path: root/doc/manual/nix-pull.xml

<refentry>
  <refnamediv>
    <refname>nix-pull</refname>
    <refpurpose>pull substitutes from a network cache</refpurpose>
  </refnamediv>

  <refsynopsisdiv>
    <cmdsynopsis>
      <command>nix-pull</command>
      <arg choice='plain'><replaceable>url</replaceable></arg>
    </cmdsynopsis>
  </refsynopsisdiv>

  <refsection>
    <title>Description</title>

    <para>
      The command <command>nix-pull</command> obtains a list of
      pre-built store paths from the URL
      <replaceable>url</replaceable>, and for each of these store
      paths, registers a substitute derivation that downloads and
      unpacks it into the Nix store.  This is used to speed up
      installations: if you attempt to install something that has
      already been built and stored into the network cache, Nix can
      transparently re-use the pre-built store paths.
    </para>

    <para>
      The file at <replaceable>url</replaceable> must be compatible
      with the files created by <replaceable>nix-push</replaceable>.
    </para>

  </refsection>

  <refsection>
    <title>Examples</title>

    <screen>
$ nix-pull http://catamaran.labs.cs.uu.nl/dist/nix/nixpkgs-0.5pre753/MANIFEST</screen>

  </refsection>
    
</refentry>