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

Run the default app from the blender-bin flake:
```
# nix run blender-bin
```
Run a non-default app from the blender-bin flake:
```
# nix run blender-bin#blender_2_83
```
Tip: you can find apps provided by this flake by running nix flake show blender-bin.
Run vim from the nixpkgs flake:
```
# nix run nixpkgs#vim
```
Note that vim (as of the time of writing of this page) is not an app but a package. Thus, Nix runs the eponymous file from the vim package.
Run vim with arguments:
```
# nix run nixpkgs#vim -- --help
```

Description

nix run builds and runs installable, which must evaluate to an app or a regular Nix derivation.

If installable evaluates to an app (see below), it executes the program specified by the app definition.

If installable evaluates to a derivation, it will try to execute the program <out>/bin/<name>, where out is the primary output store path of the derivation, and name is the first of the following that exists:

The meta.mainProgram attribute of the derivation.
The pname attribute of the derivation.
The name part of the value of the name attribute of the derivation.

For instance, if name is set to hello-1.10, nix run will run $out/bin/hello.

Flake output attributes

If no flake output attribute is given, nix run tries the following flake output attributes:

apps.<system>.default
packages.<system>.default

If an attribute name is given, nix run tries the following flake output attributes:

apps.<system>.<name>
packages.<system>.<name>
legacyPackages.<system>.<name>

Apps

An app is specified by a flake output attribute named apps.<system>.<name>. It looks like this:

apps.x86_64-linux.blender_2_79 = {
  type = "app";
  program = "${self.packages.x86_64-linux.blender_2_79}/bin/blender";
};

The only supported attributes are:

type (required): Must be set to app.
program (required): The full path of the executable to run. It must reside in the Nix store.

)""

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Examples

Description

Flake output attributes

Apps

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