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

Name

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

Synopsis

nix bundle [option...] installable

Examples

  • 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!

Description

nix bundle, by default, packs the closure of the installable into a single self-extracting executable. See the bundlers homepage for more details.

Note

This command only works on Linux.

Flake output attributes

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 bundle tries the following flake output attributes:

  • bundlers.<system>.<name>

Bundlers

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.

Options

  • --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.

  • --debugger

    Start an interactive environment if evaluation fails.

  • --eval-store store-url

    The URL of the Nix store to use for evaluation, i.e. to store derivations (.drv files) and inputs referenced by them.

  • --impure

    Allow access to mutable paths and repositories.

  • --include / -I path

    Add path to the Nix search path. The Nix search path is initialized from the colon-separated NIX_PATH environment variable, and is used to look up the location of Nix expressions using paths enclosed in angle brackets (i.e., <nixpkgs>).

    For instance, passing

    -I /home/eelco/Dev
-I /etc/nixos

    will cause Nix to look for paths relative to /home/eelco/Dev and /etc/nixos, in that order. This is equivalent to setting the NIX_PATH environment variable to

    /home/eelco/Dev:/etc/nixos

    It is also possible to match paths against a prefix. For example, passing

    -I nixpkgs=/home/eelco/Dev/nixpkgs-branch
-I /etc/nixos

    will cause Nix to search for <nixpkgs/path> in /home/eelco/Dev/nixpkgs-branch/path and /etc/nixos/nixpkgs/path.

    If a path in the Nix search path starts with http:// or https://, it is interpreted as the URL of a tarball that will be downloaded and unpacked to a temporary location. The tarball must consist of a single top-level directory. For example, passing

    -I nixpkgs=https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/archive/master.tar.gz

    tells Nix to download and use the current contents of the master branch in the nixpkgs repository.

    The URLs of the tarballs from the official nixos.org channels (see the manual page for nix-channel) can be abbreviated as channel:<channel-name>. For instance, the following two flags are equivalent:

    -I nixpkgs=channel:nixos-21.05
-I nixpkgs=https://nixos.org/channels/nixos-21.05/nixexprs.tar.xz

    You can also fetch source trees using flake URLs and add them to the search path. For instance,

    -I nixpkgs=flake:nixpkgs

    specifies that the prefix nixpkgs shall refer to the source tree downloaded from the nixpkgs entry in the flake registry. Similarly,

    -I nixpkgs=flake:github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-22.05

    makes <nixpkgs> refer to a particular branch of the NixOS/nixpkgs repository on GitHub.

  • --override-flake original-ref resolved-ref

    Override the flake registries, redirecting original-ref to resolved-ref.

  • --debug

    Set the logging verbosity level to 'debug'.

  • --log-format format

    Set the format of log output; one of raw, internal-json, bar or bar-with-logs.

  • --print-build-logs / -L

    Print full build logs on standard error.

  • --quiet

    Decrease the logging verbosity level.

  • --verbose / -v

    Increase the logging verbosity level.

Miscellaneous global options

  • --help

    Show usage information.

  • --offline

    Disable substituters and consider all previously downloaded files up-to-date.

  • --option name value

    Set the Nix configuration setting name to value (overriding nix.conf).

  • --refresh

    Consider all previously downloaded files out-of-date.

  • --repair

    During evaluation, rewrite missing or corrupted files in the Nix store. During building, rebuild missing or corrupted store paths.

  • --version

    Show version information.

Options that change the interpretation of installables

  • --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. Implies --impure.

Note

See man nix.conf for overriding configuration settings with command line flags.