lix/doc/manual/conf-file.xml

<sect1 id="sec-conf-file"><title>Nix configuration file</title>

<para>A number of persistent settings of Nix are stored in the file
<filename><replaceable>prefix</replaceable>/etc/nix/nix.conf</filename>.
This file is a list of <literal><replaceable>name</replaceable> =
<replaceable>value</replaceable></literal> pairs, one per line.
Comments start with a <literal>#</literal> character.  An example
configuration file is shown in <xref linkend="ex-nix-conf" />.</para>

<example id='ex-nix-conf'><title>Nix configuration file</title>

<programlisting>
gc-keep-outputs = true       # Nice for developers
gc-keep-derivations = true   # Idem
env-keep-derivations = false
</programlisting>
</example>

<para>The following variables are currently available: 

<variablelist>

  <varlistentry id="conf-gc-keep-outputs"><term><literal>gc-keep-outputs</literal></term>

    <listitem><para>If <literal>true</literal>, the garbage collector
    will keep the outputs of non-garbage derivations.  If
    <literal>false</literal> (default), outputs will be deleted unless
    they are GC roots themselves (or reachable from other roots).</para>
 
    <para>In general, outputs must be registered as roots separately.
    However, even if the output of a derivation is registered as a
    root, the collector will still delete store paths that are used
    only at build time (e.g., the C compiler, or source tarballs
    downloaded from the network).  To prevent it from doing so, set
    this option to <literal>true</literal>.</para></listitem>

  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry id="conf-gc-keep-derivations"><term><literal>gc-keep-derivations</literal></term>

    <listitem><para>If <literal>true</literal> (default), the garbage
    collector will keep the derivations from which non-garbage store
    paths were built.  If <literal>false</literal>, they will be
    deleted unless explicitly registered as a root (or reachable from
    other roots).</para>

    <para>Keeping derivation around is useful for querying and
    traceability (e.g., it allows you to ask with what dependencies or
    options a store path was built), so by default this option is on.
    Turn it off to safe a bit of disk space (or a lot if
    <literal>gc-keep-outputs</literal> is also turned on).</para></listitem>

  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry><term><literal>env-keep-derivations</literal></term>

    <listitem><para>If <literal>false</literal> (default), derivations
    are not stored in Nix user environments.  That is, the derivation
    any build-time-only dependencies may be garbage-collected.</para>

    <para>If <literal>true</literal>, when you add a Nix derivation to
    a user environment, the path of the derivation is stored in the
    user environment.  Thus, the derivation will not be
    garbage-collected until the user environment generation is deleted
    (<command>nix-env --delete-generations</command>).  To prevent
    build-time-only dependencies from being collected, you should also
    turn on <literal>gc-keep-outputs</literal>.</para>

    <para>The difference between this option and
    <literal>gc-keep-derivations</literal> is that this one is
    “sticky”: it applies to any user environment created while this
    option was enabled, while <literal>gc-keep-derivations</literal>
    only applies at the moment the garbage collector is
    run.</para></listitem>

  </varlistentry>

</variablelist>

</para>

</sect1>