nix-super/src/nix/diff-closures.md

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Examples

• Show what got added and removed between two versions of the NixOS system profile:

  # nix store diff-closures /nix/var/nix/profiles/system-655-link /nix/var/nix/profiles/system-658-link
  acpi-call: 2020-04-07-5.8.16 → 2020-04-07-5.8.18
  baloo-widgets: 20.08.1 → 20.08.2
  bluez-qt: +12.6 KiB
  dolphin: 20.08.1 → 20.08.2, +13.9 KiB
  kdeconnect: 20.08.2 → ∅, -6597.8 KiB
  kdeconnect-kde: ∅ → 20.08.2, +6599.7 KiB
  …
  

Description

This command shows the differences between the two closures before and after with respect to the addition, removal, or version change of packages, as well as changes in store path sizes.

For each package name in the two closures (where a package name is defined as the name component of a store path excluding the version), if there is a change in the set of versions of the package, or a change in the size of the store paths of more than 8 KiB, it prints a line like this:

dolphin: 20.08.1 → 20.08.2, +13.9 KiB

No size change is shown if it's below the threshold. If the package does not exist in either the before or after closures, it is represented using ∅ (empty set) on the appropriate side of the arrow. If a package has an empty version string, the version is rendered as ε (epsilon).

There may be multiple versions of a package in each closure. In that case, only the changed versions are shown. Thus,

libfoo: 1.2, 1.3 → 1.4

leaves open the possibility that there are other versions (e.g. 1.1) that exist in both closures.

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