Warning: This program is experimental and its interface is subject to change.

Name

nix run - run a Nix application

Synopsis

nix run [option...] installable args...

Examples

Run the default app from the blender-bin flake:
```
# nix run blender-bin
```
Run a non-default app from the blender-bin flake:
```
# nix run blender-bin#blender_2_83
```
Tip: you can find apps provided by this flake by running nix flake show blender-bin.
Run vim from the nixpkgs flake:
```
# nix run nixpkgs#vim
```
Note that vim (as of the time of writing of this page) is not an app but a package. Thus, Nix runs the eponymous file from the vim package.
Run vim with arguments:
```
# nix run nixpkgs#vim -- --help
```

Description

nix run builds and runs installable, which must evaluate to an app or a regular Nix derivation.

If installable evaluates to an app (see below), it executes the program specified by the app definition.

If installable evaluates to a derivation, it will try to execute the program <out>/bin/<name>, where out is the primary output store path of the derivation, and name is the first of the following that exists:

The meta.mainProgram attribute of the derivation.
The pname attribute of the derivation.
The name part of the value of the name attribute of the derivation.

For instance, if name is set to hello-1.10, nix run will run $out/bin/hello.

Flake output attributes

If no flake output attribute is given, nix run tries the following flake output attributes:

apps.<system>.default
packages.<system>.default

If an attribute name is given, nix run tries the following flake output attributes:

apps.<system>.<name>
packages.<system>.<name>
legacyPackages.<system>.<name>

Apps

An app is specified by a flake output attribute named apps.<system>.<name>. It looks like this:

apps.x86_64-linux.blender_2_79 = {
  type = "app";
  program = "${self.packages.x86_64-linux.blender_2_79}/bin/blender";
};

The only supported attributes are:

type (required): Must be set to app.
program (required): The full path of the executable to run. It must reside in the Nix store.

Options

Common evaluation options:

--arg name expr
Pass the value expr as the argument name to Nix functions.
--argstr name string
Pass the string string as the argument name to Nix functions.
--eval-store store-url
The Nix store to use for evaluations.
--impure
Allow access to mutable paths and repositories.
--include / -I path
Add path to the list of locations used to look up <...> file names.
--override-flake original-ref resolved-ref
Override the flake registries, redirecting original-ref to resolved-ref.

Common flake-related options:

--commit-lock-file
Commit changes to the flake's lock file.
--inputs-from flake-url
Use the inputs of the specified flake as registry entries.
--no-registries
Don't allow lookups in the flake registries. This option is deprecated; use --no-use-registries.
--no-update-lock-file
Do not allow any updates to the flake's lock file.
--no-write-lock-file
Do not write the flake's newly generated lock file.
--override-input input-path flake-url
Override a specific flake input (e.g. dwarffs/nixpkgs). This implies --no-write-lock-file.
--recreate-lock-file
Recreate the flake's lock file from scratch.
--update-input input-path
Update a specific flake input (ignoring its previous entry in the lock file).

Options that change the interpretation of installables:

--derivation
Operate on the store derivation rather than its outputs.
--expr expr
Interpret installables as attribute paths relative to the Nix expression expr.
--file / -f file
Interpret installables as attribute paths relative to the Nix expression stored in file. If file is the character -, then a Nix expression will be read from standard input.