nix-shell Command Examples

Start an interactive shell based on a Nix expression. See also: nix3 shell. More information: https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/command-ref/nix-shell.html.

• Start with nix expression in shell.nix or default.nix in the current directory:

nix-shell

• Run shell command in non-interactive shell and exit:

nix-shell --run "{{command}} {{argument1 argument2 ...}}"

• Start with expression in default.nix in the current directory:

nix-shell {{default.nix}}

• Start with packages loaded from nixpkgs:

nix-shell --packages {{package1 package2 ...}}

• Start with packages loaded from specific nixpkgs revision:

nix-shell --packages {{package1 package2 ...}} -I nixpkgs={{https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/archive/nixpkgs_revision.tar.gz}}

• Evaluate rest of file in specific interpreter, for use in #!-scripts (see https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/#use-as-a-interpreter):

nix-shell -i {{interpreter}} --packages {{package1 package2 ...}}