# Confused about wayland package
**URL:** https://discourse.nixos.org/t/confused-about-wayland-package/69653
**Category:** Help
**Created:** [September 22, 2025, 8:51am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/confused-about-wayland-package/69653 "2025-09-22T08:51:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@muoscar](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/muoscar)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2025, 8:51am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/confused-about-wayland-package/69653/1 "2025-09-22T08:51:11Z")
I have a devShell where I develop a wayland client. I noticed that the following works.
```nix
{
inputs = {
utils.url = "github:numtide/flake-utils";
};
outputs =
{self, nixpkgs, utils}:
utils.lib.eachDefaultSystem (
system:
let
pkgs = nixpkgs.legacyPackages.${system};
in
{
devShells.default = pkgs.clangStdenv.mkDerivation {
name = "myDevShell";
nativeBuildInputs = with pkgs; [
wayland
];
};
}
);
}
```
But I canβt actually find wayland on [NixOS Search](http://search.nixos.org/packages), how come? How am I meant to discover `pkgs.wayland` in the first place? How do I inspect its outputs/what is contained in the derivation?
Sorry if this is a naive question π
---
### Author:  [@TLATER](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/TLATER)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2025, 10:40am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/confused-about-wayland-package/69653/2 "2025-09-22T10:40:02Z")
The search [hides aliases](https://github.com/NixOS/nixos-search/issues/345), so some packages are just invisible. Might be the case for this one, Iβm a bit too lazy to dig through the aliases files to figure that out for sure.
> [@muoscar](#):
>
> How am I meant to discover `pkgs.wayland` in the first place?
`nix search` or `nix-env -Q` donβt have this issue.
> [@muoscar](#):
>
> How do I inspect its outputs/what is contained in the derivation?
You can always `nix build` the attribute and look in the `result` directory.
> [@muoscar](#):
>
> `nativeBuildInputs`
Use `packages` for `mkShell`.
---
### Author:  [@muoscar](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/muoscar)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2025, 12:10pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/confused-about-wayland-package/69653/3 "2025-09-22T12:10:09Z")
Thanks, this was very helpful!
I built the derivation and notices that one of the result folders contained a bunch of man-pages. These man pages are not available to me in the shell, how could I go about finding out where they end up/why they are not in the path my man command uses? Can I find the source for the wayland derivation somehow?
Here is the result with man-pages:
```shell
result-man/
βββ share
βββ man
βββ man3
βββ wl_argument.3.gz
βββ wl_array.3.gz
βββ wl_client.3.gz
βββ wl_cursor.3.gz
βββ wl_cursor_image.3.gz
βββ wl_cursor_theme.3.gz
βββ wl_display.3.gz
βββ wl_event_loop.3.gz
βββ wl_event_queue.3.gz
βββ wl_event_source.3.gz
βββ wl_global.3.gz
βββ wl_interface.3.gz
βββ wl_list.3.gz
βββ wl_listener.3.gz
βββ wl_message.3.gz
βββ wl_object.3.gz
βββ wl_protocol_logger.3.gz
βββ wl_protocol_logger_message.3.gz
βββ wl_proxy.3.gz
βββ wl_resource.3.gz
βββ wl_resource_iterator_context.3.gz
βββ wl_shm_buffer.3.gz
βββ wl_shm_pool.3.gz
βββ wl_shm_sigbus_data.3.gz
βββ wl_signal.3.gz
βββ wl_socket.3.gz
```
As for using packages, I was using `pkgs.clangStdenv.mkDerivation` which didnβt seem to use the packages attribute. But I did switch to
```nix
devShells.default = (pkgs.mkShell.override { stdenv = pkgs.clangStdenv; }) {
packages = with pkgs; [wayland];
};
```
and that worked nicely, thanks π
---
### Author:  [@waffle8946](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/waffle8946)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2025, 12:42pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/confused-about-wayland-package/69653/4 "2025-09-22T12:42:13Z")
You can use `nix shell nixpkgs#wayland` and the manpages are available in the shell (but I do recognize how clunky that is).
This seems to be a longstanding nix issue:
>
>
> \*\*Describe the bug\*\*
>
> When I start a nix-shell with a single-output package, \`β¦man \\` will give me a man page from that package. When I start a nix-shell with a multiple-output package, \`man \\` will tell me βNo manual entry for <whatever>β.
>
> \*\*Steps To Reproduce\*\*
>
> 1. Run
> \`\`\`bash
> nix-shell --pure --packages man less hello --run "man hello"
> \`\`\`
> That command will work because \`hello\` only has one output.
> 2. Run
> \`\`\`bash
> nix-shell --pure --packages man less bash.man --run "man bash"
> \`\`\`
> That command wonβt work because \`bash\` has more than one output.
>
> \*\*Expected behavior\*\*
>
> \`man \\` should work regardless of whether or not the package has multiple outputs. As long as the user told nix-shell to use an output that contain man pages, they should be added to \`man\`βs search path.
>
> \*\*\`nix-env --version\` output\*\*
>
> nix-env (Nix) 2.18.1
>
> \*\*Additional context\*\*
>
> I made a script that works around the problem:
>
> \`\`\`bash
> \#!/usr/bin/env nix-shell
> \#! nix-shell -i bash -p jq
> \# π
π1.0 This file is dedicated to the public domain using the CC0 1.0 Universal
> \# Public Domain Dedication \.
> set -e
>
> function generate\_manpath
> {
> for attribute\_name in "$@"
> do
> # Thanks, tobiasBora, olmokramer and cole-h:
> # β’ \
> # β’ \
> # β’ \
> nix-instantiate --eval -E "\\"\\${(import \ {}).$attribute\_name}/share/man\\"" | jq --join-output
> echo -n :
> done
> }
>
> MANPATH="$(generate\_manpath "$@")" nix-shell --packages "$@"
> \`\`\`
> Save it as \`shell-with-man-pages.sh\`, and then run something like this:
>
> \`\`\`bash
> ./shell-with-man-pages.sh subversionClient subversionClient.man
> \`\`\`
>
> \*\*Priorities\*\*
>
> Add :+1: to \[issues you find important\](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Areactions-%2B1-desc).
They mention a workaround that I personally also find clunky.