`flox install` command

NAME

flox-install - install packages to an environment

SYNOPSIS

flox [<general options>] install
     [-i <id>] <package>
     [[-i <id>] <package>] ...

DESCRIPTION

Install packages to an environment.

Package installation is transactional. During an installation attempt the environment is built in order to validate that the environment isn’t broken (for example, in rare cases packages may provide files that conflict). If building the environment fails, including any of the consitituent packages, the attempt is discarded and the environment is unmodified. If the build succeeds, the environment is atomically updated.

If a requested package is already installed, nothing is done. If multiple packages are requested and some of them are already installed, only the new packages are installed and the transaction will still succeed as long as the build succeeds.

You may also specify packages to be installed via flox-edit(1), which allows specifying a variety of options for package installation. See manfifest-toml(1) for more details on the available options.

Install ID

The name of a package as it exists in the manifest is referred to as the “install ID”. This ID is separate from the pkg-path and provides a shorthand for packages with long names such as python310Packages.pip. Install IDs also provide a way to give packages more semantically meaningful, convenient, or aesthetically pleasing names in the manifest (e.g. node21 instead of nodejs_21). When not explicitly provided, the install ID is inferred based on the pkg-path. For pkg-paths that consist of a single attribute (e.g. ripgrep) the install ID is set to that attribute. For pkg-paths that consist of multiple attributes (e.g. python310Packages.pip) the install ID is set to the last attribute in the pkg-path (e.g. pip).

As an advanced feature, a Nix flake installable may be specified instead of a pkg-path, and in this case the install ID is inferred from the attribute path specified, or if no attribute path is provided, the install ID is inferred from the flake reference.

Package names

Packages are organized in a hierarchical structure such that certain packages are found at the top level (e.g. ripgrep), and other packages are found under package sets (e.g. python310Packages.pip). We call this location within the catalog the “pkg-path”.

The pkg-path is searched when you execute a flox search command. The pkg-path is what’s shown by flox show. Finally, the pkg-path appears in your manifest after a flox install.

[install]
ripgrep.pkg-path = "ripgrep"
pip.pkg-path = "python310Packages.pip"

OPTIONS

Install Options

-i, --id
The install ID of the package as it will appear in the manifest

<package>
The pkg-path of the package to install as shown by ‘flox search’ Append @<version> to specify a version requirement.

Alternatively, an arbitrary Nix flake installable may be specified. See manfifest-toml(1) for more details.

Environment Options

If no environment is specified for an environment command, the environment in the current directory or the active environment that was last activated is used.

-d, --dir
Path containing a .flox/ directory.

-r, --remote
A remote environment on FloxHub, specified in the form <owner>/<name>.

General Options

-h, --help
Prints help information.

The following options can be passed when running any flox subcommand but must be specified before the subcommand.

-v, --verbose
Increase logging verbosity. Invoke multiple times for increasing detail.

-q, --quiet
Silence logs except for errors.

flox install command