This section provides some notes on how to hack on Nix. To get the latest version of Nix from GitHub: $ git clone git://github.com/NixOS/nix.git $ cd nix To build it and its dependencies: $ nix-build release.nix -A build.x86_64-linux To build all dependencies and start a shell in which all environment variables are set up so that those dependencies can be found: $ nix-shell To build Nix itself in this shell: [nix-shell]$ ./bootstrap.sh [nix-shell]$ configurePhase [nix-shell]$ make To install it in $(pwd)/nix and test it: [nix-shell]$ make install [nix-shell]$ make installcheck