Merge branch 'path-info' into ca-drv-exotic

1 files changed, 39 insertions, 35 deletions

diff --git a/doc/manual/src/command-ref/env-common.md b/doc/manual/src/command-ref/env-common.md
index c670d82b8..6e2403461 100644
--- a/doc/manual/src/command-ref/env-common.md
+++ b/doc/manual/src/command-ref/env-common.md
@@ -2,45 +2,49 @@
 
 Most Nix commands interpret the following environment variables:
 
-  - `IN_NIX_SHELL`  
+  - `IN_NIX_SHELL`\
     Indicator that tells if the current environment was set up by
     `nix-shell`. Since Nix 2.0 the values are `"pure"` and `"impure"`
 
-  - `NIX_PATH`  
+  - `NIX_PATH`\
     A colon-separated list of directories used to look up Nix
     expressions enclosed in angle brackets (i.e., `<path>`). For
     instance, the value
-    
+
         /home/eelco/Dev:/etc/nixos
-    
+
     will cause Nix to look for paths relative to `/home/eelco/Dev` and
     `/etc/nixos`, in this order. It is also possible to match paths
     against a prefix. For example, the value
-    
+
         nixpkgs=/home/eelco/Dev/nixpkgs-branch:/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, setting
     `NIX_PATH` to
-    
-        nixpkgs=https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/archive/nixos-15.09.tar.gz
-    
-    tells Nix to download the latest revision in the Nixpkgs/NixOS 15.09
-    channel.
-    
-    A following shorthand can be used to refer to the official channels:
-    
-        nixpkgs=channel:nixos-15.09
-    
-    The search path can be extended using the `-I` option, which takes
-    precedence over `NIX_PATH`.
-
-  - `NIX_IGNORE_SYMLINK_STORE`  
+
+        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 for `nix-channel`](nix-channel.md)) can be abbreviated
+    as `channel:<channel-name>`.  For instance, the following two
+    values of `NIX_PATH` are equivalent:
+
+        nixpkgs=channel:nixos-21.05
+        nixpkgs=https://nixos.org/channels/nixos-21.05/nixexprs.tar.xz
+
+    The Nix search path can also be extended using the `-I` option to
+    many Nix commands, which takes precedence over `NIX_PATH`.
+
+  - `NIX_IGNORE_SYMLINK_STORE`\
     Normally, the Nix store directory (typically `/nix/store`) is not
     allowed to contain any symlink components. This is to prevent
     “impure” builds. Builders sometimes “canonicalise” paths by
@@ -50,7 +54,7 @@ Most Nix commands interpret the following environment variables:
     builds are deployed to machines where `/nix/store` resolves
     differently. If you are sure that you’re not going to do that, you
     can set `NIX_IGNORE_SYMLINK_STORE` to `1`.
-    
+
     Note that if you’re symlinking the Nix store so that you can put it
     on another file system than the root file system, on Linux you’re
     better off using `bind` mount points, e.g.,
@@ -59,44 +63,44 @@ Most Nix commands interpret the following environment variables:
     $ mkdir /nix
     $ mount -o bind /mnt/otherdisk/nix /nix
     ```
-    
+
     Consult the mount 8 manual page for details.
 
-  - `NIX_STORE_DIR`  
+  - `NIX_STORE_DIR`\
     Overrides the location of the Nix store (default `prefix/store`).
 
-  - `NIX_DATA_DIR`  
+  - `NIX_DATA_DIR`\
     Overrides the location of the Nix static data directory (default
     `prefix/share`).
 
-  - `NIX_LOG_DIR`  
+  - `NIX_LOG_DIR`\
     Overrides the location of the Nix log directory (default
     `prefix/var/log/nix`).
 
-  - `NIX_STATE_DIR`  
+  - `NIX_STATE_DIR`\
     Overrides the location of the Nix state directory (default
     `prefix/var/nix`).
 
-  - `NIX_CONF_DIR`  
+  - `NIX_CONF_DIR`\
     Overrides the location of the system Nix configuration directory
     (default `prefix/etc/nix`).
 
-  - `NIX_CONFIG`  
+  - `NIX_CONFIG`\
     Applies settings from Nix configuration from the environment.
     The content is treated as if it was read from a Nix configuration file.
     Settings are separated by the newline character.
 
-  - `NIX_USER_CONF_FILES`  
+  - `NIX_USER_CONF_FILES`\
     Overrides the location of the user Nix configuration files to load
     from (defaults to the XDG spec locations). The variable is treated
     as a list separated by the `:` token.
 
-  - `TMPDIR`  
+  - `TMPDIR`\
     Use the specified directory to store temporary files. In particular,
     this includes temporary build directories; these can take up
     substantial amounts of disk space. The default is `/tmp`.
 
-  - `NIX_REMOTE`  
+  - `NIX_REMOTE`\
     This variable should be set to `daemon` if you want to use the Nix
     daemon to execute Nix operations. This is necessary in [multi-user
     Nix installations](../installation/multi-user.md). If the Nix
@@ -104,16 +108,16 @@ Most Nix commands interpret the following environment variables:
     should be set to `unix://path/to/socket`. Otherwise, it should be
     left unset.
 
-  - `NIX_SHOW_STATS`  
+  - `NIX_SHOW_STATS`\
     If set to `1`, Nix will print some evaluation statistics, such as
     the number of values allocated.
 
-  - `NIX_COUNT_CALLS`  
+  - `NIX_COUNT_CALLS`\
     If set to `1`, Nix will print how often functions were called during
     Nix expression evaluation. This is useful for profiling your Nix
     expressions.
 
-  - `GC_INITIAL_HEAP_SIZE`  
+  - `GC_INITIAL_HEAP_SIZE`\
     If Nix has been configured to use the Boehm garbage collector, this
     variable sets the initial size of the heap in bytes. It defaults to
     384 MiB. Setting it to a low value reduces memory consumption, but