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nix-env --upgrade(1)	     General Commands Manual	    nix-env --upgrade(1)

Name
     nix-env --upgrade - upgrade packages in user environment

Synopsis
     nix-env  {--upgrade  |  -u}  args [--lt | --leq | --eq | --always] [{--pre-
     built-only | -b}] [{--attr | -A}] [--from-expression] [-E]  [--from-profile
     path] [--preserve-installed | -P]

Description
     The  upgrade operation creates a new user environment, based on the current
     generation of the active profile, in which all store paths are replaced for
     which there are newer versions in the set of paths described by args. Paths
     for which there are no newer versions are left untouched; this  is  not  an
     error.  It  is also not an error if an element of args matches no installed
     derivations.

     For a description of how args is mapped to a set of store paths, see  --in-
     stall.  If args describes multiple store paths with the same symbolic name,
     only the one with the highest version is installed.

Flags
     *	--lt

	Only upgrade a derivation to newer versions. This is the default.

     *	--leq

	In addition to upgrading to newer versions, also  aupgradea  to  deriva-
	tions  that  have the same version. Version are not a unique identifica-
	tion of a derivation, so there may be many  derivations  that  have  the
	same version. This flag may be useful to force asynchronisationa between
	the installed and available derivations.

     *	--eq

	Only  aupgradea  to derivations that have the same version. This may not
	seem very useful, but it actually is, e.g., when there is a new  release
	of  Nixpkgs and you want to replace installed applications with the same
	versions built against newer dependencies (to reduce the number  of  de-
	pendencies floating around on your system).

     *	--always

	In  addition  to  upgrading to newer versions, also aupgradea to deriva-
	tions that have the same or a lower version. I.e., derivations may actu-
	ally be downgraded depending on what is available in the active Nix  ex-
	pression.

     *	--prebuilt-only / -b

	Use  only  derivations for which a substitute is registered, i.e., there
	is a pre-built binary available that can be downloaded in lieu of build-
	ing the derivation. Thus, no packages will be built from source.

     *	--preserve-installed / -P

	Do not remove derivations with a name matching one  of	the  derivations
	being  installed. Usually, trying to have two versions of the same pack-
	age installed in the same generation of a profile will lead to an  error
	in  building  the  generation,	due to file name clashes between the two
	versions. However, this is not the case for all packages.

Options
     The following options are allowed for all nix-env operations, but	may  not
     always have an effect.

     *	--file / -f path

	Specifies the Nix expression (designated below as the active Nix expres-
	sion)  used  by the --install, --upgrade, and --query --available opera-
	tions to obtain derivations. The default is ~/.nix-defexpr.

	If the argument starts with http:// or https://, it  is  interpreted  as
	the URL of a tarball that will be downloaded and unpacked to a temporary
	location. The tarball must include a single top-level directory contain-
	ing at least a file named default.nix.

     *	--profile / -p path

	Specifies  the	profile to be used by those operations that operate on a
	profile (designated below as the active profile). A  profile  is  a  se-
	quence of user environments called generations, one of which is the cur-
	rent generation.

     *	--dry-run

	For   the   --install,	 --upgrade,   --uninstall,  --switch-generation,
	--delete-generations and --rollback operations,  this  flag  will  cause
	nix-env to print what would be done if this flag had not been specified,
	without actually doing it.

	--dry-run  also  prints out which paths will be substituted (i.e., down-
	loaded) and which paths will be built from source (because no substitute
	is available).

     *	--system-filter system

	By default, operations such  as  --query  --available  show  derivations
	matching any platform. This option allows you to use derivations for the
	specified platform system.

Common Options
     Most Nix commands accept the following command-line options:

     *	--help

	Prints out a summary of the command syntax and exits.

     *	--version

	Prints out the Nix version number on standard output and exits.

     *	--verbose / -v

	Increases the level of verbosity of diagnostic messages printed on stan-
	dard error.  For each Nix operation, the information printed on standard
	output	is  well-defined; any diagnostic information is printed on stan-
	dard error, never on standard output.

	This option may be specified repeatedly.  Currently, the following  ver-
	bosity levels exist:

	*  0 aErrors onlya

	Only print messages explaining why the Nix invocation failed.

	*  1 aInformationala

	Print useful messages about what Nix is doing.	This is the default.

	*  2 aTalkativea

	Print more informational messages.

	*  3 aChattya

	Print even more informational messages.

	*  4 aDebuga

	Print debug information.

	*  5 aVomita

	Print vast amounts of debug information.

     *	--quiet

	Decreases the level of verbosity of diagnostic messages printed on stan-
	dard error.  This is the inverse option to -v / --verbose.

	This  option  may  be  specified repeatedly.  See the previous verbosity
	levels list.

     *	--log-format format

	This option can be used to change the output of  the  log  format,  with
	format being one of:

	*  raw

	This is the raw format, as outputted by nix-build.

	*  internal-json

	Outputs the logs in a structured manner.

	       Warning

	       While  the  schema itself is relatively stable, the format of the
	       error-messages (namely of the msg-field) can change  between  re-
	       leases.
	*  bar

	Only display a progress bar during the builds.

	*  bar-with-logs

	Display the raw logs, with the progress bar at the bottom.

     *	--no-build-output / -Q

	By  default,  output written by builders to standard output and standard
	error is echoed to the Nix command's standard error.  This  option  sup-
	presses this behaviour.  Note that the builder's standard output and er-
	ror are always written to a log file in prefix/nix/var/log/nix.

     *	--max-jobs / -j number

	Sets  the maximum number of build jobs that Nix will perform in parallel
	to the specified number.  Specify auto to use the number of CPUs in  the
	system.  The default is specified by the max-jobs configuration setting,
	which  itself defaults to 1.  A higher value is useful on SMP systems or
	to exploit I/O latency.

	Setting it to 0 disallows building on the local machine, which is useful
	when you want builds to happen only on remote builders.

     *	--cores

	Sets the value of the NIX_BUILD_CORES environment variable in the  invo-
	cation	of builders.  Builders can use this variable at their discretion
	to control the maximum amount of parallelism.  For instance, in Nixpkgs,
	if the derivation attribute enableParallelBuilding is set to  true,  the
	builder  passes  the  -jN flag to GNU Make.  It defaults to the value of
	the cores configuration setting, if set, or 1 otherwise.   The	value  0
	means that the builder should use all available CPU cores in the system.

     *	--max-silent-time

	Sets the maximum number of seconds that a builder can go without produc-
	ing any data on standard output or standard error.  The default is spec-
	ified  by  the	max-silent-time configuration setting.	0 means no time-
	out.

     *	--timeout

	Sets the maximum number of seconds that a builder can run.  The  default
	is specified by the timeout configuration setting.  0 means no timeout.

     *	--keep-going / -k

	Keep  going  in  case of failed builds, to the greatest extent possible.
	That is, if building an input of some derivation fails, Nix  will  still
	build the other inputs, but not the derivation itself.	Without this op-
	tion,  Nix  stops if any build fails (except for builds of substitutes),
	possibly killing builds in progress (in case of parallel or  distributed
	builds).

     *	--keep-failed / -K

	Specifies that in case of a build failure, the temporary directory (usu-
	ally in /tmp) in which the build takes place should not be deleted.  The
	path of the build directory is printed as an informational message.

     *	--fallback

	Whenever  Nix  attempts  to build a derivation for which substitutes are
	known for each output path, but realising the output paths  through  the
	substitutes fails, fall back on building the derivation.

	The  most common scenario in which this is useful is when we have regis-
	tered substitutes in order to perform binary distribution from,  say,  a
	network  repository.   If the repository is down, the realisation of the
	derivation will fail.  When this option is specified, Nix will build the
	derivation instead.  Thus, installation from binaries falls back on  in-
	stallation from source.  This option is not the default since it is gen-
	erally	not  desirable	for a transient failure in obtaining the substi-
	tutes to lead to a full build from source (with the related  consumption
	of resources).

     *	--readonly-mode

	When  this  option is used, no attempt is made to open the Nix database.
	Most Nix operations do need database access, so  those	operations  will
	fail.

     *	--arg name value

	This  option is accepted by nix-env, nix-instantiate, nix-shell and nix-
	build.	When evaluating Nix expressions, the expression  evaluator  will
	automatically try to call functions that it encounters.  It can automat-
	ically	call  functions  for  which  every  argument has a default value
	(e.g., { argName ?  defaultValue }: ...).

	With --arg, you can also call functions that have  arguments  without  a
	default  value (or override a default value).  That is, if the evaluator
	encounters a function with an argument named name, it will call it  with
	value value.

	For  instance,	the top-level default.nix in Nixpkgs is actually a func-
	tion:

     { # The system (e.g., `i686-linux') for which to build the packages.
     system ? builtins.currentSystem
     ...
     }: ...

	    So if you call this Nix expression (e.g., when you do nix-env  --in-
	    stall --attr pkgname), the function will be called automatically us-
	    ing  the  value builtins.currentSystem for the system argument.  You
	    can override this using --arg, e.g., nix-env --install  --attr  pkg-
	    name  --arg  system \"i686-freebsd\".  (Note that since the argument
	    is a Nix string literal, you have to escape the quotes.)

     *	--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 value

	This option is like --arg, only the value is not a Nix expression but  a
	string.  So instead of --arg system \"i686-linux\" (the outer quotes are
	to keep the shell happy) you can say --argstr system i686-linux.

     *	--attr / -A attrPath

	Select	an  attribute from the top-level Nix expression being evaluated.
	(nix-env, nix-instantiate, nix-build and nix-shell only.)  The attribute
	path attrPath is a sequence of attribute names separated by  dots.   For
	instance,  given  a  top-level	Nix  expression  e,  the  attribute path
	xorg.xorgserver would cause the expression e.xorg.xorgserver to be used.
	See nix-env --install for some concrete examples.

	In addition to attribute names, you can also specify array indices.  For
	instance, the attribute path foo.3.bar selects the bar attribute of  the
	fourth	element  of  the array in the foo attribute of the top-level ex-
	pression.

     *	--eval-store store-url

	The URL to the Nix store to use for evaluation, i.e. where to store  de-
	rivations (.drv files) and inputs referenced by them.

     *	--expr / -E

	Interpret  the command line arguments as a list of Nix expressions to be
	parsed and evaluated, rather than as a list of file names of Nix expres-
	sions.	(nix-instantiate, nix-build and nix-shell only.)

	For nix-shell, this option is commonly used to give you a shell in which
	you can build the packages returned by the expression.	If you	want  to
	get  a	shell  which contain the built packages ready for use, give your
	expression to the nix-shell --packages convenience flag instead.

     *	-I / --include path

	Add an entry to the list of search paths 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.

     *	--impure

	Allow access to mutable paths and repositories.

     *	--option name value

	Set the Nix configuration option name to value.  This overrides settings
	in the Nix configuration file (see nix.conf5).

     *	--repair

	Fix corrupted or missing store	paths  by  redownloading  or  rebuilding
	them.	Note  that  this is slow because it requires computing a crypto-
	graphic hash of the contents of every path in the closure of the  build.
	Also note the warning under nix-store --repair-path.

	Note

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

Environment variables
     *	NIX_PROFILE

	Location  of  the  Nix	profile.  Defaults  to the target of the symlink
	~/.nix-profile, if it exists,  or  /nix/var/nix/profiles/default  other-
	wise.

Common Environment Variables
     Most Nix commands interpret the following environment variables:

     *	IN_NIX_SHELL

	Indicator that tells if the current environment was set up by nix-shell.
	It can have the values pure or impure.

     *	NIX_PATH

	A  colon-separated  list  of  search path entries used to resolve lookup
	paths.

	This environment variable overrides the value of the nix-path configura-
	tion setting.

	It can be extended using the -I option.

	       Example

	$ export NIX_PATH=`/home/eelco/Dev:nixos-config=/etc/nixos

	If NIX_PATH is set to an empty string, resolving search paths  will  al-
	ways fail.

	       Example

	$ NIX_PATH= nix-instantiate --eval '<nixpkgs>'
	error: file 'nixpkgs' was not found in the Nix search path (add it using $NIX_PATH or -I)

     *	NIX_IGNORE_SYMLINK_STORE

	Normally,  the Nix store directory (typically /nix/store) is not allowed
	to contain any symlink components. This is to prevent  aimpurea  builds.
	Builders  sometimes acanonicalisea paths by resolving all symlink compo-
	nents. Thus, builds on different machines (with /nix/store resolving  to
	different  locations)  could  yield different results. This is generally
	not a problem,	except	when  builds  are  deployed  to  machines  where
	/nix/store  resolves  differently. If you are sure that youare not going
	to do that, you can set NIX_IGNORE_SYMLINK_STORE to 1.

	Note that if youare symlinking the Nix store so that you can put  it  on
	another  file  system  than the root file system, on Linux youare better
	off using bind mount points, e.g.,

     $ mkdir /nix
     $ mount -o bind /mnt/otherdisk/nix /nix

	    Consult the mount 8 manual page for details.

     *	NIX_STORE_DIR

	Overrides the location of the Nix store (default prefix/store).

     *	NIX_DATA_DIR

	Overrides the location of the Nix static data  directory  (default  pre-
	fix/share).

     *	NIX_LOG_DIR

	Overrides   the   location  of	the  Nix  log  directory  (default  pre-
	fix/var/log/nix).

     *	NIX_STATE_DIR

	Overrides  the	location  of  the  Nix	state  directory  (default  pre-
	fix/var/nix).

     *	NIX_CONF_DIR

	Overrides  the	location  of the system Nix configuration directory (de-
	fault sysconfdir/nix, i.e. /etc/nix on most systems).

     *	NIX_CONFIG

	Applies settings from Nix configuration from the environment.  The  con-
	tent  is  treated as if it was read from a Nix configuration file.  Set-
	tings are separated by the newline character.

     *	NIX_USER_CONF_FILES

	Overrides the location of the Nix user configuration files to load from.

	The default are the locations according to the XDG Base Directory Speci-
	fication.  See the XDG Base Directories sub-section for details.

	The variable is treated as a list separated by the : token.

     *	TMPDIR

	Use the specified directory to store  temporary  files.  In  particular,
	this includes temporary build directories; these can take up substantial
	amounts of disk space. The default is /tmp.

     *	NIX_REMOTE

	This  variable should be set to daemon if you want to use the Nix daemon
	to execute Nix operations. This is necessary in multi-user Nix installa-
	tions. If the Nix daemon's Unix socket is  at  some  non-standard  path,
	this  variable	should	be  set  to unix://path/to/socket. Otherwise, it
	should be left unset.

     *	NIX_SHOW_STATS

	If set to 1, Nix will print some evaluation statistics, such as the num-
	ber of values allocated.

     *	NIX_COUNT_CALLS

	If set to 1, Nix will print how often functions were called  during  Nix
	expression  evaluation.  This  is  useful for profiling your Nix expres-
	sions.

     *	GC_INITIAL_HEAP_SIZE

	If Nix has been configured to use  the	Boehm  garbage	collector,  this
	variable  sets the initial size of the heap in bytes. It defaults to 384
	MiB. Setting it to a low value reduces memory consumption, but will  in-
	crease runtime due to the overhead of garbage collection.

   XDG Base Directories
     Nix follows the XDG Base Directory Specification.

     For  backwards  compatibility,  Nix  commands will follow the standard only
     when use-xdg-base-directories is enabled.	New Nix commands  (experimental)
     conform to the standard by default.

     The following environment variables are used to determine locations of var-
     ious state and configuration files:

     *	[XDG_CONFIG_HOME]{#env-XDGCONFIGHOME} (default ~/.config)
     *	[XDG_STATE_HOME]{#env-XDGSTATEHOME} (default ~/.local/state)
     *	[XDG_CACHE_HOME]{#env-XDGCACHEHOME} (default ~/.cache)

     In  addition, setting the following environment variables overrides the XDG
     base directories:

     *	[NIX_CONFIG_HOME]{#env-NIXCONFIGHOME} (default $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nix)
     *	[NIX_STATE_HOME]{#env-NIXSTATEHOME} (default $XDG_STATE_HOME/nix)
     *	[NIX_CACHE_HOME]{#env-NIXCACHEHOME} (default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/nix)

     When use-xdg-base-directories is enabled, the configuration directory is:

     1. $NIX_CONFIG_HOME, if it is defined
     2. Otherwise, $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nix, if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is defined
     3. Otherwise, ~/.config/nix.

     Likewise for the state and cache directories.

Examples
     $ nix-env --upgrade --attr nixpkgs.gcc
     upgrading `gcc-3.3.1' to `gcc-3.4'

     When there are no updates available, nothing will happen:

     $ nix-env --upgrade --attr nixpkgs.pan

     Using -A is preferred when possible, as it is faster and unambiguous but it
     is also possible to upgrade to a specific version by matching  the  deriva-
     tion name:

     $ nix-env --upgrade gcc-3.3.2 --always
     upgrading `gcc-3.4' to `gcc-3.3.2'

     To  try  to  upgrade everything (matching packages based on the part of the
     derivation name without version):

     $ nix-env --upgrade
     upgrading `hello-2.1.2' to `hello-2.1.3'
     upgrading `mozilla-1.2' to `mozilla-1.4'

Versions
     The upgrade operation determines whether a derivation y is an upgrade of  a
     derivation  x  by	looking  at their respective name attributes.  The names
     (e.g., gcc-3.3.1 are split into two parts: the package name (gcc), and  the
     version  (3.3.1). The version part starts after the first dash not followed
     by a letter. y is considered an upgrade of x if their package names  match,
     and the version of y is higher than that of x.

     The  versions  are compared by splitting them into contiguous components of
     numbers and letters. E.g., 3.3.1pre5 is split into [3,  3,  1,  "pre",  5].
     These  lists are then compared lexicographically (from left to right). Cor-
     responding components a and b are compared as follows.  If  they  are  both
     numbers,  integer	comparison  is	used. If a is an empty string and b is a
     number, a is considered less than b. The special string component pre  (for
     pre-release)  is considered to be less than other components. String compo-
     nents are considered less than number components. Otherwise, they are  com-
     pared lexicographically (i.e., using case-sensitive string comparison).

     This is illustrated by the following examples:

     1.0 < 2.3
     2.1 < 2.3
     2.3 = 2.3
     2.5 > 2.3
     3.1 > 2.3
     2.3.1 > 2.3
     2.3.1 > 2.3a
     2.3pre1 < 2.3
     2.3pre3 < 2.3pre12
     2.3a < 2.3c
     2.3pre1 < 2.3c
     2.3pre1 < 2.3q

							    nix-env --upgrade(1)

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