This is an instance of Nixery, which provides the ability to pull ad-hoc container images from a Docker-compatible registry server. The image names specify the contents the image should contain, which are then retrieved and built by the Nix package manager.

Nix is also responsible for the creation of the container images themselves. To do this it uses an interesting layering strategy described in this blog post.

How does it work?

Simply point your local Docker installation (or other compatible registry client) at Nixery and ask for an image with the contents you desire. Image contents are path separated in the name, so for example if you needed an image that contains a shell and emacs you could pull it as such:

nixery.appspot.com/shell/emacs25-nox

Image tags are currently ignored. Every package name needs to correspond to a key in the nixpkgs package set.

The special meta-package shell provides default packages you would expect in an interactive environment (such as an interactively configured bash). If you use this package you must specify it as the first package in an image.

FAQ