Searching packages

There are a different ways to search for a package name in the nix package manager.

The NixOS packages search engine

There is a website that let you search for Nix packages and NixOS options at https://search.nixos.org/

• pros
  • it's easy to use
  • allow filters
• cons
  • it requires Internet

Using nix search command

While this command is still experimental, you can use it to search for a package. It may be slow the first time, but further runs will use cached results.

$ nix --extra-experimental-features "nix-command flakes" search nixpkgs firefox

Using the nix-env command

It's possible to search for a package using nix-env -qaP

• pros
  • works offline
• cons
  • it's very slow and requires a lot of memory

Interactive package browsing with the repl

You can use the nix repl to load the nixpkgs repository and then use the auto completion to search for packages.

$ nix repl
Welcome to Nix 2.8.1. Type :? for help.

nix-repl> :load <nixpkgs>
Added 16519 variables.

nix-repl> firef[PRESS TAB]

Reverse search: searching which package provides a file

It's possible to use the third party program nix-index 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.