DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / nix-bin / nix3-bundle.1.en
nix3-bundle(1) General Commands Manual nix3-bundle(1)

Warning: This program is experimental and its interface is subject to change.

nix bundle - bundle an application so that it works outside of the Nix store

nix bundle [option…] installable

Bundle Hello:

# nix bundle nixpkgs#hello
# ./hello
Hello, world!
Bundle a specific version of Nix:

# nix bundle github:NixOS/nix/e3ddffb27e5fc37a209cfd843c6f7f6a9460a8ec
# ./nix --version
nix (Nix) 2.4pre20201215_e3ddffb
Bundle a Hello using a specific bundler:

# nix bundle --bundler github:NixOS/bundlers#toDockerImage nixpkgs#hello
# docker load < hello-2.10.tar.gz
# docker run hello-2.10:latest hello
Hello, world!

nix bundle, by default, packs the closure of the installable into a single self-extracting executable. See the bundlers homepage (https://github.com/NixOS/bundlers) for more details.

Note

This command only works on Linux.

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

bundlers.<system>.default

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

bundlers.<system>.<name>

A bundler is specified by a flake output attribute named bundlers.<system>.<name>. It looks like this:

bundlers.x86_64-linux = rec {

identity = drv: drv;
blender_2_79 = drv: self.packages.x86_64-linux.blender_2_79;
default = identity; };

A bundler must be a function that accepts an arbitrary value (typically a derivation or app definition) and returns a derivation.

  • --bundler flake-url
    Use a custom bundler instead of the default (github:NixOS/bundlers).
  • --out-link / -o path
    Override the name of the symlink to the build result. It defaults to the base name of the app.

Common evaluation options:

  • --arg name expr
    Pass the value expr as the argument name to Nix functions.
  • --argstr name string
    Pass the string string as the argument name to Nix functions.
  • --eval-store store-url
    The Nix store to use for evaluations.
  • --impure
    Allow access to mutable paths and repositories.
  • --include / -I path
    Add path to the list of locations used to look up <...> file names.
  • --override-flake original-ref resolved-ref
    Override the flake registries, redirecting original-ref to resolved-ref.

Common flake-related options:

  • --commit-lock-file
    Commit changes to the flake’s lock file.
  • --inputs-from flake-url
    Use the inputs of the specified flake as registry entries.
  • --no-registries
    Don’t allow lookups in the flake registries. This option is deprecated; use --no-use-registries.
  • --no-update-lock-file
    Do not allow any updates to the flake’s lock file.
  • --no-write-lock-file
    Do not write the flake’s newly generated lock file.
  • --override-input input-path flake-url
    Override a specific flake input (e.g. dwarffs/nixpkgs). This implies --no-write-lock-file.
  • --recreate-lock-file
    Recreate the flake’s lock file from scratch.
  • --update-input input-path
    Update a specific flake input (ignoring its previous entry in the lock file).

Options that change the interpretation of installables:

  • --derivation
    Operate on the store derivation rather than its outputs.
  • --expr expr
    Interpret installables as attribute paths relative to the Nix expression expr.
  • --file / -f file
    Interpret installables as attribute paths relative to the Nix expression stored in file. If file is the character -, then a Nix expression will be read from standard input.