Searching packages: Difference between revisions

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There is a web service to search with

: [[~~channels~~]]

: [[channel branches]]

:* Nix packages at [https://search.nixos.org/packages search.nixos.org/packages]

:* NixOS options at [https://search.nixos.org/options search.nixos.org/options]

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* allows filters

* nice GUI in browser

* browser extensions possible (like @~~nixpgs~~ as search engine in Firefox)

* browser extensions possible (like @nixpkgs as search engine in Firefox)

; cons:

* always requires Internet connection

If you'd like to search with this web service from the command line, you may use [https://github.com/peterldowns/nix-search-cli peterldowns/nix-search-cli]. It provides exactly the same search experience by default.

== Other online sites for searching ==

These are another possible places to search

* [https://github.com/search?q=language%3ANix+&type=code github.com] - search for regex/strings in nixpkgs, home-manager, nix-darwin and any other public github repos.

* [https://mynixos.com mynixos.com] - search for packages in nixpkgs, also nixos, home-manager, nix-darwin options. Not foss and unofficial.

* [https://home-manager-options.extranix.com home-manager-options.extranix.com] - search for home-manager options. [https://github.com/mipmip/home-manager-option-search foss]

== Using the <code>nix search</code> command ==

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* requires disk space for caching

* quite long command

There are third party tools that allow searching for packages similarly to <code>nix search</code>, namely:

* [https://github.com/diamondburned/nix-search diamondburned/nix-search]: A faster and channel-compatible <code>nix search</code> using only stable Nix tools (no [[flakes]] required) which creates a local database with a package index.

== Using the <code>nix-env</code> command ==

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== Reverse search: searching which package provides a file ==

There is third party programs [https://github.com/nix-community/nix-index nix-index]~~, and~~ [https://~~wiki~~.~~nixos~~.~~org~~/~~wiki~~/~~Flakes rippkgs~~] to ~~find which package provides a given file~~. ~~This is particularly useful when you are looking for a very specific file but you don't know which package installs it~~.

There are third party programs that make it easier to determine which package you need to install in order to obtain a specific file or program.

These are most commonly used, and require you to create an index on your computer before you can search for a package:

* [https://github.com/nix-community/nix-index nix-community/nix-index]

* [https://github.com/replit/rippkgs replit/rippkgs]

These are online tools which search an index someone else keeps up to date:

* [https://github.com/peterldowns/nix-search-cli peterldowns/nix-search-cli]: <code>nix-search -p theBinaryIWantToInstall</code> to search the search.nixos.org elasticsearch index.

[[Category:Reference]]

[[Category:Nixpkgs]]

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 There is a web service to search with
-: [[channels]]
+: [[channel branches]]
 :* Nix packages at [https://search.nixos.org/packages search.nixos.org/packages]
 :* NixOS options at [https://search.nixos.org/options search.nixos.org/options]
@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 * allows filters
 * nice GUI in browser
-* browser extensions possible (like @nixpgs as search engine in Firefox)
+* browser extensions possible (like @nixpkgs as search engine in Firefox)
 ; cons:
 * always requires Internet connection
+If you'd like to search with this web service from the command line, you may use [https://github.com/peterldowns/nix-search-cli peterldowns/nix-search-cli]. It provides exactly the same search experience by default.
+== Other online sites for searching ==
+These are another possible places to search
+* [https://github.com/search?q=language%3ANix+&type=code github.com] - search for regex/strings in nixpkgs, home-manager, nix-darwin and any other public github repos.
+* [https://mynixos.com mynixos.com] - search for packages in nixpkgs, also nixos, home-manager, nix-darwin options. Not foss and unofficial.
+* [https://home-manager-options.extranix.com home-manager-options.extranix.com] - search for home-manager options. [https://github.com/mipmip/home-manager-option-search foss]
 == Using the <code>nix search</code> command ==
@@ Line 31: / Line 42: @@
 * requires disk space for caching
 * quite long command
+There are third party tools that allow searching for packages similarly to <code>nix search</code>, namely:
+* [https://github.com/diamondburned/nix-search diamondburned/nix-search]: A faster and channel-compatible <code>nix search</code> using only stable Nix tools (no [[flakes]] required) which creates a local database with a package index.
 == Using the <code>nix-env</code> command ==
@@ Line 65: / Line 80: @@
 == Reverse search: searching which package provides a file ==
-There is third party programs [https://github.com/nix-community/nix-index nix-index], and [https://wiki.nixos.org/wiki/Flakes rippkgs] to find which package provides a given file. This is particularly useful when you are looking for a very specific file but you don't know which package installs it.
+There are third party programs that make it easier to determine which package you need to install in order to obtain a specific file or program.
+These are most commonly used, and require you to create an index on your computer before you can search for a package:
+* [https://github.com/nix-community/nix-index nix-community/nix-index]
+* [https://github.com/replit/rippkgs replit/rippkgs]
+These are online tools which search an index someone else keeps up to date:
+* [https://github.com/peterldowns/nix-search-cli peterldowns/nix-search-cli]: <code>nix-search -p theBinaryIWantToInstall</code> to search the search.nixos.org elasticsearch index.
 [[Category:Reference]]
 [[Category:Nixpkgs]]