nix3-store-make-content-addressable(1)

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

Name
nix store make-content-addressable - rewrite a path or closure to content-addressed form

Synopsis
nix store make-content-addressable [option…] installables…

Examples

•   Create a content-addressed representation of the closure of GNU Hello:

    # nix store make-content-addressable -r nixpkgs#hello
    …
    rewrote '/nix/store/v5sv61sszx301i0x6xysaqzla09nksnd-hello-2.10' to '/nix/store/5skmmcb9svys5lj3kbsrjg7vf2irid63-hello-2.10'

    Since the resulting paths are content-addressed, they are always trusted and don’t need signatures to copied to another store:

    # nix copy --to /tmp/nix --trusted-public-keys '' /nix/store/5skmmcb9svys5lj3kbsrjg7vf2irid63-hello-2.10

    By contrast, the original closure is input-addressed, so it does need signatures to be trusted:

    # nix copy --to /tmp/nix --trusted-public-keys '' nixpkgs#hello
    cannot add path '/nix/store/zy9wbxwcygrwnh8n2w9qbbcr6zk87m26-libunistring-0.9.10' because it lacks a valid signature

•   Create a content-addressed representation of the current NixOS system closure:

    # nix store make-content-addressable -r /run/current-system

Description
This command converts the closure of the store paths specified by installables to content-addressed form. Nix store paths are usually input-addressed, meaning that the hash part of the store path is computed from the contents of the derivation (i.e., the build-time dependency graph). Input-addressed paths need to be signed by a trusted key if you want to import them into a store, because we need to trust that the contents of the path were actually built by the derivation.

By contrast, in a content-addressed path, the hash part is computed from the contents of the path. This allows the contents of the path to be verified without any additional information such as signatures. This means that a command like

    # nix store build /nix/store/5skmmcb9svys5lj3kbsrjg7vf2irid63-hello-2.10 \
        --substituters https://my-cache.example.org

will succeed even if the binary cache https://my-cache.example.org doesn’t present any signatures.

Options

•   --json
    Produce output in JSON format, suitable for consumption by another program.

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:

•   --all
    Apply the operation to every store path.

•   --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.

•   --recursive / -r
    Apply operation to closure of the specified paths.