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Determinate Nix Installer

Determinate Nix Installer is a fast, friendly, and reliable way to install and manage Nix everywhere, including macOS, Linux, Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), SELinux, the Valve Steam Deck, and more. It installs Nix with flakes enabled by default, it offers support for seamlessly uninstalling Nix, it enables Nix to survive macOS upgrades, and much more.

This one-liner is the quickest way to get started on any supported system:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | \
  sh -s -- install

[!TIP] To install Determinate using the installer, see the instructions below.

Determinate Nix Installer has successfully completed over 7 million installs in a number of environments, including Github Actions and GitLab:

Install Nix

You can install Nix with the default planner and options by running this script:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | \
  sh -s -- install

To download a platform-specific installer binary yourself:

curl -sL -o nix-installer https://install.determinate.systems/nix/nix-installer-x86_64-linux
chmod +x nix-installer
./nix-installer

This would install Nix on an x86_64-linux system but you can replace that with the system of your choice.

Install Determinate

If you're on macOS (but not nix-darwin) or Linux (but not NixOS), you can install Determinate using Determinate Nix Installer by adding the --determinate flag:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | \
  sh -s -- install --determinate

[!TIP] If you use nix-darwin or NixOS, we recommend installing Determinate using modules provided by the determinate flake.

Determinate is:

• Determinate Nix, Determinate Systems' validated and secure downstream Nix distribution for enterprises.
• FlakeHub, a platform for publishing and discovering Nix flakes that provides features like semantic versioning (SemVer) for flakes, private flakes, and FlakeHub Cache.

Planners

Determinate Nix Installer installs Nix by following a plan made by a planner. To review the available planners:

/nix/nix-installer install --help

Planners have their own options and defaults, sharing most of them in common. To see the options for Linux, for example:

/nix/nix-installer install linux --help

You can configure planners using environment variables or command arguments:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | \
  NIX_BUILD_GROUP_NAME=nixbuilder sh -s -- install --nix-build-group-id 4000

# Alternatively:

NIX_BUILD_GROUP_NAME=nixbuilder ./nix-installer install --nix-build-group-id 4000

See Installer settings below for a full list of options.

Troubleshooting

Having problems with the installer? Consult our troubleshooting guide to see if your problem is covered.

Upgrading Nix

You can upgrade Nix to our currently recommended version of Nix by running:

sudo -i nix upgrade-nix

Alternatively, you can uninstall and reinstall with a different version of Determinate Nix Installer.

Uninstalling

You can remove Nix installed by Determinate Nix Installer by running:

/nix/nix-installer uninstall

As a Github Action

You can install Nix on GitHub Actions using nix-installer-action. Here's an example configuration:

on:
  pull_request:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  build:
    name: Build
    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Install Nix
        uses: DeterminateSystems/nix-installer-action@main
      - name: Run `nix build`
        run: nix build .

On GitLab

GitLab CI runners are typically Docker based and run as the root user. This means that systemd is not present, so you need to pass the --init none option to the Linux planner.

On the default GitLab runners, you can install Nix using this configuration:

test:
  script:
    - curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install linux --no-confirm --init none
    - . /nix/var/nix/profiles/default/etc/profile.d/nix-daemon.sh
    - nix run nixpkgs#hello
    - nix profile install nixpkgs#hello
    - hello

If you are using different runners, the above example may need to be adjusted.

Without systemd (Linux only)

[!WARNING] When --init none is used, only root or users who can elevate to root privileges can run Nix:

sudo -i nix run nixpkgs#hello

If you don't use systemd, you can still install Nix by explicitly specifying the linux plan and --init none:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | \
  sh -s -- install linux --init none

In a container

In Docker/Podman containers or WSL2 instances where an init (like systemd) is not present, pass --init none.

For containers (without an init):

[!WARNING] When --init none is used, only root or users who can elevate to root privileges can run Nix:

sudo -i nix run nixpkgs#hello

# Dockerfile
FROM ubuntu:latest
RUN apt update -y
RUN apt install curl -y
RUN curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install linux \
  --extra-conf "sandbox = false" \
  --init none \
  --no-confirm
ENV PATH="${PATH}:/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin"
RUN nix run nixpkgs#hello

docker build -t ubuntu-with-nix .
docker run --rm -ti ubuntu-with-nix
docker rmi ubuntu-with-nix
# or
podman build -t ubuntu-with-nix .
podman run --rm -ti ubuntu-with-nix
podman rmi ubuntu-with-nix

For containers with a systemd init:

# Dockerfile
FROM ubuntu:latest
RUN apt update -y
RUN apt install curl systemd -y
RUN curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install linux \
  --extra-conf "sandbox = false" \
  --no-start-daemon \
  --no-confirm
ENV PATH="${PATH}:/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin"
RUN nix run nixpkgs#hello
CMD [ "/bin/systemd" ]

podman build -t ubuntu-systemd-with-nix .
IMAGE=$(podman create ubuntu-systemd-with-nix)
CONTAINER=$(podman start $IMAGE)
podman exec -ti $CONTAINER /bin/bash
podman rm -f $CONTAINER
podman rmi $IMAGE

With some container tools, such as Docker, you can omit sandbox = false. Omitting this will negatively impact compatibility with container tools like Podman.

In WSL2

We strongly recommend first enabling systemd and then installing Nix as normal:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | \
  sh -s -- install

If WSLg is enabled, you can do things like open a Linux Firefox from Windows on Powershell:

wsl nix run nixpkgs#firefox

To use some OpenGL applications, you can use nixGL (note that some applications, such as blender, may not work):

wsl nix run --impure github:guibou/nixGL nix run nixpkgs#obs-studio

If enabling systemd is not an option, pass --init none at the end of the command:

[!WARNING] When --init none is used, only root or users who can elevate to root privileges can run Nix:

sudo -i nix run nixpkgs#hello

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | \
  sh -s -- install linux --init none

Skip confirmation

If you'd like to bypass the confirmation step, you can apply the --no-confirm flag:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | \
  sh -s -- install --no-confirm

This is especially useful when using the installer in non-interactive scripts.

Features

Existing Nix installation scripts do a good job but they are difficult to maintain.

Subtle differences in the shell implementations and tool used in the scripts make it difficult to make meaningful changes to the installer.

Determinate Nix installer has numerous advantages over these options:

• It installs Nix with flakes enabled by default
• It enables Nix to survive macOS upgrades
• It keeps an installation receipt for easy uninstallation
• It uses planners to create appropriate install plans for complicated targets—plans that you can review prior to installation
• It enables you to perform a best-effort reversion in the facing of a failed install
• It improves installation performance by maximizing parallel operations
• It supports an expanded test suite including "curing" cases (compatibility with Nix already on the system)
• It supports SELinux and OSTree-based distributions without asking users to make compromises
• It operates as a single, static binary with external dependencies such as OpenSSL, only calling existing system tools (like useradd) when necessary
• As a macOS remote build target, it ensures that Nix is present on the PATH

Nix community involvement

It has been wonderful to collaborate with other participants in the Nix Installer Working Group and members of the broader community. The working group maintains a foundation-owned fork of the installer.

Quirks

While Determinate Nix Installer tries to provide a comprehensive and unquirky experience, there are unfortunately some issues that may require manual intervention or operator choices.

Using MacOS after removing Nix while nix-darwin was still installed, network requests fail

If Nix was previously uninstalled without uninstalling nix-darwin first, you may experience errors similar to this:

nix shell nixpkgs#curl

error: unable to download 'https://cache.nixos.org/g8bqlgmpa4yg601w561qy2n576i6g0vh.narinfo': Problem with the SSL CA cert (path? access rights?) (77)

This occurs because nix-darwin provisions an org.nixos.activate-system service which remains after Nix is uninstalled. The org.nixos.activate-system service in this state interacts with the newly installed Nix and changes the SSL certificates it uses to be a broken symlink.

ls -lah /etc/ssl/certs

total 0
drwxr-xr-x  3 root  wheel    96B Oct 17 08:26 .
drwxr-xr-x  6 root  wheel   192B Sep 16 06:28 ..
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    41B Oct 17 08:26 ca-certificates.crt -> /etc/static/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

The problem is compounded by the matter that the nix-darwin uninstaller will not work after uninstalling Nix, since it uses Nix and requires network connectivity.

It's possible to resolve this situation by removing the org.nixos.activate-system service and the ca-certificates:

sudo rm /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.nixos.activate-system.plist
sudo launchctl bootout system/org.nixos.activate-system
/nix/nix-installer uninstall
sudo rm /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

Run the installer again and it should work.

Up-to-date versions of the installer will refuse to uninstall until nix-darwin is uninstalled first, helping to mitigate this problem.

Building a binary

Since you'll be using the installer to install Nix on systems without Nix, the default build is a static binary.

To build a portable Linux binary on a system with Nix:

# to build a local copy
nix build -L ".#nix-installer-static"
# to build the remote main development branch
nix build -L "github:determinatesystems/nix-installer#nix-installer-static"
# for a specific version of the installer:
export NIX_INSTALLER_TAG="v0.6.0"
nix build -L "github:determinatesystems/nix-installer/$NIX_INSTALLER_TAG#nix-installer-static"

On macOS:

# to build a local copy
nix build -L ".#nix-installer"
# to build the remote main development branch
nix build -L "github:determinatesystems/nix-installer#nix-installer"
# for a specific version of the installer:
export NIX_INSTALLER_TAG="v0.6.0"
nix build -L "github:determinatesystems/nix-installer/$NIX_INSTALLER_TAG#nix-installer"

Then copy result/bin/nix-installer to the machine you wish to run it on. You can also add the installer to a system without Nix using cargo, as there are no system dependencies to worry about:

# to build and run a local copy
RUSTFLAGS="--cfg tokio_unstable" cargo run -- --help
# to build the remote main development branch
RUSTFLAGS="--cfg tokio_unstable" cargo install --git https://github.com/DeterminateSystems/nix-installer
nix-installer --help
# for a specific version of the installer:
export NIX_INSTALLER_TAG="v0.6.0"
RUSTFLAGS="--cfg tokio_unstable" cargo install --git https://github.com/DeterminateSystems/nix-installer --tag $NIX_INSTALLER_TAG
nix-installer --help

To make this build portable, pass the --target x86_64-unknown-linux-musl option.

[!NOTE] We currently require --cfg tokio_unstable as we utilize Tokio's process groups, which wrap stable std APIs, but are unstable due to it requiring an MSRV bump.

As a Rust library

[!WARNING] Using Determinate Nix Installer as a Rust library is still experimental. This feature is likely to be removed in the future without an advocate. If you're using this, please let us know and we can provide a path to stabilization.

Add the nix-installer library to your dependencies:

cargo add nix-installer

If you're building a CLI, check out the cli feature flag for clap integration.

You'll also need to edit your .cargo/config.toml to use tokio_unstable as we utilize Tokio's process groups, which wrap stable std APIs, but are unstable due to it requiring an MSRV bump:

# .cargo/config.toml
[build]
rustflags=["--cfg", "tokio_unstable"]

You'll also need to set the NIX_INSTALLER_TARBALL_PATH environment variable to point to a target-appropriate Nix installation tarball, like nix-2.21.2-aarch64-darwin.tar.xz. The contents are embedded in the resulting binary instead of downloaded at installation time.

Then it's possible to review the documentation:

cargo doc --open -p nix-installer

Documentation is also available via nix build:

nix build github:DeterminateSystems/nix-installer#nix-installer.doc
firefox result-doc/nix-installer/index.html

Accessing other versions

You can pin to a specific version of Determinate Nix Installer by modifying the download URL. Here's an example:

VERSION="v0.6.0"
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix/tag/${VERSION} | \
  sh -s -- install

To discover which versions are available, or download the binaries for any release, check the Github Releases.

You can download and use these releases directly. Here's an example:

VERSION="v0.6.0"
ARCH="aarch64-linux"
curl -sSf -L https://github.com/DeterminateSystems/nix-installer/releases/download/${VERSION}/nix-installer-${ARCH} -o nix-installer
./nix-installer install

Each installer version has an associated supported nix version—if you pin the installer version, you'll also indirectly pin to the associated nix version.

You can also override the Nix version using --nix-package-url or NIX_INSTALLER_NIX_PACKAGE_URL= but doing this is not recommended since we haven't tested that combination. Here are some example Nix package URLs, including the Nix version, OS, and architecture:

• https://releases.nixos.org/nix/nix-2.18.1/nix-2.18.1-x86_64-linux.tar.xz
• https://releases.nixos.org/nix/nix-2.18.1/nix-2.18.1-aarch64-darwin.tar.xz

Installation differences

Differing from the upstream Nix installer scripts:

• In nix.conf:
  • the nix-command and flakes features are enabled
  • bash-prompt-prefix is set
  • auto-optimise-store is set to true (On Linux only)
  • always-allow-substitutes is set to true
  • extra-nix-path is set to nixpkgs=flake:nixpkgs
  • max-jobs is set to auto
  • upgrade-nix-store-path-url is set to https://install.determinate.systems/nix-upgrade/stable/universal, to prevent unintentional downgrades.
• an installation receipt (for uninstalling) is stored at /nix/receipt.json as well as a copy of the install binary at /nix/nix-installer
• nix-channel --update is not run, ~/.nix-channels is not provisioned
• ssl-cert-file is set in /etc/nix/nix.conf if the ssl-cert-file argument is used.

Installer settings

Determinate Nix Installer provides a variety of configuration settings, some general and some on a per-command basis. All settings are available via flags or via NIX_INSTALLER_* environment variables.

General settings

These settings are available for all commands.

Installation (nix-installer install)

You can also specify a planner with the first argument:

nix-installer install <plan>

Alternatively, you can use the NIX_INSTALLER_PLAN environment variable:

NIX_INSTALLER_PLAN=<plan> nix-installer install

Uninstalling (nix-installer uninstall)

You can also specify an installation receipt as the first argument (the default is /nix/receipt.json):

nix-installer uninstall /path/to/receipt.json

Planning (nix-installer plan)

Repairing (nix-installer repair)

Self-test (nix-installer self-test)

nix-installer self-test only takes general settings.

Diagnostics

The goal of Determinate Nix Installer is to successfully and correctly install Nix. The curl | sh pipeline and the installer collects a little bit of diagnostic information to help us make that true.

Here is a table of the diagnostic data we collect:

To disable diagnostic reporting, set the diagnostics URL to an empty string by passing --diagnostic-endpoint="" or setting NIX_INSTALLER_DIAGNOSTIC_ENDPOINT="".

You can read the full privacy policy for Determinate Systems, the creators of Determinate Nix Installer, here.