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Split nix-env and nix-store documentation per-subcommand

Browse source 
Documentation on "classic" commands with many sub-commands are
notoriously hard to discover due to lack of overview and anchor links.
Additionally the information on common options and environment variables
is not accessible offline in man pages, and therefore often overlooked
by readers.

With this change, each sub-command of nix-store and nix-env gets its
own page in the manual (listed in the table of contents), and each own
man page.

Also, man pages for each subcommand now (again) list common options
and environment variables. While this makes each page quite long and
some common parameters don't apply, this should still make it easier
to navigate as that additional information was not accessible on the
command line at all.

It is now possible to run 'nix-store --<subcommand> --help` to display
help pages for the given subcommand.

Co-authored-by: Valentin Gagarin <valentin.gagarin@tweag.io>
This commit is contained in:
Alexander Bantyev 2023-03-23 19:27:41 +04:00 • committed by Valentin Gagarin
parent 84c2c09ec2
commit 36b059748d
52 changed files with 2171 additions and 1715 deletions
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48
doc/manual/src/command-ref/opt-common.md
View file

@ -2,13 +2,13 @@
Most Nix commands accept the following command-line options:
- [`--help`]{#opt-help}\
- <span id="opt-help">[`--help`](#opt-help)</span>\
Prints out a summary of the command syntax and exits.
- [`--version`]{#opt-version}\
- <span id="opt-version">[`--version`](#opt-version)</span>\
Prints out the Nix version number on standard output and exits.
- [`--verbose`]{#opt-verbose} / `-v`\
- <span id="opt-verbose">[`--verbose`](#opt-verbose)</span> / `-v`\
Increases the level of verbosity of diagnostic messages printed on
standard error. For each Nix operation, the information printed on
standard output is well-defined; any diagnostic information is
@ -37,14 +37,14 @@ Most Nix commands accept the following command-line options:
- 5\
“Vomit”: print vast amounts of debug information.
- [`--quiet`]{#opt-quiet}\
- <span id="opt-quiet">[`--quiet`](#opt-quiet)</span>\
Decreases the level of verbosity of diagnostic messages printed on
standard error. This is the inverse option to `-v` / `--verbose`.
This option may be specified repeatedly. See the previous verbosity
levels list.
- [`--log-format`]{#opt-log-format} *format*\
- <span id="opt-log-format">[`--log-format`](#opt-log-format)</span> *format*\
This option can be used to change the output of the log format, with
*format* being one of:
@ -66,14 +66,14 @@ Most Nix commands accept the following command-line options:
- bar-with-logs\
Display the raw logs, with the progress bar at the bottom.
- [`--no-build-output`]{#opt-no-build-output} / `-Q`\
- <span id="opt-no-build-output">[`--no-build-output`](#opt-no-build-output)</span> / `-Q`\
By default, output written by builders to standard output and
standard error is echoed to the Nix command's standard error. This
option suppresses this behaviour. Note that the builder's standard
output and error are always written to a log file in
`prefix/nix/var/log/nix`.
- [`--max-jobs`]{#opt-max-jobs} / `-j` *number*\
- <span id="opt-max-jobs">[`--max-jobs`](#opt-max-jobs)</span> / `-j` *number*\
Sets the maximum number of build jobs that Nix will perform in
parallel to the specified number. Specify `auto` to use the number
of CPUs in the system. The default is specified by the `max-jobs`
@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ Most Nix commands accept the following command-line options:
Setting it to `0` disallows building on the local machine, which is
useful when you want builds to happen only on remote builders.
- [`--cores`]{#opt-cores}\
- <span id="opt-cores">[`--cores`](#opt-cores)</span>\
Sets the value of the `NIX_BUILD_CORES` environment variable in
the invocation of builders. Builders can use this variable at
their discretion to control the maximum amount of parallelism. For
@ -94,18 +94,18 @@ Most Nix commands accept the following command-line options:
means that the builder should use all available CPU cores in the
system.
- [`--max-silent-time`]{#opt-max-silent-time}\
- <span id="opt-max-silent-time">[`--max-silent-time`](#opt-max-silent-time)</span>\
Sets the maximum number of seconds that a builder can go without
producing any data on standard output or standard error. The
default is specified by the `max-silent-time` configuration
setting. `0` means no time-out.
- [`--timeout`]{#opt-timeout}\
- <span id="opt-timeout">[`--timeout`](#opt-timeout)</span>\
Sets the maximum number of seconds that a builder can run. The
default is specified by the `timeout` configuration setting. `0`
means no timeout.
- [`--keep-going`]{#opt-keep-going} / `-k`\
- <span id="opt-keep-going">[`--keep-going`](#opt-keep-going)</span> / `-k`\
Keep going in case of failed builds, to the greatest extent
possible. That is, if building an input of some derivation fails,
Nix will still build the other inputs, but not the derivation
@ -113,13 +113,13 @@ Most Nix commands accept the following command-line options:
for builds of substitutes), possibly killing builds in progress (in
case of parallel or distributed builds).
- [`--keep-failed`]{#opt-keep-failed} / `-K`\
- <span id="opt-keep-failed">[`--keep-failed`](#opt-keep-failed)</span> / `-K`\
Specifies that in case of a build failure, the temporary directory
(usually in `/tmp`) in which the build takes place should not be
deleted. The path of the build directory is printed as an
informational message.
- [`--fallback`]{#opt-fallback}\
- <span id="opt-fallback">[`--fallback`](#opt-fallback)</span>\
Whenever Nix attempts to build a derivation for which substitutes
are known for each output path, but realising the output paths
through the substitutes fails, fall back on building the derivation.
@ -134,18 +134,18 @@ Most Nix commands accept the following command-line options:
failure in obtaining the substitutes to lead to a full build from
source (with the related consumption of resources).
- [`--readonly-mode`]{#opt-readonly-mode}\
- <span id="opt-readonly-mode">[`--readonly-mode`](#opt-readonly-mode)</span>\
When this option is used, no attempt is made to open the Nix
database. Most Nix operations do need database access, so those
operations will fail.
- [`--arg`]{#opt-arg} *name* *value*\
- <span id="opt-arg">[`--arg`](#opt-arg)</span> *name* *value*\
This option is accepted by `nix-env`, `nix-instantiate`,
`nix-shell` and `nix-build`. When evaluating Nix expressions, the
expression evaluator will automatically try to call functions that
it encounters. It can automatically call functions for which every
argument has a [default
value](../language/constructs.md#functions) (e.g.,
value](@docroot@/language/constructs.md#functions) (e.g.,
`{ argName ? defaultValue }: ...`). With `--arg`, you can also
call functions that have arguments without a default value (or
override a default value). That is, if the evaluator encounters a
@ -164,26 +164,26 @@ Most Nix commands accept the following command-line options:
So if you call this Nix expression (e.g., when you do `nix-env -iA
pkgname`), the function will be called automatically using the
value [`builtins.currentSystem`](../language/builtins.md) for
value [`builtins.currentSystem`](@docroot@/language/builtins.md) for
the `system` argument. You can override this using `--arg`, e.g.,
`nix-env -iA pkgname --arg system \"i686-freebsd\"`. (Note that
since the argument is a Nix string literal, you have to escape the
quotes.)
- [`--argstr`]{#opt-argstr} *name* *value*\
- <span id="opt-argstr">[`--argstr`](#opt-argstr)</span> *name* *value*\
This option is like `--arg`, only the value is not a Nix
expression but a string. So instead of `--arg system
\"i686-linux\"` (the outer quotes are to keep the shell happy) you
can say `--argstr system i686-linux`.
- [`--attr`]{#opt-attr} / `-A` *attrPath*\
- <span id="opt-attr">[`--attr`](#opt-attr)</span> / `-A` *attrPath*\
Select an attribute from the top-level Nix expression being
evaluated. (`nix-env`, `nix-instantiate`, `nix-build` and
`nix-shell` only.) The *attribute path* *attrPath* is a sequence
of attribute names separated by dots. For instance, given a
top-level Nix expression *e*, the attribute path `xorg.xorgserver`
would cause the expression `e.xorg.xorgserver` to be used. See
[`nix-env --install`](nix-env.md#operation---install) for some
[`nix-env --install`](@docroot@/command-ref/nix-env/install.md) for some
concrete examples.
In addition to attribute names, you can also specify array indices.
@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ Most Nix commands accept the following command-line options:
attribute of the fourth element of the array in the `foo` attribute
of the top-level expression.
- [`--expr`]{#opt-expr} / `-E`\
- <span id="opt-expr">[`--expr`](#opt-expr)</span> / `-E`\
Interpret the command line arguments as a list of Nix expressions to
be parsed and evaluated, rather than as a list of file names of Nix
expressions. (`nix-instantiate`, `nix-build` and `nix-shell` only.)
@ -202,17 +202,17 @@ Most Nix commands accept the following command-line options:
use, give your expression to the `nix-shell -p` convenience flag
instead.
- [`-I`]{#opt-I} *path*\
- <span id="opt-I">[`-I`](#opt-I)</span> *path*\
Add a path to the Nix expression search path. This option may be
given multiple times. See the `NIX_PATH` environment variable for
information on the semantics of the Nix search path. Paths added
through `-I` take precedence over `NIX_PATH`.
- [`--option`]{#opt-option} *name* *value*\
- <span id="opt-option">[`--option`](#opt-option)</span> *name* *value*\
Set the Nix configuration option *name* to *value*. This overrides
settings in the Nix configuration file (see nix.conf5).
- [`--repair`]{#opt-repair}\
- <span id="opt-repair">[`--repair`](#opt-repair)</span>\
Fix corrupted or missing store paths by redownloading or rebuilding
them. Note that this is slow because it requires computing a
cryptographic hash of the contents of every path in the closure of