nix-shell

Immediately setup an isolated environment to test packages.

Creating a Shell Environment

This example will create a shell environment with neofetch.

nix-shell -p neofetch

Exit the shell with exit.

A package version can be specified by pointing to the source.

nix-shell -p git -I nixpkgs=https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/archive/2a601aafdc5605a5133a2ca506a34a3a73377247.tar.gz

-I specifies the source from where the particular version of the package must be built.

To create a script that spins up a nix-shell, follow the following syntax:

#!/usr/bin/env nix-shell
#! nix-shell -i bash --pure
#! nix-shell -p bash cowsay

cowsay Hello There

Run the script as usual.

This can be used to quickly run scripts with dependencies you do not want to install on your system.

--pure allows you to ignore most unnecessary Environment Variables from your Host system.