`nix flake init`

Create a flake in the current directory from a template.

Warning

This program is experimental and its interface is subject to change.

Synopsis

nix flake init [option...]

Examples

Create a flake using the default template:

## nix flake init

List available templates:

## nix flake show templates

Create a flake from a specific template:

## nix flake init -t templates#simpleContainer

Description

This command creates a flake in the current directory by copying the files of a template. It will not overwrite existing files. The default template is templates#templates.default, but this can be overridden using -t.

Template definitions

A flake can declare templates through its templates output attribute. A template has two attributes:

description: A one-line description of the template, in CommonMark syntax.
path: The path of the directory to be copied.
welcomeText: A block of markdown text to display when a user initializes a new flake based on this template.

Here is an example:

outputs = { self }: {

  templates.rust = {
    path = ./rust;
    description = "A simple Rust/Cargo project";
    welcomeText = ''
      ## Simple Rust/Cargo Template
      ### Intended usage
      The intended usage of this flake is...

      ### More info
      - [Rust language](https://www.rust-lang.org/)
      - [Rust on the NixOS Wiki](https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Rust)
      - ...
    '';
  };

  templates.default = self.templates.rust;
}

Options

--template / -t template The template to use.

Common evaluation options:

--arg name expr Pass the value expr as the argument name to Nix functions.
--argstr name string Pass the string string as the argument name to Nix functions.
--debugger Start an interactive environment if evaluation fails.
--eval-store store-url The URL of the Nix store to use for evaluation, i.e. to store derivations (.drv files) and inputs referenced by them.
--impure Allow access to mutable paths and repositories.
--include / -I path Add path to the Nix search path. The Nix search path is initialized from the colon-separated NIX_PATH environment variable, and is used to look up the location of Nix expressions using paths enclosed in angle brackets (i.e., <nixpkgs>).

For instance, passing

-I /home/eelco/Dev
-I /etc/nixos

will cause Lix to look for paths relative to /home/eelco/Dev and /etc/nixos, in that order. This is equivalent to setting the NIX_PATH environment variable to

/home/eelco/Dev:/etc/nixos

It is also possible to match paths against a prefix. For example, passing

-I nixpkgs=/home/eelco/Dev/nixpkgs-branch
-I /etc/nixos

will cause Lix to search for <nixpkgs/path> in /home/eelco/Dev/nixpkgs-branch/path and /etc/nixos/nixpkgs/path.

If a path in the Nix search path starts with http:// or https://, it is interpreted as the URL of a tarball that will be downloaded and unpacked to a temporary location. The tarball must consist of a single top-level directory. For example, passing

-I nixpkgs=https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/archive/master.tar.gz

tells Lix to download and use the current contents of the master branch in the nixpkgs repository.

The URLs of the tarballs from the official nixos.org channels (see the manual page for nix-channel) can be abbreviated as channel:<channel-name>. For instance, the following two flags are equivalent:

-I nixpkgs=channel:nixos-21.05
-I nixpkgs=https://nixos.org/channels/nixos-21.05/nixexprs.tar.xz

You can also fetch source trees using flake URLs and add them to the search path. For instance,

-I nixpkgs=flake:nixpkgs

specifies that the prefix nixpkgs shall refer to the source tree downloaded from the nixpkgs entry in the flake registry. Similarly,

-I nixpkgs=flake:github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-22.05

makes <nixpkgs> refer to a particular branch of the NixOS/nixpkgs repository on GitHub.

--override-flake original-ref resolved-ref Override the flake registries, redirecting original-ref to resolved-ref.

Logging-related options:

--debug Set the logging verbosity level to 'debug'.
--log-format format Set the format of log output; one of raw, internal-json, bar or bar-with-logs.
--print-build-logs / -L Print full build logs on standard error.
--quiet Decrease the logging verbosity level.
--verbose / -v Increase the logging verbosity level.

Miscellaneous global options:

--help Show usage information.
--offline Disable substituters and consider all previously downloaded files up-to-date.
--option name value Set the Lix configuration setting name to value (overriding nix.conf).
--refresh Consider all previously downloaded files out-of-date.
--repair During evaluation, rewrite missing or corrupted files in the Nix store. During building, rebuild missing or corrupted store paths.
--version Show version information.

Note

See man nix.conf for overriding configuration settings with command line flags.