nixpkgs/pkgs/tools/package-management/nix

Steps for Testing New Releases

Patch Releases or Updating nixVersions.{latest,git}

Branch to merge into: master or release-$nixos-version

Build the affected Nix packages and run their tests on the following platforms: x86_64-linux, aarch64-linux, x86_64-darwin, and aarch64-darwin. If you lack the necessary hardware for these platforms, you may need to ask others for assistance with the builds. Alternatively, you can request access to the Nix community builder for all platforms here and here.

To build all dependent packages, use:

nixpkgs-review pr <your-pull-request>

And to build all important NixOS tests, run:

# Replace $version with the actual Nix version
nix-build nixVersions.nix_$version.tests

Be sure to also update the nix-fallback-paths whenever you do a patch release for nixVersions.stable

# Replace $version with the actual Nix version
curl https://releases.nixos.org/nix/nix-$version/fallback-paths.nix > nixos/modules/installer/tools/nix-fallback-paths.nix

Major Version Bumps

If you're updating nixVersions.stable, follow all the steps mentioned above, but use the staging branch for your pull request (or staging-next after coordinating with the people in matrix #staging:nixos.org) This is necessary because, at the end of the staging-next cycle, the NixOS tests are built through the staging-next-small jobset. Especially nixos installer test are important to look at here.

There is a script to update minor versions:

./pkgs/tools/package-management/nix/update-all.sh