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 -i nix-tree

To run the current development version:

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

Usage

$ nix-tree --help
Usage: nix-tree [--version] [--derivation] [INSTALLABLE]
  Interactively browse dependency graphs of Nix derivations.

Available options:
  --version                Show the nix-tree version.
  --derivation             Operate on the store derivation rather than its
                           outputs.
  INSTALLABLE              A store path or a flake reference. Paths default to
                           "~/.nix-profile" and "/var/run/current-system".
  -h,--help                Show this help text

Keybindings:
  hjkl/Arrow Keys : Navigate
  w               : Open why-depends mode
  /               : Open search mode
  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 -r | 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

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