diff --git a/doc/manual/rl-next/nix-copy-flags.md b/doc/manual/rl-next/nix-copy-flags.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f5b2b9716 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/rl-next/nix-copy-flags.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +synopsis: "`nix copy` supports `--profile` and `--out-link`" +prs: [11657] +--- + +The `nix copy` command now has flags `--profile` and `--out-link`, similar to `nix build`. `--profile` makes a profile point to the +top-level store path, while `--out-link` create symlinks to the top-level store paths. + +For example, when updating the local NixOS system profile from a NixOS system closure on a remote machine, instead of +``` +# nix copy --from ssh://server $path +# nix build --profile /nix/var/nix/profiles/system $path +``` +you can now do +``` +# nix copy --from ssh://server --profile /nix/var/nix/profiles/system $path +``` +The advantage is that this avoids a time window where *path* is not a garbage collector root, and so could be deleted by a concurrent `nix store gc` process.