diff --git a/doc/manual/package-management.xml b/doc/manual/package-management.xml index d796c7f2b..3d8bad1cf 100644 --- a/doc/manual/package-management.xml +++ b/doc/manual/package-management.xml @@ -478,7 +478,37 @@ available in the subscribed channels.
One-click installs -TODO +Often, when you want to install a specific package (e.g., from +the Nix +Packages collection or from our release server), +subscribing to a channel is a bit cumbersome. And channels don’t help +you at all if you want to install an older version of a package than +the one provided by the current contents of the channel, or a package +that has been removed from the channel. That’s when +one-click installs come in handy: you can just go +to the web page that contains the package, click on it, and it will be +installed with all the necessary dependencies. + +For instance, you can go to +— or to any older release of Nix Packages — and click on any link for +the individual packages for your platform (say, subversion-1.4.0 +for i686-linux). The first time you do +this, your browser will ask what to do with +application/nix-package files. You should open +them with /nix/bin/nix-install-package. This +will open a window that asks you to confirm that you want to install +the package. When you answer Y, the package and +all its dependencies will be installed. This is a binary deployment +mechanism — you get packages pre-compiled for the selected platform +type. + +You can also install application/nix-package +files from the command line directly. See for details.