Manifests

Manifests contain the configuration for an environment, including which packages to install, how to run the shell hook, etc. Users working inside of a project have both a global manifest as well as a per-project manifest. Locking these manifests produces a lockfile, which is then used to build the environment. We also pass these manifests and the lockfile to search commands so that searches can be done in the context of the particular environment e.g. so that we don't return a search result from a registry that isn't available in the project.

Schema

Global manifest

Allows ::= {
  unfree   = null | <BOOL>
, broken   = null | <BOOL>
, licenses = null | [<STRING>, ...]
}
 
Semver ::= {
  prefer-pre-releases = <BOOL>
}
 
Options ::= {
  systems                   = null | [<STRING>, ...]
, allow                     = null | Allows
, semver                    = null | Semver
, package-grouping-strategy = null | <STRING>
, activation-strategy       = null | <STRING>
}
 
GlobalManifest ::= {
  registry = null | Registry
, options  = null | Options
}

Fields:

• Allows
  • unfree: Allow packages with non-FOSS licenses in search results and installs.
    • Default is false.
    • Associated with the nixpkgs meta.unfree field.
    • Packages that lack this field are assumed to be "free".
  • broken: Allow packages marked broken in a in search results and installs.
    • Default is false.
    • Associated with the nixpkgs meta.broken field.
    • Packages without this field are assumed not to be broken.
  • licenses: A whitelist of software licenses to allow in search results and installs.
    • Default is to allow any license. This default is used if the attribute is missing or null.
    • Valid entries are SPDX Identifiers.
• SemVer
  • prefer-pre-releases: Whether to prefer pre-release software over equivalent stable versions for the purpose of search results and installs.
    • Default value is false, which would prefer 4.1.9 over 4.2.0-pre.
• Options
  • package-grouping-strategy: Governs how packages not explicity requested to resolve in a group should be resolved.
    • This field is currently unused.
  • activation-strategy: Governs how environments should be activated.
    • This field is currently unused.
• GlobalManifest
  • registry: Contains the inputs from which packages can be searched and installed from.
    • Users are currently not allowed to put anything in this field, and instead it's inserted when the --ga-registry flag is passed to pkgdb.
    • For more details on registries see the registry docs.

Manifest

EnvBase ::= {
  floxhub = null | <STRING>
, dir     = null | <STRING>
}
 
Hook ::= {
  script = null | <STRING>
, file   = null | <PATH>
}
 
Descriptor ::= {
  name               = null | <STRING>
, optional           = null | <BOOL>
, package-group      = null | <STRING>
, version            = null | <STRING>
, semver             = null | <STRING>
, systems            = null | [<STRING>, ...]
, path               = null | <STRING> | [<STRING>, ...]
, abs-path           = null | <STRING> | [<STRING>, ...]
, package-repository = null | <STRING> | FlakeAttrs
, priority           = null | <INT>
}
 
Manifest ::= <GlobalManifest> // {
  env-base = null | EnvBase
, install  = null | {<NAME>: Descriptor, ...}
, vars     = null | {<NAME>: <VALUE>, ...}
, hook     = null | Hook
}

Fields:

• EnvBase
  • floxhub: A URL that points to an environment to be extended.
  • dir: The path to a directory containing a .flox directory to be extended.
• Hook
  • script: An inline script to run immediately after the environment is activated.
  • file: A path to a file containing a script to run immediately after the environment is activated.
• Descriptor: A set of requirements specifying a dependency to be installed to the environment.
  • name: Matches the name, pname, or attrName attribute of the package.
    • Maps to flox::pkgdb::PkgQueryArgs::pnameOrAttrName.
  • optional: Whether resolution of this package is allowed to fail without producing an error.
    • The default value is false, and is used when the attribute is missing or null.
  • package-group: Resolve all packages within this group to a single revision of the input they are found in.
  • version: Match the version of the package.
    • A version whose first character is = will attempt to match exactly during resolution.
    • All other version strings will attempt to match a semantic version range.
  • semver: Specifically match a semantic version range.
    • Uses the exact syntax used by npm, yarn, etc.
  • systems: A list of systems on which to resolve this package.
    • When omitted or null only the current system is used for resolution.
  • path: Match a relative path within the registry input.
  • abs-path: Match an exact path within the registry input.
  • package-repository: The named registry input or flake reference that this package should be resolved in.
  • priority: A priority used to resolve file conflicts.
    • When the attribute is missing or null, the package is assigned a priority of 5.
    • Packages with a higher priority will take precedence over packages with a lower priority.
• Manifest
  • Manifest is a superset of the fields allowed in GlobalManifest.
  • install: The collection of Descriptors indicating which packages to install.
  • vars: The collection of environment variables to set in the environment.