusted keys.
  • --stdin Read installables from the standard input. No default installable applied.
  • --substitute-on-destination / -s Whether to try substitutes on the destination store (only supported by SSH stores).
  • --to store-uri URL of the destination Nix store.

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 search path entries used to resolve lookup paths This option may be given multiple times. Paths added through -I take precedence over the nix-path configuration setting and the NIX_PATH environment variable.
  • --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

  • --all Apply the operation to every store path.
  • --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. Implies --impure.
  • --no-recursive Apply operation to specified paths only. Note See man nix.conf for overriding configuration settings with command line flags.