Unfree Software

Hydra does not test or build unfree software by policy. Most unfree licenses have restrictions on software distribution.

This method works for both NixOS system level configuration and standalone Home manager:

/etc/nixos/configuration.nix

{
  allowUnfreePredicate = pkg: builtins.elem (lib.getName pkg) [
    "vscode"
  ];
}

This method works for NixOS system-level configuration:

/etc/nixos/configuration.nix

{
  nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree = true;
}

You won't be able to install or search for an unfree package as a user unless you explicitly enable it:

~/.config/nixpkgs/config.nix

{
  allowUnfree = true;
}

For temporary allowing unfree packages, you can use an environment variable:

$ NIXPKGS_ALLOW_UNFREE=1 nix-shell -p vscode

Note for the new nix3-style commands, you need to pass --impure as well:

$ NIXPKGS_ALLOW_UNFREE=1 nix run nixpkgs#vscode --impure