A Nix Cheatsheet

List Channels

You might not even have any userspace channels.

# userspace channels
nix-channel --list

# root
sudo -i nix-channel --list

Update channels

# userspace channels
nix-channel --update

# root
sudo -i nix-channel --update

Adding / replacing channels

You probably only really want to do this if you are going from one stable version to the next.

# root
sudo -i nix-channel --add https://nixos.org/channels/nixpkgs-unstable nixpkgs

Nix Channel Status

Managing Packages

Install

nix-env -iA nixpkgs.<packagename>

List

nix-env -q

Uninstall

nix-env -e nixpkgs.<packagename>

Nix Shell

Basic Shell Template

{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> { } }:
with pkgs;
mkShell {
  buildInputs = [
    ..
  ];
  SOME_ENV_VAR = "...";
  SOME_OTHER_ENV_VAR="...";
}

Activate Shell

# in dir with a default.nix
nix-shell

# otherwise, specify file with shell
nix-shell <filename>

# shell with package/packages
nix-shell -p lua

# shell with package in "pure" mode
nix-shell -p lua --pure

Pure mode means that other packages in your current env will not be available.