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https://github.com/mercurytechnologies/nix-your-shell

A `nix` and `nix-shell` wrapper for shells other than `bash`
https://github.com/mercurytechnologies/nix-your-shell

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A `nix` and `nix-shell` wrapper for shells other than `bash`

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# nix-your-shell



[![nixpkgs](https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/nix_unstable/nix-your-shell.svg?header=nixpkgs)](https://repology.org/project/nix-your-shell/versions)

[![Crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/v/nix-your-shell)](https://crates.io/crates/nix-your-shell)



A `nix` and `nix-shell` wrapper for shells other than `bash`.



`nix develop` and `nix-shell` use `bash` as the default shell, so

`nix-your-shell` prints shell snippets you can source to use the shell

you prefer inside of Nix shells.



## Usage



`nix-your-shell` will print out shell environment code you can source to

activate `nix-your-shell`. For example:



```ShellSession

$ nix-your-shell fish

# If you see this output, you probably forgot to pipe it into `source`:

# nix-your-shell fish | source



function nix-shell --description "Start an interactive shell based on a Nix expression"

    nix-your-shell fish nix-shell -- $argv

end



function nix --description "Reproducible and declarative configuration management"

    nix-your-shell fish nix -- $argv

end

```



These replace commands like `nix foo bar` with `nix-your-shell fish nix foo

bar`. `nix-your-shell` then parses the `nix` arguments and adds a `--command

fish` argument before launching the underlying command.



Then, `nix-shell`, `nix develop`, and `nix shell` will use your shell instead

of bash, unless overridden explicitly with a `--command` argument.



### Fish



Add to your `~/.config/fish/config.fish`:



```fish

if command -q nix-your-shell

  nix-your-shell fish | source

end

```



### Zsh



Add to your `~/.zshrc`:



```zsh

if command -v nix-your-shell > /dev/null; then

  nix-your-shell zsh | source /dev/stdin

fi

```



### Xonsh



Add to your `~/.config/xonsh/rc.xsh`



```xonsh

if !(which nix-your-shell):

    nix-your-shell xonsh | source

```



### Nushell



> [!IMPORTANT]

> Nushell version >=0.87.0 is required



> [!NOTE]

> Nushell requires sourced configuration files to exist before `nu` is started.



Add to your `~/.config/nushell/config.nu`:



```nu

source nix-your-shell.nu

```



To generate the `nix-your-shell.nu` file:



Either manually generate it:



```nu

nix-your-shell nu | save $env.XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nushell/nix-your-shell.nu

```



Or ensure it's kept updated alongside `nix-your-shell` by populating the file with [`home-manager`][home-manager]:



[home-manager]: https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/



```nix

{ config, pkgs, ... }: {

  home.file."${config.xdg.configHome}/nushell/nix-your-shell.nu".source = pkgs.nix-your-shell.generate-config "nu";

}

```



## Installation



You can either install `nix-your-shell` from this repository or from `nixpkgs`.

The version packaged in `nixpkgs` will probably lag behind this repository by

about a week or so.



### nix profile



To install the latest version with `nix profile`, use one of:



```sh

nix profile install github:MercuryTechnologies/nix-your-shell

nix profile install "nixpkgs#nix-your-shell"

```



### nix-env



To install the latest version with `nix-env`, use one of:



```sh

nix-env --install --file https://github.com/MercuryTechnologies/nix-your-shell/archive/refs/heads/main.tar.gz

nix-env --install nix-your-shell

```



You can later remove the installed program with `nix-env --uninstall nix-your-shell`.



### nix run



Run dynamically with `nix run`:



```sh

nix run github:MercuryTechnologies/nix-your-shell -- zsh

nix run "nixpkgs#nix-your-shell" -- zsh

```



Note that because the generated shell code will refer to the dynamically-built

`nix-your-shell` executable, it may get [garbage

collected][nix-collect-garbage] and cause problems later.



[nix-collect-garbage]: https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/package-management/garbage-collection.html



### Flakes



`nix-your-shell` is packaged in `nixpkgs`, so you can add `pkgs.nix-your-shell`

to `environment.systemPackages` if you don't need the bleeding edge releases

from this repo.



Add to a NixOS flake configuration using the overlay:



`flake.nix`:



```nix

{

  inputs = {

    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs";

    nix-your-shell = {

      url = "github:MercuryTechnologies/nix-your-shell";

      inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";

    };

  };



  outputs = {

    self,

    nixpkgs,

    ...

  } @ attrs: {

    nixosConfigurations = {

      YOUR_HOSTNAME = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {

        system = "x86_64-linux";

        specialArgs = attrs;

        modules = [./YOUR_HOSTNAME.nix];

      };

    };

  };

}

```



`./YOUR_HOSTNAME.nix`:



```nix

{

  config,

  pkgs,

  nix-your-shell,

  ...

}: {

  nixpkgs.overlays = [

    nix-your-shell.overlays.default

  ];



  environment.systemPackages = [

    pkgs.nix-your-shell

  ];



  # Example configuration for `fish`:

  programs.fish = {

    enable = true;

    interactiveShellInit = ''

      nix-your-shell fish | source

    '';

  };



  # ... extra configuration

}

```



## Adding support for new shells



See [#23](https://github.com/MercuryTechnologies/nix-your-shell/pull/23) for an

example of adding support for a new shell to `nix-your-shell`.



## Comparison with `any-nix-shell`



[`any-nix-shell`](https://github.com/haslersn/any-nix-shell) does roughly the

same thing, and serves as the inspiration for `nix-your-shell`.



There are a few reasons I wrote `nix-your-shell` as a competitor:



- `any-nix-shell` doesn't support Nix flakes through `nix develop`. `nix-your-shell` does.

- `any-nix-shell` is a hodgepodge of shell scripts with multiple layers of

  `eval` and templating, making hacking or modifying it challenging. In

  contrast, `nix-your-shell` is written in Rust with a relatively

  straightforward structure (the shell environment code generation command and

  the `nix` wrappers are the same, so there's no need for dotfile executables

  on your `$PATH`).



However, `any-nix-shell` can optionally display the packages in the current

shell on a righthand prompt. `nix-your-shell` does not support this.