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nix — A powerful package manager that makes package management reliable, reproducible, and declarative. So

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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Problem

How to use the nix command: A powerful package manager that makes package management reliable, reproducible, and declarative. Some features of nix (nix command, flakes, etc) are experimental and require enabling experimental features. Some subcommands such as build, develop, flake, registry, profile, search, repl, store, edit, why-depends, etc. have their own usage documentation. See also: nix classic. More information: <https://nix.dev/manual/nix/stable/command-ref/new-cli/nix>.

Solution

nix — A powerful package manager that makes package management reliable, reproducible, and declarative. Some features of nix (nix command, flakes, etc) are experimental and require enabling experimental features. Some subcommands such as build, develop, flake, registry, profile, search, repl, store, edit, why-depends, etc. have their own usage documentation. See also: nix classic. More information: <https://nix.dev/manual/nix/stable/command-ref/new-cli/nix>.

Enable the nix command:

mkdir {{[-p|--parents]}} ~/.config/nix; echo 'experimental-features = nix-command flakes' > ~/.config/nix/nix.conf

Search for a package in nixpkgs via its name or description:

nix search nixpkgs {{search_term}}

Start a shell with the specified packages from nixpkgs available:

nix shell {{nixpkgs#pkg1 nixpkgs#pkg2 nixpkgs#pkg3 ...}}

Install some packages from nixpkgs permanently:

nix profile install {{nixpkgs#pkg1 nixpkgs#pkg2 nixpkgs#pkg3 ...}}

Remove unused paths from Nix store to free up space:

nix store gc

Start an interactive environment for evaluating Nix expressions:

nix repl

Display help for a specific subcommand:

nix help {{subcommand}}

Code Snippets

Enable the `nix` command

mkdir {{[-p|--parents]}} ~/.config/nix; echo 'experimental-features = nix-command flakes' > ~/.config/nix/nix.conf

Search for a package in nixpkgs via its name or description

nix search nixpkgs {{search_term}}

Start a shell with the specified packages from nixpkgs available

nix shell {{nixpkgs#pkg1 nixpkgs#pkg2 nixpkgs#pkg3 ...}}

Install some packages from nixpkgs permanently

nix profile install {{nixpkgs#pkg1 nixpkgs#pkg2 nixpkgs#pkg3 ...}}

Remove unused paths from Nix store to free up space

nix store gc

Context

tldr-pages: common/nix

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