Nix Package Manager
This standalone package manager is absolutely stunning and I can’t believe I’m just now discovering it’s true power.
I was wrong, NIX is the best standalone package manager.
— Chris Titus Tech (@christitustech) August 15, 2022
Installation
Source: https://github.com/NixOS/nix
curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install | sh
Note: I’d recommend multi-user install if it prompts for it.
Finding Packages
I’d recommend using their website to find packages to install, but make sure to click the “unstable” button has NixOS stable is a Linux Distribution few use.
https://search.nixos.org/packages
Or from terminal you can list all packages with nix-env -qaP then just grep what you are looking for. Example: nix-env -qaP | grep hugo
Usage
Here is the basic usage of nix, most revolve around the nix-env command. These are manually managed and require user intervention
- List Installed packages
nix-env -q - Install Packages
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.packagename - Erase Packages
nix-env -e packagename - Update All Packages
nix-env -u - Update Specific Packages
nix-env -u packagename - Hold Specific Package
nix-env --set-flag keep true packagename - List Backups (Generations)
nix-env --list-generations - Rollback to Last Backup
nix-env --rollback - Rollback to Specific Generation
nix-env --switch-generation #
Help and Manual
Official Manual is here. You can also get more details with man nix or man nix-env.
Troubleshooting
Programs not showing up in start menu
NIX stores all the .desktop files for the programs it installs @ /home/$USER/.nix-profile/share/applications/ and a simple symlink will fix them not showing up in your start menu.
ln -s /home/$USER/.nix-profile/share/applications/* /home/$USER/.local/share/applications/