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Diffstat (limited to 'third_party/nix/doc/manual/packages/channels.xml')
| -rw-r--r-- | third_party/nix/doc/manual/packages/channels.xml | 57 |
1 files changed, 57 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/third_party/nix/doc/manual/packages/channels.xml b/third_party/nix/doc/manual/packages/channels.xml new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..15c119fcb1f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/third_party/nix/doc/manual/packages/channels.xml @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ +<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="sec-channels"> + +<title>Channels</title> + +<para>If you want to stay up to date with a set of packages, it’s not +very convenient to manually download the latest set of Nix expressions +for those packages and upgrade using <command>nix-env</command>. +Fortunately, there’s a better way: <emphasis>Nix +channels</emphasis>.</para> + +<para>A Nix channel is just a URL that points to a place that contains +a set of Nix expressions and a manifest. Using the command <link +linkend="sec-nix-channel"><command>nix-channel</command></link> you +can automatically stay up to date with whatever is available at that +URL.</para> + +<para>You can “subscribe” to a channel using +<command>nix-channel --add</command>, e.g., + +<screen> +$ nix-channel --add https://nixos.org/channels/nixpkgs-unstable</screen> + +subscribes you to a channel that always contains that latest version +of the Nix Packages collection. (Subscribing really just means that +the URL is added to the file <filename>~/.nix-channels</filename>, +where it is read by subsequent calls to <command>nix-channel +--update</command>.) You can “unsubscribe” using <command>nix-channel +--remove</command>: + +<screen> +$ nix-channel --remove nixpkgs +</screen> +</para> + +<para>To obtain the latest Nix expressions available in a channel, do + +<screen> +$ nix-channel --update</screen> + +This downloads and unpacks the Nix expressions in every channel +(downloaded from <literal><replaceable>url</replaceable>/nixexprs.tar.bz2</literal>). +It also makes the union of each channel’s Nix expressions available by +default to <command>nix-env</command> operations (via the symlink +<filename>~/.nix-defexpr/channels</filename>). Consequently, you can +then say + +<screen> +$ nix-env -u</screen> + +to upgrade all packages in your profile to the latest versions +available in the subscribed channels.</para> + +</chapter> |