How can I reference the store path of a Nix package?

Question

I'd like to add functionality relating to the awscli command completion.

In my particular case I need to source the script from /nix/store/hvx7xqvjz7r08nsb9kssh1d9s302v3sp-awscli-1.16.106/share/zsh/site-functions/aws_zsh_completer.sh.

How can I get the store path (/nix/store/hvx7xqvjz7r08nsb9kssh1d9s302v3sp-awscli-1.16.106) for a package (awscli)? As I don't think hardcoding this reference is ideal.

Answer 1

You can use configuration.nix to create a symlink in /etc that points to the file you want to source. Then you simply source said symlink. For example, something like this...

configuration.nix

environment.etc."zsh/zshrc".source = "${pkgs.awscli}/share/zsh/site-functions/aws_zsh_completer.sh";

...would create the symbolic link /etc/zsh/zshrc which would point to /nix/store/hvx7xqvjz7r08nsb9kssh1d9s302v3sp-awscli-1.16.106/share/zsh/site-functions/aws_zsh_completer.sh

Since this is done through configuration.nix, the symbolic link will get updated to the correct path each time you build the system.

Then, you can source /etc/zsh/zshrc in your ~.zshrc.

Answer 2

Through nix-locate , install it then update the database with nix-index:

nix-locate "PATTERN"

Answer 3

You could use nix eval --raw to print the store path of a package. For your example:

ls $(nix eval --raw nixpkgs.awscli)/share/zsh/site-functions/aws_zsh_completer.sh

This file will only exist if the package is already in your local nix store.