Qyriad 194ba8a02f docs: guide to installables docs in installable commands' docs

The installables syntax is not documented in any of the man pages or
docbook pages for any of those individual commands. And while these
commands really should at least peripherally individually document how
installables work, in the meantime we can at least direct people to the
right place.

This commit also clarifies the unexpected fact that `nix profile remove`
and `nix profile upgrade` do *not* take installables.

Change-Id: I3b1453cb197a613bbab639c66a466365c3592c6d

2024-04-29 08:06:05 -06:00

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R""(

Note: this command's interface is based heavily around installables, which you may want to read about first (nix --help).

Examples

Build the default package from the flake in the current directory:
```
# nix build
```

Build and run GNU Hello from the nixpkgs flake:

# nix build nixpkgs#hello
# ./result/bin/hello
Hello, world!

Build GNU Hello and Cowsay, leaving two result symlinks:

# nix build nixpkgs#hello nixpkgs#cowsay
# ls -l result*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 … result -> /nix/store/v5sv61sszx301i0x6xysaqzla09nksnd-hello-2.10
lrwxrwxrwx 1 … result-1 -> /nix/store/rkfrm0z6x6jmi7d3gsmma4j53h15mg33-cowsay-3.03+dfsg2

Build GNU Hello and print the resulting store path.

# nix build nixpkgs#hello --print-out-paths
/nix/store/v5sv61sszx301i0x6xysaqzla09nksnd-hello-2.10

Build a specific output:

# nix build nixpkgs#glibc.dev
# ls -ld ./result-dev
lrwxrwxrwx 1 … ./result-dev -> /nix/store/dkm3gwl0xrx0wrw6zi5x3px3lpgjhlw4-glibc-2.32-dev

Build attribute build.x86_64-linux from (non-flake) Nix expression release.nix:
```
# nix build --file release.nix build.x86_64-linux
```

Build a NixOS system configuration from a flake, and make a profile point to the result:

# nix build --profile /nix/var/nix/profiles/system \
    ~/my-configurations#nixosConfigurations.machine.config.system.build.toplevel

(This is essentially what nixos-rebuild does.)

Build an expression specified on the command line:

# nix build --impure --expr \
    'with import <nixpkgs> {};
     runCommand "foo" {
       buildInputs = [ hello ];
     }
     "hello > $out"'
# cat ./result
Hello, world!

Note that --impure is needed because we're using <nixpkgs>, which relies on the $NIX_PATH environment variable.

Fetch a store path from the configured substituters, if it doesn't already exist:
```
# nix build /nix/store/rkfrm0z6x6jmi7d3gsmma4j53h15mg33-cowsay-3.03+dfsg2
```

Description

nix build builds the specified installables. Installables that resolve to derivations are built (or substituted if possible). Store path installables are substituted.

Unless --no-link is specified, after a successful build, it creates symlinks to the store paths of the installables. These symlinks have the prefix ./result by default; this can be overridden using the --out-link option. Each symlink has a suffix -<N>-<outname>, where N is the index of the installable (with the left-most installable having index 0), and outname is the symbolic derivation output name (e.g. bin, dev or lib). -<N> is omitted if N = 0, and -<outname> is omitted if outname = out (denoting the default output).

)""

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Examples

Description

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