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Diffstat (limited to 'doc/manual/src/package-management/garbage-collector-roots.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/manual/src/package-management/garbage-collector-roots.md | 18 |
1 files changed, 18 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/manual/src/package-management/garbage-collector-roots.md b/doc/manual/src/package-management/garbage-collector-roots.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..30c5b7f8d --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/package-management/garbage-collector-roots.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +# Garbage Collector Roots + +The roots of the garbage collector are all store paths to which there +are symlinks in the directory `prefix/nix/var/nix/gcroots`. For +instance, the following command makes the path +`/nix/store/d718ef...-foo` a root of the collector: + +```console +$ ln -s /nix/store/d718ef...-foo /nix/var/nix/gcroots/bar +``` + +That is, after this command, the garbage collector will not remove +`/nix/store/d718ef...-foo` or any of its dependencies. + +Subdirectories of `prefix/nix/var/nix/gcroots` are also searched for +symlinks. Symlinks to non-store paths are followed and searched for +roots, but symlinks to non-store paths *inside* the paths reached in +that way are not followed to prevent infinite recursion. |