mirror of
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs.git
synced 2026-08-26 02:05:02 +00:00
27 lines
1.4 KiB
Markdown
27 lines
1.4 KiB
Markdown
# How channels work {#how-channels-work}
|
|
|
|
nixpkgs uses the [channels feature](https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#sec-channels) of nix.
|
|
|
|
nixpkgs is distributed for users of Nix on non-NixOS distributions through the channel
|
|
`nixpkgs-unstable`. Users of NixOS generally use one of the `nixos-*` channels,
|
|
e.g. `nixos-22.11`, which includes all packages and modules for the stable NixOS
|
|
22.11. Stable NixOS releases are generally only given
|
|
security updates. More up to date packages and modules are available via the
|
|
`nixos-unstable` channel.
|
|
|
|
Both `nixos-unstable` and `nixpkgs-unstable` follow the `master` branch of the
|
|
nixpkgs repository, although both do lag the `master` branch by generally
|
|
[a couple of days](https://status.nixos.org/). Updates to a channel are
|
|
distributed as soon as all tests for that channel pass, e.g.
|
|
[this table](https://hydra.nixos.org/job/nixpkgs/trunk/unstable#tabs-constituents)
|
|
shows the status of tests for the `nixpkgs-unstable` channel.
|
|
|
|
The tests are conducted by a cluster called [Hydra](https://nixos.org/hydra/),
|
|
which also builds binary packages from the Nix expressions in Nixpkgs for
|
|
`x86_64-linux`, `aarch64-linux`, `x86_64-darwin` and `aarch64-darwin`.
|
|
The binaries are made available via a [binary cache](https://cache.nixos.org).
|
|
|
|
The current Nix expressions of the channels are available in the
|
|
[nixpkgs repository](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs) in branches
|
|
that correspond to the channel names (e.g. `nixos-22.11-small`).
|