Determinate Nix Installer

Determinate Nix Installer is the easiest and most reliable way to install Determinate Nix.¹ The installer works across a wide range of environments, including macOS, Linux, Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), SELinux, the Valve Steam Deck, and more, it offers support for seamlessly uninstalling Nix, it enables Nix to survive macOS upgrades, and offers a range of features that make it the industry standard for installing Nix.

By default, it installs Determinate Nix, which enables flakes and offers a variety of industry-leading features and improvements.

[!NOTE] You can also use Determinate Nix Installer to install upstream Nix if you wish. This option will be available, however, until January 1, 2026.

Install Determinate Nix

This one-liner installs Determinate Nix on just about any supported system:

curl -fsSL https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install

[!TIP] The best way to get started with Determinate Nix on macOS is to use our macOS package, which uses Determinate Nix Installer behind the scenes but provides a highly intuitive graphical UI.

Determinate Nix Installer successfully completes tens of thousands of installs every day in a number of environments, including Github Actions and GitLab:

As a Github Action

You can install Determinate Nix on GitHub Actions using determinate-nix-action. Here's an example configuration:

on:
  pull_request:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  build:
    name: Build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: DeterminateSystems/determinate-nix-action@v3
      - name: Run `nix build`
        run: nix build .

Pinning the GitHub Action

The determinate-nix-action is updated and tagged for every Determinate release. For example, DeterminateSystems/determinate-nix-action@v3.5.2 will always install Determinate Nix v3.5.2.

Additionally, an extra tag on the major version is kept up to date with the current release. The DeterminateSystems/determinate-nix-action@v3 reference, for example, installs the most recent release in the v3.x.y series.

Planners

Determinate Nix Installer installs Nix by following a plan made by a planner. To review the available planners:

/nix/nix-installer install --help

Planners have their own options and defaults, sharing most of them in common. To see the options for Linux, for example:

/nix/nix-installer install linux --help

You can configure planners using environment variables or command arguments:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | \
  NIX_BUILD_GROUP_NAME=nixbuilder sh -s -- install --nix-build-group-id 4000

# Alternatively:

NIX_BUILD_GROUP_NAME=nixbuilder ./nix-installer install --nix-build-group-id 4000

See Installer settings below for a full list of options.

Troubleshooting

Having problems with the installer? Consult our troubleshooting guide to see if your problem is covered.

Upgrading Determinate Nix

If you've installed Determinate Nix, you can upgrade it using Determinate Nixd:

sudo determinate-nixd upgrade

Alternatively, you can uninstall and reinstall with a different version of Determinate Nix Installer.

Uninstalling

You can remove Nix installed by Determinate Nix Installer by running:

/nix/nix-installer uninstall

On GitLab

GitLab CI runners are typically Docker based and run as the root user. This means that systemd is not present, so you need to pass the --init none option to the Linux planner.

On the default GitLab runners, you can install Nix using this configuration:

test:
  script:
    - curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install linux --no-confirm --init none
    - . /nix/var/nix/profiles/default/etc/profile.d/nix-daemon.sh
    - nix run nixpkgs#hello
    - nix profile add nixpkgs#hello
    - hello

If you are using different runners, the above example may need to be adjusted.

Without systemd (Linux only)

[!WARNING] When --init none is used, only root or users who can elevate to root privileges can run Nix:

sudo -i nix run nixpkgs#hello

If you don't use systemd, you can still install Nix by explicitly specifying the linux plan and --init none:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | \
  sh -s -- install linux --init none

In a container

In Docker/Podman containers or WSL2 instances where an init (like systemd) is not present, pass --init none.

For containers (without an init):

[!WARNING] When --init none is used, only root or users who can elevate to root privileges can run Nix:

sudo -i nix run nixpkgs#hello

[!WARNING] If you want to add a flake.nix, first declare a working directory (such as /src) in your Dockerfile. You cannot lock a flake placed at the docker image root (/) (see details). You would get a file '/dev/full' has an unsupported type during the docker build.

# append this to the below dockerfiles
WORKDIR /src
# now flakes will work
RUN nix flake init
RUN nix flake lock

# Dockerfile
FROM ubuntu:latest
RUN apt update -y
RUN apt install curl -y
RUN curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install linux \
  --extra-conf "sandbox = false" \
  --init none \
  --no-confirm
ENV PATH="${PATH}:/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin"
RUN nix run nixpkgs#hello

docker build -t ubuntu-with-nix .
docker run --rm -ti ubuntu-with-nix
docker rmi ubuntu-with-nix
# or
podman build -t ubuntu-with-nix .
podman run --rm -ti ubuntu-with-nix
podman rmi ubuntu-with-nix

For containers with a systemd init:

# Dockerfile
FROM ubuntu:latest
RUN apt update -y
RUN apt install curl systemd -y
RUN curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install linux \
  --extra-conf "sandbox = false" \
  --no-start-daemon \
  --no-confirm
ENV PATH="${PATH}:/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin"
RUN nix run nixpkgs#hello
CMD [ "/bin/systemd" ]

podman build -t ubuntu-systemd-with-nix .
IMAGE=$(podman create ubuntu-systemd-with-nix)
CONTAINER=$(podman start $IMAGE)
podman exec -ti $CONTAINER /bin/bash
podman rm -f $CONTAINER
podman rmi $IMAGE

With some container tools, such as Docker, you can omit sandbox = false. Omitting this will negatively impact compatibility with container tools like Podman.

In WSL2

We strongly recommend first enabling systemd and then installing Nix as normal:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | \
  sh -s -- install

If WSLg is enabled, you can do things like open a Linux Firefox from Windows on Powershell:

wsl nix run nixpkgs#firefox

To use some OpenGL applications, you can use nixGL (note that some applications, such as blender, may not work):

wsl nix run --impure github:guibou/nixGL nix run nixpkgs#obs-studio

If enabling systemd is not an option, pass --init none at the end of the command:

[!WARNING] When --init none is used, only root or users who can elevate to root privileges can run Nix:

sudo -i nix run nixpkgs#hello

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | \
  sh -s -- install linux --init none

Skip confirmation

If you'd like to bypass the confirmation step, you can apply the --no-confirm flag:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | \
  sh -s -- install --no-confirm

This is especially useful when using the installer in non-interactive scripts.

Features

Existing Nix installation scripts do a good job but they are difficult to maintain.

Subtle differences in the shell implementations and tool used in the scripts make it difficult to make meaningful changes to the installer.

Determinate Nix installer has numerous advantages over these options:

• It installs Nix with flakes enabled by default
• It enables Nix to survive macOS upgrades
• It keeps an installation receipt for easy uninstallation
• It uses planners to create appropriate install plans for complicated targets—plans that you can review prior to installation
• It enables you to perform a best-effort reversion in the facing of a failed install
• It improves installation performance by maximizing parallel operations
• It supports an expanded test suite including "curing" cases (compatibility with Nix already on the system)
• It supports SELinux and OSTree-based distributions without asking users to make compromises
• It operates as a single, static binary with external dependencies such as OpenSSL, only calling existing system tools (like useradd) when necessary
• As a macOS remote build target, it ensures that Nix is present on the PATH

Nix community involvement

It has been wonderful to collaborate with other participants in the Nix Installer Working Group and members of the broader community. The working group maintains a foundation-owned fork of the installer.

Quirks

While Determinate Nix Installer tries to provide a comprehensive and unquirky experience, there are unfortunately some issues that may require manual intervention or operator choices. See this document for information on resolving these issues:

• Using macOS after removing Nix while nix-darwin was still installed, network requests fail

Building a binary

See this guide for instructions on building and distributing the installer yourself.

As a Rust library

The Determinate Nix Installer is available as a standard Rust library. See this guide for instructions on using the library in your own Rust code.

Accessing other versions

You can pin to a specific version of Determinate Nix Installer by modifying the download URL. Here's an example:

VERSION="v0.6.0"
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix/tag/${VERSION} | \
  sh -s -- install

To discover which versions are available, or download the binaries for any release, check the Github Releases.

Each installer version has an associated supported nix version—if you pin the installer version, you'll also indirectly pin to the associated nix version.

You can also override the Nix version using --nix-package-url or NIX_INSTALLER_NIX_PACKAGE_URL= but doing this is not recommended since we haven't tested that combination. Here are some example Nix package URLs, including the Nix version, OS, and architecture:

• https://releases.nixos.org/nix/nix-2.18.1/nix-2.18.1-x86_64-linux.tar.xz
• https://releases.nixos.org/nix/nix-2.18.1/nix-2.18.1-aarch64-darwin.tar.xz

Installation differences

Differing from the upstream Nix installer scripts:

• In nix.conf:
  • the nix-command and flakes features are enabled
  • bash-prompt-prefix is set
  • auto-optimise-store is set to true (On Linux only)
  • always-allow-substitutes is set to true
  • extra-nix-path is set to nixpkgs=flake:nixpkgs
  • max-jobs is set to auto
  • upgrade-nix-store-path-url is set to https://install.determinate.systems/nix-upgrade/stable/universal, to prevent unintentional downgrades.
• an installation receipt (for uninstalling) is stored at /nix/receipt.json as well as a copy of the install binary at /nix/nix-installer
• nix-channel --update is not run, ~/.nix-channels is not provisioned
• ssl-cert-file is set in /etc/nix/nix.conf if the ssl-cert-file argument is used.

Installer settings

Determinate Nix Installer provides a variety of configuration settings, some general and some on a per-command basis. All settings are available via flags or via NIX_INSTALLER_* environment variables.

General settings

These settings are available for all commands.

Installation (nix-installer install)

You can also specify a planner with the first argument:

nix-installer install <plan>

Alternatively, you can use the NIX_INSTALLER_PLAN environment variable:

NIX_INSTALLER_PLAN=<plan> nix-installer install

Uninstalling (nix-installer uninstall)

You can also specify an installation receipt as the first argument (the default is /nix/receipt.json):

nix-installer uninstall /path/to/receipt.json

Planning (nix-installer plan)

Repairing (nix-installer repair)

Self-test (nix-installer self-test)

nix-installer self-test only takes general settings.

Installing upstream Nix

You can install upstream Nix by applying the --prefer-upstream-nix flag:

nix-installer install --prefer-upstream-nix

In GitHub Actions, you can install upstream Nix by using our nix-installer-action and setting determinate: false in your configuration:

- name: Install upstream Nix
  uses: DeterminateSystems/nix-installer-action@main
  with:
    determinate: false

Diagnostics

The goal of Determinate Nix Installer is to successfully and correctly install Nix. The curl | sh pipeline and the installer collects a little bit of anonymous diagnostic information to help us make that true.

The anonymous diagnostics we collect to help us improve the installer includes:

• The installer version
• Which planner is used (linux, macos, steam-deck)
• What action was taken (install, uninstall)
• The result (Success, Failure, Pending, or Cancelled)
• The customized planner setting names (not the values)
• Information about your host, like the OS and version, architecture, binary format, etc.
• Whether you're in CI or not
• A high level description of what the failure was, like if a specific command failed.

To disable diagnostic reporting, set the diagnostics URL to an empty string by passing --diagnostic-endpoint="" or setting NIX_INSTALLER_DIAGNOSTIC_ENDPOINT="".

You can read the full privacy policy for Determinate Systems, the creators of Determinate Nix Installer, here.

Footnotes

1. A bit of history: Determinate Nix Installer is Determinate Systems' longest-running project as a company. We've gone on to build many other things, like FlakeHub, FlakeHub Cache, and Determinate Secure Packages, but this is where it all started! ↩