Nixpkgs

Nixpkgs 是最大的 Nix 软件包储存库和 NixOS 模组。储存库 托管在 GitHub 上 并且由社群维护，另外还有 NixOS Foundation 的官方支持。

寻找可用的套件和选项，请看 寻找套件。

如同在 NixOS 21.05 释出 发布会 所强调的，“NixOS 已经被认为是 最即时更新的发行版 和 第三多软件包的发行版。” 这归功于社群的持续贡献使 Nixpkgs 成为最重要且最强大的 Linux 软件包储存库。

子页面

There are a number of articles especially related to working with nixpkgs:

Releases

Main article: Channel branches

The packages and modules hosted on Nixpkgs are distributed through various channel branches intended for particular use-cases. In practice they are differentiated by the level of testing updates must pass on the official nixos.org Hydra instance and the number of updates they receive.

For NixOS users, nixos-unstable channel branch is the rolling release, where packages pass build tests and integration tests on a VM, and are tested from the perspective of being an operative system (this means things like the X server, KDE, various servers, and lower level details like installing bootloaders and running the NixOS installation steps are also tested).

For standalone Nix users, nixpkgs-unstable channel branch is the rolling release, where packages pass only basic build tests and are upgraded continuously.

Both NixOS and Nix users can use stable channel branches - the latest being nixos-24.11 - to receive only conservative updates for fixing critical bugs and security vulnerabilities. Stable channel branches are released bi-annually at the end of May and the end of November.

Using stable channels on NixOS is comparable to the user experience on other Linux distributions.

Alternatives

Due to the fact that Nixpkgs is only a Nix expression, it is possible to extend or replace the logic with your own sources. In fact, there are a number of extensions as well as complete replacements for Nixpkgs, see the Alternative Package Sets article.