Nix: A Powerful Package Manager

](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/actions/workflows/ci.yml) Nix is a powerful package manager for Linux and other Unix systems that makes package management reliable and reproducible. Please refer to the [Nix manual](https://nix.dev/reference/nix-manual) for more details. ## Installation and first steps Visit [nix.dev](https://nix.dev) for [installation instructions](https://nix.dev/tutorials/install-nix) and [beginner tutorials](https://nix.dev/tutorials/first-steps). Full reference documentation can be found in the [Nix manual](https://nix.dev/reference/nix-manual). ## Building and developing Follow instructions in the Nix reference manual to [set up a development environment and build Nix from source](https://nix.dev/manual/nix/development/development/building.html). ## Contributing Check the [contributing guide](./CONTRIBUTING.md) if you want to get involved with developing Nix. ## Additional resources Nix was created by Eelco Dolstra and developed as the subject of his PhD thesis [The Purely Functional Software Deployment Model](https://edolstra.github.io/pubs/phd-thesis.pdf), published 2006. Today, a world-wide developer community contributes to Nix and the ecosystem that has grown around it. - [The Nix, Nixpkgs, NixOS Community on nixos.org](https://nixos.org/) - [Official documentation on nix.dev](https://nix.dev) - [Nixpkgs](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs) is [the largest, most up-to-date free software repository in the world](https://repology.org/repositories/graphs) - [NixOS](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/tree/master/nixos) is a Linux distribution that can be configured fully declaratively - [Discourse](https://discourse.nixos.org/) - Matrix: [#users:nixos.org](https://matrix.to/#/#users:nixos.org) for user support and [#nix-dev:nixos.org](https://matrix.to/#/#nix-dev:nixos.org) for development ## License Nix is released under the [LGPL v2.1](./COPYING).

This document introduces Nix, a package manager for Linux and Unix systems, emphasizing its reliability and reproducibility. It provides instructions for installation, first steps, building, development, and contributing. Additionally, it offers links to additional resources such as the Nix manual, official documentation, Nixpkgs, NixOS, Discourse, Matrix channels, and information about Nix's creator and history. Nix is released under the LGPL v2.1 license.