nix shell

Start a shell in which the specified packages are available. See also: nix-shell for setting up development environments, nix3 flake for information about flakes. More information: https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/command-ref/new-cli/nix3-shell.html.

• Start an interactive shell with some packages from nixpkgs:

nix shell nixpkgs#pkg1 nixpkgs#packageSet.pkg2 ...

• Start a shell providing a package from an older version of nixpkgs (21.05):

nix shell nixpkgs/nixos-21.05#pkg

• Start a shell with the “default package” from a flake in the current directory, printing build logs if any builds happen:

nix shell -L

• Start a shell with a package from a flake on GitHub:

nix shell github:owner/repo#pkg

• Run a command in a shell with a package:

nix shell nixpkgs#pkg -c some-cmd --someflag 'Some other arguments'