lix/doc/manual/nix-collect-garbage.xml

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<refentry>
<refnamediv>
<refname>nix-collect-garbage</refname>
<refpurpose>remove unreachable store paths</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>
<refsynopsisdiv>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>nix-collect-garbage</command>
<group choice='opt'>
<arg choice='plain'><option>--print-live</option></arg>
<arg choice='plain'><option>--print-dead</option></arg>
</group>
<arg><option>--min-age</option> <replaceable>age</replaceable></arg>
</cmdsynopsis>
</refsynopsisdiv>
<refsection>
<title>Description</title>
<para>
The command <command>nix-collect-garbage</command> performs a
garbage collection on the Nix store: any paths in the Nix store
that are garbage (not reachable from a set of root store
expressions) are deleted.
</para>
<para>
The roots of the garbage collector are the store expressions
mentioned in the files in the directory
<filename><replaceable>prefix</replaceable>/var/nix/gcroots</filename>.
By default, the roots are all user environments in
<filename><replaceable>prefix</replaceable>/var/nix/profiles</filename>.
You can register other store expressions as roots by writing the
full path of the store expression to an arbitrary file in the
<filename>gcroots</filename> directory (or a subdirectory
thereof).
</para>
</refsection>
<refsection>
<title>Options</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--print-live</option> / <option>--print-dead</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
These options cause the set of live or dead paths to be
printed, respectively, rather than performing an actual
garbage collector. They correspond exactly with the
sub-operations in <command>nix-store
<option>--gc</option></command>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</refsection>
<refsection>
<title>Examples</title>
<para>
To delete all unreachable paths, just do:
<screen>
$ nix-collect-garbage</screen>
</para>
</refsection>
</refentry>