nix-super/doc/manual/source/package-management/garbage-collector-roots.md
John Ericson eb7d7780b1 Rename doc/manual{src -> source}
This is needed to avoid this
https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/issues/13774 when we go back to
making our subproject directory `src`.
2024-10-14 11:21:24 -04:00

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Markdown

# Garbage Collector Roots
The roots of the garbage collector are all store paths to which there
are symlinks in the directory `prefix/nix/var/nix/gcroots`. For
instance, the following command makes the path
`/nix/store/d718ef...-foo` a root of the collector:
```console
$ ln -s /nix/store/d718ef...-foo /nix/var/nix/gcroots/bar
```
That is, after this command, the garbage collector will not remove
`/nix/store/d718ef...-foo` or any of its dependencies.
Subdirectories of `prefix/nix/var/nix/gcroots` are also searched for
symlinks. Symlinks to non-store paths are followed and searched for
roots, but symlinks to non-store paths *inside* the paths reached in
that way are not followed to prevent infinite recursion.