nix3-derivation-show - (unknown subject)

Name Synopsis Examples Description Derivation JSON Format Options Common evaluation options Common flake-related options Logging-related options Miscellaneous global options Options that change the interpretation of installables

Warning
This program is experimental and its interface is subject to change.

Name

nix derivation show - show the contents of a store derivation

Synopsis

nix derivation show [option…] installables…

Examples

•

Show the store derivation that results from evaluating the Hello package:

# nix derivation show nixpkgs#hello
{
"/nix/store/s6rn4jz1sin56rf4qj5b5v8jxjm32hlk-hello-2.10.drv": {
â¦
}
}

•

Show the full derivation graph (if available) that produced your NixOS system:

# nix derivation show -r /run/current-system

•

Print all files fetched using fetchurl by Firefox’s dependency graph:

Note that .outputs.out.hash selects fixed-output derivations (derivations that produce output with a specified content hash), while .env.urls selects derivations with a urls attribute.

Description

This command prints on standard output a JSON representation of the store derivations to which installables evaluate.

Store derivations are used internally by Nix. They are store paths with extension .drv that represent the build-time dependency graph to which a Nix expression evaluates.

By default, this command only shows top-level derivations, but with --recursive, it also shows their dependencies.

nix derivation show outputs a JSON map of store paths to derivations in the following format:

"outputs": {
"out": {
"path": "/nix/store/2543j7c6jn75blc3drf4g5vhb1rhdq29-source",
"method": "nar",
"hashAlgo": "sha256",
"hash": "6fc80dcc62179dbc12fc0b5881275898f93444833d21b89dfe5f7fbcbb1d0d62"
}
}

	•		inputSrcs: A list of store paths on which this derivation depends.
	•		inputDrvs: A JSON object specifying the derivations on which this derivation depends, and what outputs of those derivations.

Example

"inputDrvs": {
"/nix/store/6lkh5yi7nlb7l6dr8fljlli5zfd9hq58-curl-7.73.0.drv": ["dev"],
"/nix/store/fn3kgnfzl5dzym26j8g907gq3kbm8bfh-unzip-6.0.drv": ["out"]
}

specifies that this derivation depends on the dev output of curl, and the out output of unzip.

	•		system: The system type on which this derivation is to be built (e.g. x86_64-linux).
	•		builder: The absolute path of the program to be executed to run the build. Typically this is the bash shell (e.g. /nix/store/r3j288vpmczbl500w6zz89gyfa4nr0b1-bash-4.4-p23/bin/bash).
	•		args: The command-line arguments passed to the builder.
	•		env: The environment passed to the builder.
	•		structuredAttrs: Strucutured Attributes, only defined if the derivation contains them. Structured attributes are JSON, and thus embedded as-is.

Options

•

--no-pretty

Print compact JSON output on a single line, even when the output is a terminal. Some commands may print multiple JSON objects on separate lines.

See `--pretty`.

•

--pretty

Print multi-line, indented JSON output for readability.

Default: indent if output is to a terminal.

This option is only effective when `--json` is also specified.

•

--recursive / -r

Include the dependencies of the specified derivations.

•

--stdin

Read installables from the standard input. No default installable applied.

Common evaluation options

•

--arg name expr

Pass the value expr as the argument name to Nix functions.

•

--arg-from-file name path

Pass the contents of file path as the argument name to Nix functions.

•

--arg-from-stdin name

Pass the contents of stdin as the argument name to Nix functions.

•

--argstr name string

Pass the string string as the argument name to Nix functions.

•

--debugger

Start an interactive environment if evaluation fails.

•

--eval-store store-url

The URL of the Nix store to use for evaluation, i.e. to store derivations (.drv files) and inputs referenced by them.

•

--impure

Allow access to mutable paths and repositories.

•

--include / -I path

Add path to search path entries used to resolve lookup paths

This option may be given multiple times.

Paths added through -I take precedence over the nix-path configuration setting and the NIX_PATH environment variable.

•

--override-flake original-ref resolved-ref

Override the flake registries, redirecting original-ref to resolved-ref.

Common flake-related options

•

--commit-lock-file

Commit changes to the flake’s lock file.

•

--inputs-from flake-url

Use the inputs of the specified flake as registry entries.

•

--no-registries

Don’t allow lookups in the flake registries.

DEPRECATED

Use --no-use-registries instead.

•

--no-update-lock-file

Do not allow any updates to the flake’s lock file.

•

--no-write-lock-file

Do not write the flake’s newly generated lock file.

•

--output-lock-file flake-lock-path

Write the given lock file instead of flake.lock within the top-level flake.

•

--override-input input-path flake-url

Override a specific flake input (e.g. dwarffs/nixpkgs). This implies --no-write-lock-file.

•

--recreate-lock-file

Recreate the flake’s lock file from scratch.

DEPRECATED

Use nix flake update instead.

•

--reference-lock-file flake-lock-path

Read the given lock file instead of flake.lock within the top-level flake.

•

--update-input input-path

Update a specific flake input (ignoring its previous entry in the lock file).

DEPRECATED

Use nix flake update instead.

Logging-related options

•

--debug

Set the logging verbosity level to ‘debug’.

•

--log-format format

Set the format of log output; one of raw, internal-json, bar or bar-with-logs.

•

--print-build-logs / -L

Print full build logs on standard error.

•

--quiet

Decrease the logging verbosity level.

•

--verbose / -v

Increase the logging verbosity level.

Miscellaneous global options

•

--help

Show usage information.

•

--offline

Disable substituters and consider all previously downloaded files up-to-date.

•

--option name value

Set the Nix configuration setting name to value (overriding nix.conf).

•

--refresh

Consider all previously downloaded files out-of-date.

•

--repair

During evaluation, rewrite missing or corrupted files in the Nix store. During building, rebuild missing or corrupted store paths.

•

--version

Show version information.

Options that change the interpretation of installables

•

--expr expr

Interpret installables as attribute paths relative to the Nix expression expr.

•

--file / -f file

Interpret installables as attribute paths relative to the Nix expression stored in file. If file is the character -, then a Nix expression is read from standard input. Implies --impure.

Note

See man nix.conf for overriding configuration settings with command line flags.

Updated 2026-06-01 - jenkler.se | uex.se

	•		name: The name of the derivation. This is used when calculating the store paths of the derivation’s outputs.
	•		outputs: Information about the output paths of the derivation. This is a JSON object with one member per output, where the key is the output name and the value is a JSON object with these fields:

			path: The output path, if it is known in advanced. Otherwise, null.
	•		method: For an output which will be [content addressed], a string representing the method of content addressing that is chosen. Valid method strings are:
	•		flat
	•		nar
	•		text
	•		git

	•		hashAlgo: For an output which will be [content addressed], the name of the hash algorithm used. Valid algorithm strings are:
	•		blake3
	•		md5
	•		sha1
	•		sha256
	•		sha512
	•		hash: For fixed-output derivations, the expected content hash in base-16.