[Nix-dev] Q - Querying for common C tools like make and kernel headers

[James Cook]

On 3 March 2015 at 16:02, Tony Su <tonysu at su-networking.com> wrote:
>  Objective:
> Install VMware Guest Tools
>
> Common requirement:
> Common Development tools like make, gnu c compiler, often packaged
> together by distro maintainers
> Kernel headers and related code to modify existing kernel
>
> Initial package query does not return anything, ie
> nix-env -qa make
> nix-env -qa kernel
>
> Suggestions on how these types of packages are listed and installed?
>
> TIA,
> Tony

On NixOS, if I type a command that's not installed, I see a message like this:

    $ java
    The program ‘java’ is currently not installed. It is provided by
    several packages. You can install it by typing one of the following:
      nix-env -i jdk
      nix-env -i openjdk
      nix-env -i openjre

If you're not using NixOS, maybe you can get it working using the
source: https://github.com/NixOS/nixos/blob/master/modules/programs/bash/command-not-found.nix

If you already have the command installed and just want to know where
it comes from, you can try something like this:

     $ ls -l $(which make)
    lrwxrwxrwx 1 root nixbld 64 Dec 31  1969
/home/james/.nix-profile/bin/make ->
/nix/store/5188x85vx0y3pd5b713bgsm260536275-gnumake-4.1/bin/make

If you need the attribute name rather than the package name, I think
nix-env -qP is supposed to get that for you, but it doesn't work for
me for some reason.  You can always use the git grep command on
nixpkgs.

James