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Running Nix packages

Locations and packages

Before trying to run Nix packages, make sure you have git installed. You can use which git to check for a git installation or run sudo apt install git to install it.

Now you can run Nix packages! In order to run one, you need both a location and a package.

Locations​

Locations are the source of a git repository containing a Nix flake (such as ours). For example, a location can be:

  • . for your current directory.
  • github:ComposableFi/composable for the latest commit on branch main.
  • github:ComposableFi/composable/67b4df903bf8dc2ab0634f9adf9988203a93af27 for commit 67b4df903bf8dc2ab0634f9adf9988203a93af27.

Note that for the github: locations, you do not need to clone the repository. For . you need to clone the repository and cd into it.

Packages​

Packages are defined in a repository's flake.nix. For example, a package can be:

  • composable-book which builds this book (so meta!).

If you want to see all packages defined by a repository's flake, run nix flake show "LOCATION", for example: nix flake show "github:ComposableFi/composable".

Once you know which location and package you want, simply run:

nix run "location#package"
nix run "github:ComposableFi/composable#devnet-picasso"

In case of error, append --print-build-logs --show-trace --debug --keep-derivations --keep-outputs to command.

Running in Docker​

If you do not have access to nix, but you do have access to docker, then you can run nix packages within docker as follows:

Creating a nix cache volume​

In order to save time on subsequent builds, we create a volume that caches nix artifacts:

docker volume create nix

Running your location#package​

Make sure you replace location#package with your desired location and package.

docker run -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -v nix:/nix -p 9988:9988 -it nixos/nix bash -c "nix-env -iA nixpkgs.cachix && cachix use composable && nix run location#package --print-build-logs --extra-experimental-features nix-command --extra-experimental-features flakes" --no-sandbox"

Now that you are able to run all packages, let's set up your declarative development environment!