NUR

Current maintainer: Pandapip1 Original creator: NUR was started by @Mic92 in 2018.

The Nix User Repository (NUR) is a community-driven meta repository for Nix packages. It provides access to user repositories that contain package descriptions (Nix expressions) and allows you to install packages by referencing them via attributes. In contrast to Nixpkgs, packages are built from source and are not reviewed by any Nixpkgs member.

The NUR was created to share new packages from the community in a faster and more decentralized way.

NUR automatically checks its list of repositories and performs evaluation checks before it propagates the updates.

Installation

Using flakes

Include NUR in your flake.nix:

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
    nur = {
      url = "github:nix-community/NUR";
      inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
    };
  };
};

Then, either the overlay (overlays.default) or legacyPackages.<system> can be used.

Using packageOverrides

First include NUR in your packageOverrides:

To make NUR accessible for your login user, add the following to ~/.config/nixpkgs/config.nix:

{
  packageOverrides = pkgs: {
    nur = import (builtins.fetchTarball "https://github.com/nix-community/NUR/archive/main.tar.gz") {
      inherit pkgs;
    };
  };
}

For NixOS add the following to your /etc/nixos/configuration.nix Notice: If you want to use NUR in nix-env, home-manager or in nix-shell you also need NUR in ~/.config/nixpkgs/config.nix as shown above!

{
  nixpkgs.config.packageOverrides = pkgs: {
    nur = import (builtins.fetchTarball "https://github.com/nix-community/NUR/archive/main.tar.gz") {
      inherit pkgs;
    };
  };
}

Using a Nix channel

Add NUR as a channel named nur, so <nur> resolves. The revision moves only on nix-channel --update, and nix-channel --rollback restores the previous revision.

For your login user:

$ nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/NUR/archive/main.tar.gz nur
$ nix-channel --update

nix-channel --rollback restores the previous revision of that user channel. Add the following to ~/.config/nixpkgs/config.nix:

{
  packageOverrides = pkgs: {
    nur = import <nur> {
      inherit pkgs;
    };
  };
}

For NixOS, a root channel is what nixos-rebuild sees:

$ sudo nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/NUR/archive/main.tar.gz nur
$ sudo nix-channel --update

sudo nix-channel --rollback restores the previous revision of the root channel. Add the following to /etc/nixos/configuration.nix:

{
  nixpkgs.config.packageOverrides = pkgs: {
    nur = import <nur> {
      inherit pkgs;
    };
  };
}

nix-env, nix-shell, and Home Manager for the login user still need the user channel plus ~/.config/nixpkgs/config.nix.

Flake configs keep using the flake section (### Using flakes) and flake.lock. For a non-flake config, prefer this channel over the unpinned fetchTarball when NixOS and Home Manager should advance together on an explicit nix-channel --update, without editing a pin in two repositories. The unpinned tarball follows Nix's tarball TTL (the download cache is about one hour; see ### Pinning). When the revision must be reviewable in git, or teammates cannot share one channel, use ### Pinning or a pinning tool such as niv. repoOverrides from the Overriding repositories section is the same argument on import <nur>.

Pinning

Using builtins.fetchTarball without a sha256 will only cache the download for 1 hour by default, so you need internet access almost every time you build something. You can pin the version if you don't want that:

builtins.fetchTarball {
  # Get the revision by choosing a version from https://github.com/nix-community/NUR/commits/main
  url = "https://github.com/nix-community/NUR/archive/3a6a6f4da737da41e27922ce2cfacf68a109ebce.tar.gz";
  # Get the hash by running `nix-prefetch-url --unpack <url>` on the above url
  sha256 = "04387gzgl8y555b3lkz9aiw9xsldfg4zmzp930m62qw8zbrvrshd";
}

How to use

Then packages can be used or installed from the NUR namespace.

$ nix-shell -p nur.repos.mic92.hello-nur
nix-shell> hello
Hello, NUR!

or

$ nix-env -f '<nixpkgs>' -iA nur.repos.mic92.hello-nur

or

# configuration.nix
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
  nur.repos.mic92.hello-nur
];

Each contributor can register their repository under a name and is responsible for its content.

NUR does not check the repository for malicious content on a regular basis and it is recommended to check expressions before installing them.

Using a single package in a devshell

This simple example demostrates how to add a single package from nur to a devshell defined in a flake.nix.

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
    flake-utils.url = "github:numtide/flake-utils";
    nur = {
      url = "github:nix-community/NUR";
      inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
    };
  };

  outputs = { self, nixpkgs, flake-utils, nur }:
    flake-utils.lib.eachDefaultSystem (system:
      let
        pkgs = import nixpkgs {
          inherit system;
          overlays = [ nur.overlays.default ];
        };
      in
      {
        devShells.default = pkgs.mkShell {
          packages = [ pkgs.nur.repos.mic92.hello-nur ];
        };
      }
    );
}

Using the flake in NixOS

Using overlays and modules from NUR in your configuration is fairly straightforward.

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
    flake-utils.url = "github:numtide/flake-utils";
    nur = {
      url = "github:nix-community/NUR";
      inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
    };
  };

  outputs = { self, nixpkgs, nur }: {
    nixosConfigurations.myConfig = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      # ...
      modules = [
        # Adds the NUR overlay
        nur.modules.nixos.default
        # NUR modules can be imported directly:
        nur.repos.iopq.modules.nixos.xraya
        # Or via legacyPackages (legacy path):
        # nur.legacyPackages."${system}".repos.iopq.modules.xraya
        # This adds the NUR nixpkgs overlay.
        # Example:
        # ({ pkgs, ... }: {
        #   environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.nur.repos.mic92.hello-nur ];
        # })
      ];
    };
  };
}

Integrating with Home Manager

Integrating with Home Manager can be done by adding your modules to the imports attribute. You can then configure your services like usual.

When using flakes, Home Manager modules can be accessed directly:

# In your Home Manager configuration
{
  imports = lib.attrValues nur.repos.moredhel.modules.homeManager;

  services.unison = {
    enable = true;
    profiles = {
      org = {
        src = "/home/moredhel/org";
        dest = "/home/moredhel/org.backup";
        extraArgs = "-batch -watch -ui text -repeat 60 -fat";
      };
    };
  };
}

Without flakes:

let
  nur-no-pkgs = import (builtins.fetchTarball "https://github.com/nix-community/NUR/archive/main.tar.gz") {};
in
{
  imports = lib.attrValues nur-no-pkgs.repos.moredhel.homeModules;
}

Using the flake in a standalone Home Manager configuration

The section above covers Home Manager used as a NixOS (or nix-darwin) module. If you instead build your Home Manager configuration standalone, with home-manager.lib.homeManagerConfiguration, add the NUR overlay and any repo modules you need to its modules list directly:

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
    home-manager = {
      url = "github:nix-community/home-manager";
      inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
    };
    nur = {
      url = "github:nix-community/NUR";
      inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
    };
  };

  outputs = { self, nixpkgs, home-manager, nur, ... }: {
    homeConfigurations.myUser = home-manager.lib.homeManagerConfiguration {
      pkgs = nixpkgs.legacyPackages.x86_64-linux;
      modules = [
        # Adds the NUR overlay to Home Manager's pkgs
        nur.modules.homeManager.default
        # Import all Home Manager modules published by a NUR repo:
        { imports = nixpkgs.lib.attrValues nur.repos.moredhel.modules.homeManager; }
      ];
    };
  };
}

Finding packages

You can find all packages using Packages search for NUR or search our nur-combined repository, which contains all nix expressions from all users, via github.

How to add your own repository.

First, create a repository that contains a default.nix in its top-level directory. We also provide a repository template that contains a prepared directory structure.

DO NOT import packages for example with import <nixpkgs> {};. Instead take all dependency you want to import from Nixpkgs from the given pkgs argument. Each repository should return a set of Nix derivations:

{ pkgs }:
{
  hello-nur = pkgs.callPackage ./hello-nur {};
}

In this example hello-nur would be a directory containing a default.nix:

{ stdenv, fetchurl, lib }:

stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
  pname = "hello";
  version = "2.10";

  src = fetchurl {
    url = "mirror://gnu/hello/${pname}-${version}.tar.gz";
    sha256 = "0ssi1wpaf7plaswqqjwigppsg5fyh99vdlb9kzl7c9lng89ndq1i";
  };

  postPatch = ''
    sed -i -e 's/Hello, world!/Hello, NUR!/' src/hello.c
  '';

  # fails due to patch
  doCheck = false;

  meta = with lib; {
    description = "A program that produces a familiar, friendly greeting";
    longDescription = ''
      GNU Hello is a program that prints "Hello, world!" when you run it.
      It is fully customizable.
    '';
    homepage = https://www.gnu.org/software/hello/manual/;
    changelog = "https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/hello.git/plain/NEWS?h=v${version}";
    license = licenses.gpl3Plus;
    maintainers = [ maintainers.eelco ];
    platforms = platforms.all;
  };
}

You can use nix-shell or nix-build to build your packages:

$ nix-shell --arg pkgs 'import <nixpkgs> {}' -A hello-nur
nix-shell> hello
nix-shell> find $buildInputs

$ nix-build --arg pkgs 'import <nixpkgs> {}' -A hello-nur

For development convenience, you can also set a default value for the pkgs argument:

{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:
{
  hello-nur = pkgs.callPackage ./hello-nur {};
}

$ nix-build -A hello-nur

Add your own repository to the repos.json of NUR:

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/nix-community/NUR
$ cd NUR

edit the file repos.json:

{
    "repos": {
        "mic92": {
            "url": "https://github.com/Mic92/nur-packages"
        },
        "<fill-your-repo-name>": {
            "url": "https://github.com/<your-user>/<your-repo>"
        }
    }
}

At the moment, each URL must point to a git repository. By running bin/nur update the corresponding repos.json.lock is updated and the repository is tested. This will also perform an evaluation check, which must be passed for your repository. Commit the changed repos.json but NOT repos.json.lock

$ ./bin/nur format-manifest # ensure repos.json is sorted alphabetically
$ git add repos.json
$ git commit -m "add <your-repo-name> repository"
$ git push

and open a pull request towards https://github.com/nix-community/NUR.

At the moment repositories should be buildable on Nixpkgs unstable. Later we will add options to also provide branches for other Nixpkgs channels.

Use a different nix file as root expression

To use a different file instead of default.nix to load packages from, set the file option to a path relative to the repository root:

{
    "repos": {
        "mic92": {
            "url": "https://github.com/Mic92/nur-packages",
            "file": "subdirectory/default.nix"
        }
    }
}

Update NUR's lock file after updating your repository

By default, we only check for repository updates once a day with an automatic github action to update our lock file repos.json.lock. To update NUR faster, you can use our service at https://nur-update.nix-community.org/ after you have pushed an update to your repository, e.g.:

curl -XPOST https://nur-update.nix-community.org/update?repo=mic92

Check out the github page for further details

Why are my NUR packages not updating?

With every build triggered via the URL hook, all repositories will be evaluated. The repository revision for the user is only updated if the evaluation does not contain any errors. Typical evaluation errors include:

• Using a wrong license attribute in the metadata.
• Using a builtin fetcher because it will cause access to external URLs during evaluation. Use pkgs.fetch* instead (i.e. instead of builtins.fetchGit use pkgs.fetchgit)

You can find out if your evaluation succeeded by checking the latest build job.

Local evaluation check

In your nur-packages/ folder, run the check evaluation task

nix-env -f . -qa \* --meta \
  --allowed-uris https://static.rust-lang.org \
  --option restrict-eval true \
  --option allow-import-from-derivation true \
  --drv-path --show-trace \
  -I nixpkgs=$(nix-instantiate --find-file nixpkgs) \
  -I ./ \
  --json | jq -r 'values | .[].name'

On success, this shows a list of your packages

Git submodules

To fetch git submodules in repositories set submodules:

{
    "repos": {
        "mic92": {
            "url": "https://github.com/Mic92/nur-packages",
            "submodules": true
        }
    }
}

NixOS modules, overlays and library function support

It is also possible to define more than just packages. In fact any Nix expression can be used.

To make NixOS modules, overlays and library functions more discoverable, they must be put them in their own namespace within the repository.

Providing NixOS modules

NixOS modules should be placed in the nixosModules attribute:

{ pkgs }: {
  nixosModules = import ./modules;
}

# modules/default.nix
{
  example-module = ./example-module.nix;
}

These modules are then accessible as nur.repos.<repo>.modules.nixos.<module> in flakes.

The legacy modules attribute is also supported as a fallback for nixosModules.

An example can be found here. Modules should be defined as paths, not functions, to avoid conflicts if imported from multiple locations.

Providing Home Manager modules

Home Manager modules should be placed in the homeModules attribute:

{ pkgs }: {
  homeModules = import ./hm-modules;
}

These modules are then accessible as nur.repos.<repo>.modules.homeManager.<module> in flakes.

The legacy modules attribute is also supported as a fallback for homeModules.

Providing Darwin modules

Darwin (nix-darwin) modules should be placed in the darwinModules attribute:

{ pkgs }: {
  darwinModules = import ./darwin-modules;
}

These modules are then accessible as nur.repos.<repo>.modules.darwin.<module> in flakes.

Providing flake-parts modules

Flake-parts modules should be placed in the flakeModules attribute:

{ pkgs }: {
  flakeModules = import ./flake-modules;
}

These modules are then accessible as nur.repos.<repo>.modules.flake.<module> in flakes.

Providing Overlays

For overlays, use the overlays attribute:

# default.nix
{
  overlays = {
    hello-overlay = import ./hello-overlay;
  };
}

# hello-overlay/default.nix
self: super: {
  hello = super.hello.overrideAttrs (old: {
    separateDebugInfo = true;
  });
}

Providing library functions

Put reusable nix functions that are intend for public use in the lib attribute:

{ pkgs }:
with pkgs.lib;
{
  lib = {
    hexint = x: hexvals.${toLower x};

    hexvals = listToAttrs (imap (i: c: { name = c; value = i - 1; })
      (stringToCharacters "0123456789abcdef"));
  };
}

Overriding repositories

You can override repositories using repoOverrides argument. This allows to test changes before publishing.

{
  packageOverrides = pkgs: {
    nur = import (builtins.fetchTarball "https://github.com/nix-community/NUR/archive/main.tar.gz") {
      inherit pkgs;
      repoOverrides = {
        mic92 = import ../nur-packages { inherit pkgs; };
        ## remote locations are also possible:
        # mic92 = import (builtins.fetchTarball "https://github.com/your-user/nur-packages/archive/main.tar.gz") { inherit pkgs; };
      };
    };
  };
}

The repo must be a valid package repo, i.e. its root contains a default.nix file.

Overriding repositories with Flake

Experimental Note that flake support is still experimental and might change in future in a backwards incompatible way.

You can override repositories in two ways:

• With packageOverrides

{
  inputs.nur.url = "github:nix-community/NUR";
  inputs.paul.url = "path:/some_path/nur-paul"; # example: a local nur.repos.paul for development

  outputs = {self, nixpkgs, nur, paul }: {

  system = "x86_64-linux";

  nurpkgs = import nixpkgs { inherit system; };

  ...
  modules = [
       {
         nixpkgs.config.packageOverrides = pkgs: {
            nur = import nur {
              inherit pkgs nurpkgs;
              repoOverrides = { paul = import paul { inherit pkgs; }; };
            };
          };
        }
  ];
  ...
}

• With overlay

{
  modules = [
    {
      nixpkgs.overlays = [
        (final: prev: {
          nur = import nur {
            nurpkgs = prev;
            pkgs = prev;
            repoOverrides = { paul = import paul { pkgs = prev; }; };
          };
        })
      ];
    }
    ...
  ];
}

The repo must contain a flake.nix file in addition to a default.nix: flake.nix example

Contribution guidelines

• When adding packages to your repository make sure they build and set meta.broken attribute to true otherwise.
• Supply meta attributes as described in the Nixpkgs manual, so packages can be found by users.
• Keep your repositories slim - they are downloaded by users and our evaluator and needs to be hashed.
• Reuse packages from Nixpkgs when applicable, so the binary cache can be leveraged

Examples for packages that could be in NUR:

• Packages that are only interesting for a small audience
• Pre-releases
• Old versions of packages that are no longer in Nixpkgs, but needed for legacy reason (i.e. old versions of GCC/LLVM)
• Automatic generated package sets (i.e. generate packages sets from PyPi or CPAN)
• Software with opinionated patches
• Experiments

Contact

We have a matrix channel on #nur:nixos.org. Apart from that we also read posts on https://discourse.nixos.org.