Nix/doc/manual/src/command-ref/files/manifest.nix.md
Valentin Gagarin f8620758aa display documentation on manifest files separately
it's probably better not to show the manifest file documentation in the
command-specific pages, because these are implementation details that are not really practically useful.

this means no additional hassle for building the manual, but clutters
the table of contents a bit.
2023-04-28 12:10:36 +02:00

3.4 KiB

manifest.nix

The manifest file records the provenance of the packages that are installed in a profile managed by nix-env.

Here is an example of how this file might look like after installing hello from Nixpkgs:

[{
  meta = {
    available = true;
    broken = false;
    changelog =
      "https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/hello.git/plain/NEWS?h=v2.12.1";
    description = "A program that produces a familiar, friendly greeting";
    homepage = "https://www.gnu.org/software/hello/manual/";
    insecure = false;
    license = {
      deprecated = false;
      free = true;
      fullName = "GNU General Public License v3.0 or later";
      redistributable = true;
      shortName = "gpl3Plus";
      spdxId = "GPL-3.0-or-later";
      url = "https://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-3.0-or-later.html";
    };
    longDescription = ''
      GNU Hello is a program that prints "Hello, world!" when you run it.
      It is fully customizable.
    '';
    maintainers = [{
      email = "edolstra+nixpkgs@gmail.com";
      github = "edolstra";
      githubId = 1148549;
      name = "Eelco Dolstra";
    }];
    name = "hello-2.12.1";
    outputsToInstall = [ "out" ];
    platforms = [
      "i686-cygwin"
      "x86_64-cygwin"
      "x86_64-darwin"
      "i686-darwin"
      "aarch64-darwin"
      "armv7a-darwin"
      "i686-freebsd13"
      "x86_64-freebsd13"
      "aarch64-genode"
      "i686-genode"
      "x86_64-genode"
      "x86_64-solaris"
      "js-ghcjs"
      "aarch64-linux"
      "armv5tel-linux"
      "armv6l-linux"
      "armv7a-linux"
      "armv7l-linux"
      "i686-linux"
      "m68k-linux"
      "microblaze-linux"
      "microblazeel-linux"
      "mipsel-linux"
      "mips64el-linux"
      "powerpc64-linux"
      "powerpc64le-linux"
      "riscv32-linux"
      "riscv64-linux"
      "s390-linux"
      "s390x-linux"
      "x86_64-linux"
      "mmix-mmixware"
      "aarch64-netbsd"
      "armv6l-netbsd"
      "armv7a-netbsd"
      "armv7l-netbsd"
      "i686-netbsd"
      "m68k-netbsd"
      "mipsel-netbsd"
      "powerpc-netbsd"
      "riscv32-netbsd"
      "riscv64-netbsd"
      "x86_64-netbsd"
      "aarch64_be-none"
      "aarch64-none"
      "arm-none"
      "armv6l-none"
      "avr-none"
      "i686-none"
      "microblaze-none"
      "microblazeel-none"
      "msp430-none"
      "or1k-none"
      "m68k-none"
      "powerpc-none"
      "powerpcle-none"
      "riscv32-none"
      "riscv64-none"
      "rx-none"
      "s390-none"
      "s390x-none"
      "vc4-none"
      "x86_64-none"
      "i686-openbsd"
      "x86_64-openbsd"
      "x86_64-redox"
      "wasm64-wasi"
      "wasm32-wasi"
      "x86_64-windows"
      "i686-windows"
    ];
    position =
      "/nix/store/7niq32w715567hbph0q13m5lqna64c1s-nixos-unstable.tar.gz/nixos-unstable.tar.gz/pkgs/applications/misc/hello/default.nix:34";
    unfree = false;
    unsupported = false;
  };
  name = "hello-2.12.1";
  out = {
    outPath = "/nix/store/260q5867crm1xjs4khgqpl6vr9kywql1-hello-2.12.1";
  };
  outPath = "/nix/store/260q5867crm1xjs4khgqpl6vr9kywql1-hello-2.12.1";
  outputs = [ "out" ];
  system = "x86_64-linux";
  type = "derivation";
}]

Each element in this list corresponds to an installed package. It incorporates some attributes of the original derivation, including meta, name, out, outPath, outputs, system. This information is used by Nix for querying and updating the package.