forked from lix-project/lix
108 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
108 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
R""(
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# Description
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`nix profile` allows you to create and manage *Nix profiles*. A Nix
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profile is a set of packages that can be installed and upgraded
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independently from each other. Nix profiles are versioned, allowing
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them to be rolled back easily.
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# Default profile
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The default profile used by `nix profile` is `$HOME/.nix-profile`,
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which, if it does not exist, is created as a symlink to
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`/nix/var/nix/profiles/default` if Nix is invoked by the
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`root` user, or `/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/`*username* otherwise.
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You can specify another profile location using `--profile` *path*.
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# Filesystem layout
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Profiles are versioned as follows. When using profile *path*, *path*
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is a symlink to *path*`-`*N*, where *N* is the current *version* of
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the profile. In turn, *path*`-`*N* is a symlink to a path in the Nix
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store. For example:
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```console
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$ ls -l /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/alice/profile*
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lrwxrwxrwx 1 alice users 14 Nov 25 14:35 /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/alice/profile -> profile-7-link
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lrwxrwxrwx 1 alice users 51 Oct 28 16:18 /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/alice/profile-5-link -> /nix/store/q69xad13ghpf7ir87h0b2gd28lafjj1j-profile
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lrwxrwxrwx 1 alice users 51 Oct 29 13:20 /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/alice/profile-6-link -> /nix/store/6bvhpysd7vwz7k3b0pndn7ifi5xr32dg-profile
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lrwxrwxrwx 1 alice users 51 Nov 25 14:35 /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/alice/profile-7-link -> /nix/store/mp0x6xnsg0b8qhswy6riqvimai4gm677-profile
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```
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Each of these symlinks is a root for the Nix garbage collector.
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The contents of the store path corresponding to each version of the
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profile is a tree of symlinks to the files of the installed packages,
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e.g.
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```console
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$ ll -R /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/eelco/profile-7-link/
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/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/eelco/profile-7-link/:
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total 20
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dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 1 1970 bin
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-r--r--r-- 2 root root 1402 Jan 1 1970 manifest.json
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dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jan 1 1970 share
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/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/eelco/profile-7-link/bin:
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total 20
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lrwxrwxrwx 5 root root 79 Jan 1 1970 chromium -> /nix/store/ijm5k0zqisvkdwjkc77mb9qzb35xfi4m-chromium-86.0.4240.111/bin/chromium
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lrwxrwxrwx 7 root root 87 Jan 1 1970 spotify -> /nix/store/w9182874m1bl56smps3m5zjj36jhp3rn-spotify-1.1.26.501.gbe11e53b-15/bin/spotify
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lrwxrwxrwx 3 root root 79 Jan 1 1970 zoom-us -> /nix/store/wbhg2ga8f3h87s9h5k0slxk0m81m4cxl-zoom-us-5.3.469451.0927/bin/zoom-us
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/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/eelco/profile-7-link/share/applications:
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total 12
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lrwxrwxrwx 4 root root 120 Jan 1 1970 chromium-browser.desktop -> /nix/store/4cf803y4vzfm3gyk3vzhzb2327v0kl8a-chromium-unwrapped-86.0.4240.111/share/applications/chromium-browser.desktop
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lrwxrwxrwx 7 root root 110 Jan 1 1970 spotify.desktop -> /nix/store/w9182874m1bl56smps3m5zjj36jhp3rn-spotify-1.1.26.501.gbe11e53b-15/share/applications/spotify.desktop
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lrwxrwxrwx 3 root root 107 Jan 1 1970 us.zoom.Zoom.desktop -> /nix/store/wbhg2ga8f3h87s9h5k0slxk0m81m4cxl-zoom-us-5.3.469451.0927/share/applications/us.zoom.Zoom.desktop
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…
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```
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The file `manifest.json` records the provenance of the packages that
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are installed in this version of the profile. It looks like this:
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```json
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{
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"version": 1,
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"elements": [
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{
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"active": true,
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"attrPath": "legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.zoom-us",
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"originalUrl": "flake:nixpkgs",
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"storePaths": [
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"/nix/store/wbhg2ga8f3h87s9h5k0slxk0m81m4cxl-zoom-us-5.3.469451.0927"
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],
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"uri": "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/13d0c311e3ae923a00f734b43fd1d35b47d8943a"
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},
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…
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]
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}
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```
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Each object in the array `elements` denotes an installed package and
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has the following fields:
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* `originalUrl`: The [flake reference](./nix3-flake.md) specified by
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the user at the time of installation (e.g. `nixpkgs`). This is also
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the flake reference that will be used by `nix profile upgrade`.
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* `uri`: The immutable flake reference to which `originalUrl`
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resolved.
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* `attrPath`: The flake output attribute that provided this
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package. Note that this is not necessarily the attribute that the
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user specified, but the one resulting from applying the default
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attribute paths and prefixes; for instance, `hello` might resolve to
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`packages.x86_64-linux.hello` and the empty string to
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`packages.x86_64-linux.default`.
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* `storePath`: The paths in the Nix store containing the package.
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* `active`: Whether the profile contains symlinks to the files of this
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package. If set to false, the package is kept in the Nix store, but
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is not "visible" in the profile's symlink tree.
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)""
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