Name

nix shell - run a shell in which the specified packages are available

Synopsis

nix shell [option…] installables…

Examples

•

Start a shell providing youtube-dl from the nixpkgs flake:

# nix shell nixpkgs#youtube-dl
# youtube-dl --version
2020.11.01.1

•

Start a shell providing GNU Hello from NixOS 20.03:

# nix shell nixpkgs/nixos-20.03#hello

•

Run GNU Hello:

# nix shell nixpkgs#hello -c hello --greeting 'Hi everybody!'
Hi everybody!

•

Run GNU Hello in a chroot store:

# nix shell --store ~/my-nix nixpkgs#hello -c hello

•

Start a shell providing GNU Hello in a chroot store:

# nix shell --store ~/my-nix nixpkgs#hello nixpkgs#bashInteractive -c bash

Note that it’s necessary to specify bash explicitly because your default shell (e.g. /bin/bash) generally will not exist in the chroot.

Description

nix shell runs a command in an environment in which the $PATH variable provides the specified installables. If no command is specified, it starts the default shell of your user account specified by $SHELL.

Options

• --command / -c command args
  Command and arguments to be executed, defaulting to $SHELL
• --ignore-environment / -i
  Clear the entire environment (except those specified with --keep).
• --keep / -k name
  Keep the environment variable name.
• --unset / -u name
  Unset the environment variable name.

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.