Searching packages
There are numerous approaches available for searching substrings within both package names and package descriptions in nixpkgs.
Using search.nixos.org website
There is a web service to search for
- with channels
- Nix packages at search.nixos.org/packages
- NixOS options at search.nixos.org/options
- with flakes
- packages at search.nixos.org/flakes?type=packages
- options at search.nixos.org/flakes?type=options
- pros
- easy to use
- allows filters
- nice GUI in browser
- browser extensions possible (like @nixpgs as search engine in Firefox)
- cons
- always requires Internet connection
Using the 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
- pros
- fast
- possible offline usage
- cons
- requires disk space for caching
- quite long command
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
Using the nix repl environment
With the read–eval–print loop (REPL) of nix you can browse packages interactively.
Starting the nix repl
nix repl
Welcome to Nix 2.8.1. Type :? for help.
nix-repl>
Loading the repository for nixpkgs
nix-repl>
:load <nixpkgs>
Added 16519 variables.
Type the first letters of a package
nix-repl>
firef
Press Tab ↹ key for auto completion
Reverse search: searching which package provides a file
There is a 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.