cached-nix-shell
is a caching layer for nix-shell
featuring instant startup time on subsequent runs.
It supports NixOS and Linux.
Install the release version from Nixpkgs:
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.cached-nix-shell
Or, install the latest development version from GitHub:
nix-env -if https://github.com/xzfc/cached-nix-shell/tarball/master
Just replace nix-shell
with cached-nix-shell
in the shebang line:
#! /usr/bin/env cached-nix-shell
#! nix-shell -i python3 -p python
print("Hello, World!")
Alternatively, call cached-nix-shell
directly:
$ cached-nix-shell ./hello.py
$ cached-nix-shell -p python3 --run 'python --version'
Or use the --wrap
option for programs that call nix-shell
internally.
$ cached-nix-shell --wrap stack build
$ time ./hello.py # first run; no cache used
cached-nix-shell: updating cache
Hello, World!
./hello.py 0.33s user 0.06s system 91% cpu 0.435 total
$ time ./hello.py
Hello, World!
./hello.py 0.02s user 0.01s system 97% cpu 0.029 total
cached-nix-shell
stores environment variables set up by nix-shell
and reuses them on subsequent runs.
It traces which files are read by nix
during an evaluation, and performs a proper cache invalidation if any of the used files are changed.
The cache is stored in ~/.cache/cached-nix-shell/
.
The following situations are covered:
builtins.readFile
is usedbuiltins.readDir
is usedimport ./file.nix
is used- updating
/etc/nix/nix.conf
or~/.config/nix/nix.conf
- updating nix channels
- updating
$NIX_PATH
environment variable
The following situations aren't handled by cached-nix-shell
and may lead to staled cache:
builtins.fetchurl
or other network builtins are used (e.g. in nixpkgs-mozilla)
-
https://discourse.nixos.org/t/speeding-up-nix-shell-shebang/4048
-
There are related projects focused on using
nix-shell
for project developing:- direnv with use_nix
- Cached and Persistent Nix shell with direnv integration
- lorri, a
nix-shell
replacement for project development - nix-develop, universal build tool featuring cached
nd shell
command