A fast, friendly, and reliable tool to help you use Nix with Flakes everywhere.
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install
The nix-installer
has successfully completed over 2,000,000 installs in a number of environments, including Github Actions and GitLab:
Platform | Multi User | root only |
Maturity |
---|---|---|---|
Linux (x86_64 & aarch64) | âś“ (via systemd) | âś“ | Stable |
MacOS (x86_64 & aarch64) | âś“ | Stable (See note) | |
Valve Steam Deck (SteamOS) | âś“ | Stable | |
WSL2 (x86_64 & aarch64) | âś“ (via systemd) | âś“ | Stable |
Podman Linux Containers | âś“ (via systemd) | âś“ | Stable |
Docker Containers | âś“ | Stable |
Note
On MacOS only, removing users and/or groups may fail if there are no users who are logged in graphically.
Install Nix with the default planner and options:
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install
Or, to download a platform specific Installer binary yourself:
$ curl -sL -o nix-installer https://install.determinate.systems/nix/nix-installer-x86_64-linux
$ chmod +x nix-installer
$ ./nix-installer
nix-installer
installs Nix by following a plan made by a planner. Review the available planners:
foo@ubuntuserver2204:~$ ./nix-installer install --help
Install Nix using a planner
By default, an appropriate planner is heuristically determined based on the system.
Some planners have additional options which can be set from the planner's subcommand.
Usage: nix-installer install [OPTIONS] [PLAN]
nix-installer install <COMMAND>
Commands:
linux A planner for traditional, mutable Linux systems like Debian, RHEL, or Arch
steam-deck A planner for the Valve Steam Deck running SteamOS
ostree A planner suitable for immutable systems using ostree, such as Fedora Silverblue
help Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)
# ...
Planners have their own options and defaults, sharing most of them in common:
$ ./nix-installer install linux --help
A planner for Linux installs
Usage: nix-installer install linux [OPTIONS]
Options:
# ...
--nix-build-group-name <NIX_BUILD_GROUP_NAME>
The Nix build group name
[env: NIX_INSTALLER_NIX_BUILD_GROUP_NAME=]
[default: nixbld]
--nix-build-group-id <NIX_BUILD_GROUP_ID>
The Nix build group GID
[env: NIX_INSTALLER_NIX_BUILD_GROUP_ID=]
[default: 3000]
# ...
Planners can be configured via environment variable or command arguments:
$ curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | NIX_BUILD_GROUP_NAME=nixbuilder sh -s -- install --nix-build-group-id 4000
# Or...
$ NIX_BUILD_GROUP_NAME=nixbuilder ./nix-installer install --nix-build-group-id 4000
Having problems with the installer? Consult our troubleshooting guide to see if your problem is covered.
You can upgrade Nix to our currently recommended version of Nix by running:
sudo -i nix upgrade-nix
Alternatively, you can uninstall and reinstall with a different version of the nix-installer
.
You can remove a nix-installer
-installed Nix by running
/nix/nix-installer uninstall
You can use the nix-installer-action
Github Action like so:
on:
pull_request:
push:
branches: [main]
jobs:
lints:
name: Build
runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v3
- name: Install Nix
uses: DeterminateSystems/nix-installer-action@main
- name: Run `nix build`
run: nix build .
GitLab CI runners are typically Docker based and run as the root
user. This means systemd
is not present, so the --init none
option needs to be passed to the Linux planner.
On the default GitLab.com runners, nix
can be installed and used like so:
test:
script:
- curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install linux --no-confirm --init none
- . /nix/var/nix/profiles/default/etc/profile.d/nix-daemon.sh
- nix run nixpkgs#hello
- nix profile install nixpkgs#hello
- hello
If you are using different runners, the above example may need to be adjusted.
Warning
When --init none
is used, only root
or users who can elevate to root
privileges can run Nix:
sudo -i nix run nixpkgs#hello
If you don't use systemd, you can still install Nix by explicitly specifying the linux
plan and --init none
:
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install linux --init none
In Docker/Podman containers or WSL2 instances where an init (like systemd
) is not present, pass --init none
.
For containers (without an init):
Warning
When --init none
is used, only root
or users who can elevate to root
privileges can run Nix:
sudo -i nix run nixpkgs#hello
# Dockerfile
FROM ubuntu:latest
RUN apt update -y
RUN apt install curl -y
RUN curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install linux \
--extra-conf "sandbox = false" \
--init none \
--no-confirm
ENV PATH="${PATH}:/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin"
RUN nix run nixpkgs#hello
docker build -t ubuntu-with-nix .
docker run --rm -ti ubuntu-with-nix
docker rmi ubuntu-with-nix
# or
podman build -t ubuntu-with-nix .
podman run --rm -ti ubuntu-with-nix
podman rmi ubuntu-with-nix
For containers with a systemd init:
# Dockerfile
FROM ubuntu:latest
RUN apt update -y
RUN apt install curl systemd -y
RUN curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install linux \
--extra-conf "sandbox = false" \
--no-start-daemon \
--no-confirm
ENV PATH="${PATH}:/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin"
RUN nix run nixpkgs#hello
CMD [ "/bin/systemd" ]
podman build -t ubuntu-systemd-with-nix .
IMAGE=$(podman create ubuntu-systemd-with-nix)
CONTAINER=$(podman start $IMAGE)
podman exec -ti $CONTAINER /bin/bash
podman rm -f $CONTAINER
podman rmi $IMAGE
On some container tools, such as docker
, sandbox = false
can be omitted. Omitting it will negatively impact compatibility with container tools like podman
.
We strongly recommend enabling systemd, then installing Nix as normal:
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install
If WSLg is enabled, you can do things like open a Linux Firefox from Windows on Powershell:
wsl nix run nixpkgs#firefox
To use some OpenGL applications, you can use nixGL
(note that some applications, such as blender
, may not work):
wsl nix run --impure github:guibou/nixGL nix run nixpkgs#obs-studio
If enabling systemd is not an option, pass --init none
at the end of the command:
Warning
When --init none
is used, only root
or users who can elevate to root
privileges can run Nix:
sudo -i nix run nixpkgs#hello
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install linux --init none
If you'd like to bypass the confirmation step, you can apply the --no-confirm
flag:
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install --no-confirm
This is especially useful when using the installer in non-interactive scripts.
While nix-installer
tries to provide a comprehensive and unquirky experience, there are unfortunately some issues which may require manual intervention or operator choices.
If nix
was previously uninstalled without uninstalling nix-darwin
first, users may experience errors similar to this:
$ nix shell nixpkgs#curl
error: unable to download 'https://cache.nixos.org/g8bqlgmpa4yg601w561qy2n576i6g0vh.narinfo': Problem with the SSL CA cert (path? access rights?) (77)
This occurs because nix-darwin
provisions an org.nixos.activate-system
service which remains after Nix is uninstalled.
The org.nixos.activate-system
service in this state interacts with the newly installed Nix and changes the SSL certificates it uses to be a broken symlink.
$ ls -lah /etc/ssl/certs
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 96B Oct 17 08:26 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 root wheel 192B Sep 16 06:28 ..
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 41B Oct 17 08:26 ca-certificates.crt -> /etc/static/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
The problem is compounded by the matter that the nix-darwin
uninstaller will not work after uninstalling Nix, since it uses Nix and requires network connectivity.
It's possible to resolve this situation by removing the org.nixos.activate-system
service and the ca-certificates
:
$ sudo rm /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.nixos.activate-system.plist
$ sudo launchctl bootout system/org.nixos.activate-system
$ /nix/nix-installer uninstall
$ sudo rm /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
Then run the nix-installer
again, and it should work.
Up-to-date versions of the nix-installer
will refuse to uninstall until nix-darwin
is uninstalled first, helping mitigate this problem.
Since you'll be using nix-installer
to install Nix on systems without Nix, the default build is a static binary.
Build a portable Linux binary on a system with Nix:
# to build a local copy
nix build -L ".#nix-installer-static"
# to build the remote main development branch
nix build -L "github:determinatesystems/nix-installer#nix-installer-static"
# for a specific version of the installer:
export NIX_INSTALLER_TAG="v0.6.0"
nix build -L "github:determinatesystems/nix-installer/$NIX_INSTALLER_TAG#nix-installer-static"
On Mac:
# to build a local copy
nix build -L ".#nix-installer"
# to build the remote main development branch
nix build -L "github:determinatesystems/nix-installer#nix-installer"
# for a specific version of the installer:
export NIX_INSTALLER_TAG="v0.6.0"
nix build -L "github:determinatesystems/nix-installer/$NIX_INSTALLER_TAG#nix-installer"
Then copy the result/bin/nix-installer
to the machine you wish to run it on.
You can also add nix-installer
to a system without Nix via cargo
, there are no system dependencies to worry about:
# to build and run a local copy
RUSTFLAGS="--cfg tokio_unstable" cargo run -- --help
# to build the remote main development branch
RUSTFLAGS="--cfg tokio_unstable" cargo install --git https://github.com/DeterminateSystems/nix-installer
nix-installer --help
# for a specific version of the installer:
export NIX_INSTALLER_TAG="v0.6.0"
RUSTFLAGS="--cfg tokio_unstable" cargo install --git https://github.com/DeterminateSystems/nix-installer --tag $NIX_INSTALLER_TAG
nix-installer --help
To make this build portable, pass --target x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
.
Note
We currently require --cfg tokio_unstable
as we utilize Tokio's process groups, which wrap stable std
APIs, but are unstable due to it requiring an MSRV bump.
Warning
Use as a library is still experimental. This feature is likely to be removed in the future without an advocate. If you're using this, please let us know and we can make a path to stabilization.
Add nix-installer
to your dependencies:
cargo add nix-installer
If you are building a CLI, check out the cli
feature flag for clap
integration.
You'll also need to edit your .cargo/config.toml
to use tokio_unstable
as we utilize Tokio's process groups, which wrap stable std
APIs, but are unstable due to it requiring an MSRV bump:
# .cargo/config.toml
[build]
rustflags=["--cfg", "tokio_unstable"]
You'll also need to set the NIX_INSTALLER_TARBALL_PATH
environment variable to point to a target-appropriate Nix installation tarball, like nix-2.21.2-aarch64-darwin.tar.xz.
The contents are embedded in the resulting binary instead of downloaded at installation time.
Then it's possible to review the documentation:
cargo doc --open -p nix-installer
Documentation is also available via nix
build:
nix build github:DeterminateSystems/nix-installer#nix-installer.doc
firefox result-doc/nix-installer/index.html
For users who desire version pinning, the version of nix-installer
to use can be specified in the curl
command:
VERSION="v0.6.0"
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix/tag/${VERSION} | sh -s -- install
To discover which versions are available, or download the binaries for any release, check the Github Releases.
These releases can be downloaded and used directly:
VERSION="v0.6.0"
ARCH="aarch64-linux"
curl -sSf -L https://github.com/DeterminateSystems/nix-installer/releases/download/${VERSION}/nix-installer-${ARCH} -o nix-installer
./nix-installer install
Each installer version has an associated supported nix version -- if you pin the installer version, you'll also indirectly pin to the associated nix version.
You can also override the nix
version via --nix-package-url
or NIX_INSTALLER_NIX_PACKAGE_URL=
but doing so is not recommended since we haven't tested that combination.
Here are some example nix
package URLs including nix version, OS and architecture:
- https://releases.nixos.org/nix/nix-2.18.1/nix-2.18.1-x86_64-linux.tar.xz
- https://releases.nixos.org/nix/nix-2.18.1/nix-2.18.1-aarch64-darwin.tar.xz
Differing from the upstream Nix installer scripts:
- In
nix.conf
:- the
nix-command
andflakes
features are enabled bash-prompt-prefix
is setauto-optimise-store
is set totrue
(On Linux only)
always-allow-substitutes
is set totrue
extra-nix-path
is set tonixpkgs=flake:nixpkgs
max-jobs
is set toauto
upgrade-nix-store-path-url
is set tohttps://install.determinate.systems/nix-upgrade/stable/universal
, to prevent unintentional downgrades.
- the
- an installation receipt (for uninstalling) is stored at
/nix/receipt.json
as well as a copy of the install binary at/nix/nix-installer
nix-channel --update
is not run,~/.nix-channels
is not provisionedssl-cert-file
is set in/etc/nix/nix.conf
if thessl-cert-file
argument is used.
The existing upstream scripts do a good job, however they are difficult to maintain.
Subtle differences in the shell implementations and tool used in the scripts make it difficult to make meaningful changes to the installer.
The Determinate Nix installer has numerous advantages:
- survives macOS upgrades
- keeping an installation receipt for easy uninstallation
- offering users a chance to review an accurate, calculated install plan
- having 'planners' which can create appropriate install plans for complicated targets
- offering users with a failing install the chance to do a best-effort revert
- improving performance by maximizing parallel operations
- supporting a expanded test suite including 'curing' cases
- supporting SELinux and OSTree based distributions without asking users to make compromises
- operating as a single, static binary with external dependencies such as
openssl
, only calling existing system tools (likeuseradd
) where necessary - As a MacOS remote build target, ensures
nix
is not absent from path
It has been wonderful to collaborate with other participants in the Nix Installer Working Group and members of the broader community. The working group maintains a foundation owned fork of the installer.
The Determinate Nix Installer provides a variety of configuration settings, some general and some on a per-command basis.
All settings are available via flags or via NIX_INSTALLER_*
environment variables.
These settings are available for all commands.
Flag(s) | Description | Default (if any) | Environment variable |
---|---|---|---|
--log-directives |
Tracing directives delimited by comma | NIX_INSTALLER_LOG_DIRECTIVES |
|
--logger |
Which logger to use (options are compact , full , pretty , and json ) |
compact |
NIX_INSTALLER_LOGGER |
--verbose |
Enable debug logs, (-vv for trace) |
false |
NIX_INSTALLER_VERBOSITY |
Flag(s) | Description | Default (if any) | Environment variable |
---|---|---|---|
--diagnostic-attribution |
Relate the install diagnostic to a specific value | NIX_INSTALLER_DIAGNOSTIC_ATTRIBUTION |
|
--diagnostic-endpoint |
The URL or file path for an installation diagnostic to be sent | https://install.determinate.systems/nix/diagnostic |
NIX_INSTALLER_DIAGNOSTIC_ENDPOINT |
--explain |
Provide an explanation of the changes the installation process will make to your system | false |
NIX_INSTALLER_EXPLAIN |
--extra-conf |
Extra configuration lines for /etc/nix.conf |
NIX_INSTALLER_EXTRA_CONF |
|
--force |
If nix-installer should forcibly recreate files it finds existing |
false |
NIX_INSTALLER_FORCE |
--init |
Which init system to configure (if --init none Nix will be root-only) |
launchd (macOS), systemd (Linux) |
NIX_INSTALLER_INIT |
--nix-build-group-id |
The Nix build group GID | 30000 |
NIX_INSTALLER_NIX_BUILD_GROUP_ID |
--nix-build-group-name |
The Nix build group name | nixbld |
NIX_INSTALLER_NIX_BUILD_GROUP_NAME |
--nix-build-user-count |
The number of build users to create | 32 |
NIX_INSTALLER_NIX_BUILD_USER_COUNT |
--nix-build-user-id-base |
The Nix build user base UID (ascending) | 300 (macOS), 30000 (Linux) |
NIX_INSTALLER_NIX_BUILD_USER_ID_BASE |
--nix-build-user-prefix |
The Nix build user prefix (user numbers will be postfixed) | _nixbld (macOS), nixbld (Linux) |
NIX_INSTALLER_NIX_BUILD_USER_PREFIX |
--nix-package-url |
The Nix package URL | NIX_INSTALLER_NIX_PACKAGE_URL |
|
--no-confirm |
Run installation without requiring explicit user confirmation | false |
NIX_INSTALLER_NO_CONFIRM |
--no-modify-profile |
Modify the user profile to automatically load Nix. | true |
NIX_INSTALLER_MODIFY_PROFILE |
--proxy |
The proxy to use (if any); valid proxy bases are https://$URL , https://$URL and socks5:https://$URL |
NIX_INSTALLER_PROXY |
|
--ssl-cert-file |
An SSL cert to use (if any); used for fetching Nix and sets ssl-cert-file in /etc/nix/nix.conf |
NIX_INSTALLER_SSL_CERT_FILE |
|
--no-start-daemon |
Start the daemon (if not --init none ) |
true |
NIX_INSTALLER_START_DAEMON |
You can also specify a planner with the first argument:
nix-installer install <plan>
Alternatively, you can use the NIX_INSTALLER_PLAN
environment variable:
NIX_INSTALLER_PLAN=<plan> nix-installer install
Flag(s) | Description | Default (if any) | Environment variable |
---|---|---|---|
--explain |
Provide an explanation of the changes the installation process will make to your system | false |
NIX_INSTALLER_EXPLAIN |
--no-confirm |
Run installation without requiring explicit user confirmation | false |
NIX_INSTALLER_NO_CONFIRM |
You can also specify an installation receipt as the first argument (the default is /nix/receipt.json
):
nix-installer uninstall /path/to/receipt.json
Flag(s) | Description | Default (if any) | Environment variable |
---|---|---|---|
--out-file |
Where to write the generated plan (in JSON format) | /dev/stdout |
NIX_INSTALLER_PLAN_OUT_FILE |
Flag(s) | Description | Default (if any) | Environment variable |
---|---|---|---|
--no-confirm |
Run installation without requiring explicit user confirmation | false |
NIX_INSTALLER_NO_CONFIRM |
nix-installer self-test
only takes general settings.
The goal of the Determinate Nix Installer is to successfully and correctly install Nix.
The curl | sh
pipeline and the installer collects a little bit of diagnostic information to help us make that true.
Here is a table of the diagnostic data we collect:
Field | Use |
---|---|
version |
The version of the Determinate Nix Installer. |
planner |
The method of installing Nix (linux , macos , steam-deck ) |
configured_settings |
The names of planner settings which were changed from their default. Does not include the values. |
os_name |
The running operating system. |
os_version |
The version of the operating system. |
triple |
The architecture/operating system/binary format of your system. |
is_ci |
Whether the installer is being used in CI (e.g. GitHub Actions). |
action |
Either Install or Uninstall . |
status |
One of Success , Failure , Pending , or Cancelled . |
attribution |
Optionally defined by the user, associate the diagnostics of this run to the provided value. |
failure_chain |
A high level description of what the failure was, if any. For example: Command("diskutil") if the command diskutil list failed. |
To disable diagnostic reporting, set the diagnostics URL to an empty string by passing --diagnostic-endpoint=""
or setting NIX_INSTALLER_DIAGNOSTIC_ENDPOINT=""
.
You can read the full privacy policy for Determinate Systems, the creators of the Determinate Nix Installer, here.