Unfree software: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 16:36, 14 June 2025

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Unfree software refers to software that has restrictive licensing on modification and/or redistribution. This type of software cannot be freely provided or distributed in an official capacity, which means that unfree software is neither built by Hydra, nor cached on the official binary cache. Despite this, Nixpkgs offers a very large collection of unfree software as derivations, however they cannot be used by default without configuring Nixpkgs and opting in to unfree software usage.

Nixpkgs manual on allowing unfree packages

Allowing unfree software

By default, nix will refuse to evaluate any derivation containing unfree software, prompting the user to read the manual for more details. This behaviour can be configured in different ways depending on the context of the derivation.

Unfree software using Home Manager

Depending on your Home Manager installation, there are multiple ways to allow unfree software.

Standalone Home Manager

If your Home Manager configuration isn't integrated into your NixOS configuration (i.e. you switch generations using home-manager switch and not by rebuilding the whole system), then you may allow unfree software by setting the nixpkgs option in your config:

❄︎ home.nix

{ ... }:
{
  ...
  nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree = true;
}

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{FAQ/breadcrumb}}{{#tweekihide:firstHeading}}<onlyinclude>
+{{expansion}}
-== How can I install a proprietary or unfree package? ==
-You won't be able to install or search for an unfree package as a user, unless you explicitly enable it in ''~/.config/nixpkgs/config.nix'' (the file and folder may need to be created):
+Unfree software refers to software that has restrictive licensing on modification and/or redistribution. This type of software cannot be freely provided or distributed in an official capacity, which means that unfree software is neither built by [[Hydra]], nor cached on the official [[Binary Cache|binary cache]]. Despite this, Nixpkgs offers a very large collection of unfree software as derivations, however they cannot be used by default without configuring Nixpkgs and opting in to unfree software usage.
-<syntaxhighlight lang="nix">
+[https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#sec-allow-unfree Nixpkgs manual on allowing unfree packages]
-{
-  # [...]
+== Allowing unfree software ==
-  allowUnfree = true;
+By default, nix will refuse to evaluate any [[Derivations|derivation]] containing unfree software, prompting the user to read the manual for more details. This behaviour can be configured in different ways depending on the context of the derivation.
-}
-</syntaxhighlight>
-When using NixOS, it is possible to enable unfree packages system-wide, then set in your <code>/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</code>:
+=== Unfree software using Home Manager ===
+Depending on your [[Home Manager]] installation, there are multiple ways to allow unfree software.
-<syntaxhighlight lang="nix">
+==== Standalone Home Manager ====
+If your Home Manager configuration isn't integrated into your [[NixOS]] configuration (i.e. you switch generations using <code>home-manager switch</code> and not by rebuilding the whole system), then you may allow unfree software by setting the nixpkgs option in your config:
+{{File|3=<nowiki>{ ... }:
 {
-   # [...]
+   ...
    nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree = true;
-}
+}</nowiki>|name=home.nix|lang=nix}}
-</syntaxhighlight>
+[[Category:Software]]
-'''Note that this alone will not allow you to search for or install packages with nix-env.'''
+[[Category:Nixpkgs]]
-For temporary allowing unfree packages you can set the environment variable ''NIXPKGS_ALLOW_UNFREE'', e.g.
-<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">NIXPKGS_ALLOW_UNFREE=1 nix-env</syntaxhighlight>
-For whitelisting '''only specific''' unfree packages or unfree licenses
-see the [https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/manual/#sec-allow-unfree "Installing unfree packages" section]
-of the Nixpkgs manual.
-Note that we are not able to test or build unfree software on Hydra
-due to policy. Most unfree licenses prohibit us from either executing or
-distributing the software.
-</onlyinclude>