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diff --git a/doc/manual/packages/basic-package-mgmt.xml b/doc/manual/packages/basic-package-mgmt.xml deleted file mode 100644 index b8a2c7ab3..000000000 --- a/doc/manual/packages/basic-package-mgmt.xml +++ /dev/null @@ -1,194 +0,0 @@ -<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" - xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" - xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" - version="5.0" - xml:id="ch-basic-package-mgmt"> - -<title>Basic Package Management</title> - -<para>The main command for package management is <link -linkend="sec-nix-env"><command>nix-env</command></link>. You can use -it to install, upgrade, and erase packages, and to query what -packages are installed or are available for installation.</para> - -<para>In Nix, different users can have different “views” -on the set of installed applications. That is, there might be lots of -applications present on the system (possibly in many different -versions), but users can have a specific selection of those active — -where “active” just means that it appears in a directory -in the user’s <literal>PATH</literal>. Such a view on the set of -installed applications is called a <emphasis>user -environment</emphasis>, which is just a directory tree consisting of -symlinks to the files of the active applications. </para> - -<para>Components are installed from a set of <emphasis>Nix -expressions</emphasis> that tell Nix how to build those packages, -including, if necessary, their dependencies. There is a collection of -Nix expressions called the Nixpkgs package collection that contains -packages ranging from basic development stuff such as GCC and Glibc, -to end-user applications like Mozilla Firefox. (Nix is however not -tied to the Nixpkgs package collection; you could write your own Nix -expressions based on Nixpkgs, or completely new ones.)</para> - -<para>You can manually download the latest version of Nixpkgs from -<link xlink:href='http://nixos.org/nixpkgs/download.html'/>. However, -it’s much more convenient to use the Nixpkgs -<emphasis>channel</emphasis>, since it makes it easy to stay up to -date with new versions of Nixpkgs. (Channels are described in more -detail in <xref linkend="sec-channels"/>.) Nixpkgs is automatically -added to your list of “subscribed” channels when you install -Nix. If this is not the case for some reason, you can add it as -follows: - -<screen> -$ nix-channel --add https://nixos.org/channels/nixpkgs-unstable -$ nix-channel --update -</screen> - -</para> - -<note><para>On NixOS, you’re automatically subscribed to a NixOS -channel corresponding to your NixOS major release -(e.g. <uri>http://nixos.org/channels/nixos-14.12</uri>). A NixOS -channel is identical to the Nixpkgs channel, except that it contains -only Linux binaries and is updated only if a set of regression tests -succeed.</para></note> - -<para>You can view the set of available packages in Nixpkgs: - -<screen> -$ nix-env -qa -aterm-2.2 -bash-3.0 -binutils-2.15 -bison-1.875d -blackdown-1.4.2 -bzip2-1.0.2 -…</screen> - -The flag <option>-q</option> specifies a query operation, and -<option>-a</option> means that you want to show the “available” (i.e., -installable) packages, as opposed to the installed packages. If you -downloaded Nixpkgs yourself, or if you checked it out from GitHub, -then you need to pass the path to your Nixpkgs tree using the -<option>-f</option> flag: - -<screen> -$ nix-env -qaf <emphasis>/path/to/nixpkgs</emphasis> -</screen> - -where <emphasis>/path/to/nixpkgs</emphasis> is where you’ve -unpacked or checked out Nixpkgs.</para> - -<para>You can select specific packages by name: - -<screen> -$ nix-env -qa firefox -firefox-34.0.5 -firefox-with-plugins-34.0.5 -</screen> - -and using regular expressions: - -<screen> -$ nix-env -qa 'firefox.*' -</screen> - -</para> - -<para>It is also possible to see the <emphasis>status</emphasis> of -available packages, i.e., whether they are installed into the user -environment and/or present in the system: - -<screen> -$ nix-env -qas -… --PS bash-3.0 ---S binutils-2.15 -IPS bison-1.875d -…</screen> - -The first character (<literal>I</literal>) indicates whether the -package is installed in your current user environment. The second -(<literal>P</literal>) indicates whether it is present on your system -(in which case installing it into your user environment would be a -very quick operation). The last one (<literal>S</literal>) indicates -whether there is a so-called <emphasis>substitute</emphasis> for the -package, which is Nix’s mechanism for doing binary deployment. It -just means that Nix knows that it can fetch a pre-built package from -somewhere (typically a network server) instead of building it -locally.</para> - -<para>You can install a package using <literal>nix-env -i</literal>. -For instance, - -<screen> -$ nix-env -i subversion</screen> - -will install the package called <literal>subversion</literal> (which -is, of course, the <link -xlink:href='http://subversion.tigris.org/'>Subversion version -management system</link>).</para> - -<note><para>When you ask Nix to install a package, it will first try -to get it in pre-compiled form from a <emphasis>binary -cache</emphasis>. By default, Nix will use the binary cache -<uri>https://cache.nixos.org</uri>; it contains binaries for most -packages in Nixpkgs. Only if no binary is available in the binary -cache, Nix will build the package from source. So if <literal>nix-env --i subversion</literal> results in Nix building stuff from source, -then either the package is not built for your platform by the Nixpkgs -build servers, or your version of Nixpkgs is too old or too new. For -instance, if you have a very recent checkout of Nixpkgs, then the -Nixpkgs build servers may not have had a chance to build everything -and upload the resulting binaries to -<uri>https://cache.nixos.org</uri>. The Nixpkgs channel is only -updated after all binaries have been uploaded to the cache, so if you -stick to the Nixpkgs channel (rather than using a Git checkout of the -Nixpkgs tree), you will get binaries for most packages.</para></note> - -<para>Naturally, packages can also be uninstalled: - -<screen> -$ nix-env -e subversion</screen> - -</para> - -<para>Upgrading to a new version is just as easy. If you have a new -release of Nix Packages, you can do: - -<screen> -$ nix-env -u subversion</screen> - -This will <emphasis>only</emphasis> upgrade Subversion if there is a -“newer” version in the new set of Nix expressions, as -defined by some pretty arbitrary rules regarding ordering of version -numbers (which generally do what you’d expect of them). To just -unconditionally replace Subversion with whatever version is in the Nix -expressions, use <parameter>-i</parameter> instead of -<parameter>-u</parameter>; <parameter>-i</parameter> will remove -whatever version is already installed.</para> - -<para>You can also upgrade all packages for which there are newer -versions: - -<screen> -$ nix-env -u</screen> - -</para> - -<para>Sometimes it’s useful to be able to ask what -<command>nix-env</command> would do, without actually doing it. For -instance, to find out what packages would be upgraded by -<literal>nix-env -u</literal>, you can do - -<screen> -$ nix-env -u --dry-run -(dry run; not doing anything) -upgrading `libxslt-1.1.0' to `libxslt-1.1.10' -upgrading `graphviz-1.10' to `graphviz-1.12' -upgrading `coreutils-5.0' to `coreutils-5.2.1'</screen> - -</para> - -</chapter> |