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+<refentry xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
+          xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
+          xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
+          xml:id="sec-nix-prefetch-url">
+  
+<refmeta>
+  <refentrytitle>nix-prefetch-url</refentrytitle>
+  <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
+  <refmiscinfo class="source">Nix</refmiscinfo>
+  <refmiscinfo class="version"><xi:include href="version.txt" parse="text"/></refmiscinfo>
+</refmeta>
+
+<refnamediv>
+  <refname>nix-prefetch-url</refname>
+  <refpurpose>copy a file from a URL into the store and print its hash</refpurpose>
+</refnamediv>
+
+<refsynopsisdiv>
+  <cmdsynopsis>
+    <command>nix-prefetch-url</command>
+    <arg><option>--type</option> <replaceable>hashAlgo</replaceable></arg>
+    <arg choice='plain'><replaceable>url</replaceable></arg>
+    <arg><replaceable>hash</replaceable></arg>
+  </cmdsynopsis>
+</refsynopsisdiv>
+
+
+<refsection><title>Description</title>
+
+<para>The command <command>nix-prefetch-url</command> downloads the
+file referenced by the URL <replaceable>url</replaceable>, prints its
+cryptographic hash, and copies it into the Nix store.  The file name
+in the store is
+<filename><replaceable>hash</replaceable>-<replaceable>baseName</replaceable></filename>,
+where <replaceable>baseName</replaceable> is everything following the
+final slash in <replaceable>url</replaceable>.</para>
+
+<para>This command is just a convenience for Nix expression writers.
+Often a Nix expression fetches some source distribution from the
+network using the <literal>fetchurl</literal> expression contained in
+Nixpkgs.  However, <literal>fetchurl</literal> requires a
+cryptographic hash.  If you don't know the hash, you would have to
+download the file first, and then <literal>fetchurl</literal> would
+download it again when you build your Nix expression.  Since
+<literal>fetchurl</literal> uses the same name for the downloaded file
+as <command>nix-prefetch-url</command>, the redundant download can be
+avoided.</para>
+
+<para>If <replaceable>hash</replaceable> is specified, then a download
+is not performed if the Nix store already contains a file with the
+same hash and base name.  Otherwise, the file is downloaded, and an
+error if signaled if the actual hash of the file does not match the
+specified hash.</para>
+
+<para>This command prints the hash on standard output.  Additionally,
+if the environment variable <envar>PRINT_PATH</envar> is set, the path
+of the downloaded file in the Nix store is also printed.</para>
+
+</refsection>
+
+
+<refsection><title>Options</title>
+
+<variablelist>
+  
+  <varlistentry><term><option>--type</option> <replaceable>hashAlgo</replaceable></term>
+
+    <listitem><para>Use the specified cryptographic hash algorithm,
+    which can be one of <literal>md5</literal>,
+    <literal>sha1</literal>, and
+    <literal>sha256</literal>.</para></listitem>
+
+  </varlistentry>
+
+</variablelist>
+
+</refsection>
+
+
+<refsection><title>Examples</title>
+
+<screen>
+$ nix-prefetch-url ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/gnu/make/make-3.80.tar.bz2
+0bbd1df101bc0294d440471e50feca71
+
+$ PRINT_PATH=1 nix-prefetch-url ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/gnu/make/make-3.80.tar.bz2
+0bbd1df101bc0294d440471e50feca71
+/nix/store/wvyz8ifdn7wyz1p3pqyn0ra45ka2l492-make-3.80.tar.bz2</screen>
+
+</refsection>
+
+    
+</refentry>