nix-instantiate instantiate store expressions from Nix expressions nix-instantiate files Description The command nix-instantiate generates (low-level) store expressions from (high-level) Nix expressions. It loads and evaluates the Nix expressions in each of files. Each top-level expression should evaluate to a derivation, a list of derivations, or a set of derivations. The paths of the resulting store expressions are printed on standard output. This command is generally used for testing Nix expression before they are used with nix-env. See also . Options Just parse the input files, and print their abstract syntax trees on standard output in ATerm format. Just parse and evaluate the input files, and print the resulting values on standard output. No instantiation of store expressions takes place. Examples $ nix-instantiate gcc.nix (instantiate) /nix/store/468abdcb93aa22bb721142615b97698b-d-gcc-3.3.2.store $ nix-store -r $(nix-instantiate gcc.nix) (build) $ nix-store -r $(nix-instantiate gcc.nix) (print output path) /nix/store/9afa718cddfdfe94b5b9303d0430ceb1-gcc-3.3.2 $ ls -l /nix/store/9afa718cddfdfe94b5b9303d0430ceb1-gcc-3.3.2 dr-xr-xr-x 2 eelco users 360 2003-12-01 16:12 bin dr-xr-xr-x 3 eelco users 72 2003-12-01 16:12 include ...