nix-tree

Interactively browse dependency graphs of Nix derivations.

Installation

nix-tree is on nixpkgs since 20.09, so just use your preferred method for adding packages to your system, eg:

nix-env -iA nix-tree

Or, for flake enabled systems:

nix profile install 'nixpkgs#nix-tree'

To run the current development version:

nix run github:utdemir/nix-tree -- --help

Usage

$ nix-tree --help
Usage: nix-tree [INSTALLABLE] [--store STORE] [--file FILE] [--version] [--derivation] [--impure] [--dot]

  Interactively browse dependency graphs of Nix derivations.

Available options:
  INSTALLABLE              A store path or a flake reference.
                           Paths default to "~/.nix-profile" and "/var/run/current-system"
  --store STORE            The URL of the Nix store, e.g. "daemon" or "https://cache.nixos.org"
                           See "nix help-stores" for supported store types and settings.
  --file FILE              Interpret installables as attribute paths relative to the Nix expression stored in file.
  --version                Show the nix-tree version
  --derivation             Operate on the store derivation rather than its outputs
  --impure                 Allow access to mutable paths and repositories
  --dot                    Print the dependency graph in dot format
  -h,--help                Show this help text

Keybindings:
  hjkl/Arrow Keys : Navigate
  w               : Open why-depends modal
  /               : Open search modal
  s               : Change sort order
  y               : Yank selected path to clipboard
  ?               : Show help
  q/Esc           : Quit / close modal

Glossary

• NAR Size: Size of the store path itself.
• Closure size: Total size of the store path and all its transitive dependencies.
• Added size: Size of the store path, and all its unique transitive dependencies. In other words, the cost of having that store path on top of all other paths. See issue #14 for a better explanation.

Tips

nix-build prints built paths to stdout, which can be piped conveniently with | xargs -o nix-tree. Examples:

# Output of a local derivation
nix-build . --no-out-link | xargs -o nix-tree

# Build time dependencies (passing a `.drv` path)
nix-instantiate . | xargs -o nix-tree --derivation

# Dependencies from shell.nix
nix-build shell.nix -A inputDerivation | xargs -o nix-tree

# All outputs of a derivation in nixpkgs
nix-build '<nixpkgs>' -A openssl.all --no-out-link | xargs -o nix-tree

nix-tree also supports flake references:

# Build time dependencies of a flake on the current directory
nix-tree --derivation '.#'

# Same thing works for any flake reference
nix-tree --derivation 'nixpkgs#asciiquarium'

Run nix-tree on your current nixos system:

nix-tree /nix/var/nix/profiles/system

Run nix-tree on a flake reference of a nixosConfiguration:

nix build --print-out-paths --no-link '.#nixosConfigurations.foo.config.system.build.toplevel'
nix-tree '.#nixosConfigurations.foo.config.system.build.toplevel'

Query the binary cache before download, with the --store option:

# Query the runtime dependency of `stellarium` (2 GiB closure) without download
nix eval --raw 'nixpkgs#stellarium.outPath' | xargs -o nix-tree --store https://cache.nixos.org

For valid --store options, see nix help-stores. For example,

# Build in a temporary chroot store and examine the output
nix build --store /tmp/chroot-store 'nixpkgs#hello' --print-out-paths | xargs -o nix-tree --store /tmp/chroot-store

Contributing

All contributions, issues and feature requests are welcome.

To hack on it, simply run nix-shell and use cabal as usual. Please run ./format.sh before sending a PR.

Related tools

• nix-du: Visualise which gc-roots to delete to free some space in your nix store
• nix-melt: A ranger-like flake.lock viewer
• nix-query-tree-viewer: GTK viewer for the output of nix-store --query --tree
• nix-visualize: Uses the Nix package manager to visualize the dependencies of a given package