Channel branches: Difference between revisions

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* Stable/unstable:

** Stable channels (<code>nixos-19.09</code>) provide conservative updates for fixing bugs and security vulnerabilities, but do not receive major updates after initial release. New stable channels are released every six months.

** Stable channels (<code>nixos-20.03</code>) provide conservative updates for fixing bugs and security vulnerabilities, but do not receive major updates after initial release. New stable channels are released every six months.

** Unstable channels (<code>nixos-unstable</code>, <code>nixpkgs-unstable</code>) correspond to the main development branch (master) of Nixpkgs, delivering the latest tested updates on a rolling basis.

* Large/small:

** Large channels (<code>nixos-19.09</code>, <code>nixos-unstable</code>) provide binary builds for the full breadth of Nixpkgs.

** Large channels (<code>nixos-20.03</code>, <code>nixos-unstable</code>) provide binary builds for the full breadth of Nixpkgs.

** Small channels (<code>nixos-19.09-small</code>, <code>nixos-unstable-small</code>) are identical to large channels, but contain fewer binaries. This means they update faster, but require more to be built from source.

** Small channels (<code>nixos-20.03-small</code>, <code>nixos-unstable-small</code>) are identical to large channels, but contain fewer binaries. This means they update faster, but require more to be built from source.

Most users will want the stable/large channel, currently <code>nixos-19.09</code>.

Most users will want the stable/large channel, currently <code>nixos-20.03</code>.

Like packages installed via <code>nix-env</code>, channels are managed at user-level. NixOS uses the channels set for the <code>root</code> user to update the system-wide configuration; channels set for other users control only the user environment for that user. If you wish to change the channel used by the system-level configuration (<code>/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</code>), ensure you run the correct <code>nix-channel</code> command as root:

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Note that updating channels won't cause a rebuild in itself; if you want to update channels and rebuild, you can ~~run~~ <code>nixos rebuild --upgrade</code> to do both in one step.

Note that updating channels won't cause a rebuild in itself; if you want to update channels and rebuild, you can use <code>nixos-rebuild</code> with the <code>--upgrade</code> flag to do both in one step.

== Channel update process ==