nix-super/src/nix/copy.md

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Examples

• Copy Firefox from the local store to a binary cache in /tmp/cache:

  # nix copy --to file:///tmp/cache $(type -p firefox)
  

  Note the file:// - without this, the destination is a chroot store, not a binary cache.

• Copy all store paths from a local binary cache in /tmp/cache to the local store:

  # nix copy --all --from file:///tmp/cache
  

• Copy the entire current NixOS system closure to another machine via SSH:

  # nix copy --substitute-on-destination --to ssh://server /run/current-system
  

  The -s flag causes the remote machine to try to substitute missing store paths, which may be faster if the link between the local and remote machines is slower than the link between the remote machine and its substituters (e.g. https://cache.nixos.org).

• Copy a closure from another machine via SSH:

  # nix copy --from ssh://server /nix/store/a6cnl93nk1wxnq84brbbwr6hxw9gp2w9-blender-2.79-rc2
  

• Copy Hello to a binary cache in an Amazon S3 bucket:

  # nix copy --to s3://my-bucket?region=eu-west-1 nixpkgs#hello
  

  or to an S3-compatible storage system:

  # nix copy --to s3://my-bucket?region=eu-west-1&endpoint=example.com nixpkgs#hello
  

  Note that this only works if Nix is built with AWS support.

• Copy a closure from /nix/store to the chroot store /tmp/nix/nix/store:

  # nix copy --to /tmp/nix nixpkgs#hello --no-check-sigs
  

Description

nix copy copies store path closures between two Nix stores. The source store is specified using --from and the destination using --to. If one of these is omitted, it defaults to the local store.

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