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NIX_SSHOPTS
nix-copy-closure1
Copy store objects to or from a remote machine via ssh
Usage
nix-copy-closure [{--to | --from}]
[--gzip]
[--include-outputs]
[{--use-substitutes | -s}]
[-v]
[user@]
machine
[:port]
paths
Overview
Given paths from one machine, nix-copy-closure computes the closure ⟨@docroot@/glossary.md#gloss-closure⟩ of those paths (i.e. all their dependencies in the Nix store), and copies store objects ⟨@docroot@/glossary.md#gloss-store-object⟩ in that closure to another machine via SSH. It doesn’t copy store objects that are already present on the other machine.
Note
While the Nix store to use on the local machine can be specified on the command line with the --store ⟨@docroot@/command-ref/conf-file.md#conf-store⟩ option, the Nix store to be accessed on the remote machine can only be configured statically ⟨@docroot@/command-ref/conf-file.md#configuration-file⟩ on that remote machine.
Since nix-copy-closure calls ssh, you may need to authenticate with the remote machine. In fact, you may be asked for authentication twice because nix-copy-closure currently connects twice to the remote machine: first to get the set of paths missing on the target machine, and second to send the dump of those paths. When using public key authentication, you can avoid typing the passphrase with ssh-agent.
Options
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--to
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Copy the closure of paths from a Nix store accessible from the local machine to the Nix store on the remote machine. This is the default behavior.
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--from
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Copy the closure of paths from the Nix store on the remote machine to the local machine’s specified Nix store.
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--gzip
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Enable compression of the SSH connection.
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--include-outputs
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Also copy the outputs of store derivation ⟨@docroot@/glossary.md#gloss-store-derivation⟩\c s included in the closure.
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--use-substitutes/-s
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Attempt to download missing store objects on the target from substituters ⟨@docroot@/command-ref/conf-file.md#conf-substituters⟩\c . Any store objects that cannot be substituted on the target are still copied normally from the source. This is useful, for instance, if the connection between the source and target machine is slow, but the connection between the target machine and
cache.nixos.org(the default binary cache server) is fast.
{{#include ./opt-common.md}}
Environment
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Additional options to be passed to
sshon the command line.
{{#include ./env-common.md}}
Examples
Example
Copy GNU Hello with all its dependencies to a remote machine:
$ storePath="$(nix-build '<nixpkgs>' -I nixpkgs=channel:nixpkgs-unstable -A hello --no-out-link)" $ nix-copy-closure --to [email protected] "$storePath" copying 5 paths... copying path '/nix/store/nrwkk6ak3rgkrxbqhsscb01jpzmslf2r-xgcc-13.2.0-libgcc' to 'ssh://[email protected]'... copying path '/nix/store/gm61h1y42pqyl6178g90x8zm22n6pyy5-libunistring-1.1' to 'ssh://[email protected]'... copying path '/nix/store/ddfzjdykw67s20c35i7a6624by3iz5jv-libidn2-2.3.7' to 'ssh://[email protected]'... copying path '/nix/store/apab5i73dqa09wx0q27b6fbhd1r18ihl-glibc-2.39-31' to 'ssh://[email protected]'... copying path '/nix/store/g1n2vryg06amvcc1avb2mcq36faly0mh-hello-2.12.1' to 'ssh://[email protected]'...
Example
Copy GNU Hello from a remote machine using a known store path, and run it:
$ storePath="$(nix-instantiate --eval --raw '<nixpkgs>' -I nixpkgs=channel:nixpkgs-unstable -A hello.outPath)" $ nix-copy-closure --from [email protected] "$storePath" $ "$storePath"/bin/hello Hello, world!
Releases
3 releases since Debian 11 (Bullseye); the text changed 2 times.
--from until Debian 11 (Bullseye);
--gzip until Debian 11 (Bullseye);
--include-outputs until Debian 11 (Bullseye);
--to until Debian 11 (Bullseye);
--use-substitutes until Debian 11 (Bullseye);
-s until Debian 11 (Bullseye);
-v until Debian 11 (Bullseye).