# Description of the attribute \`inputDrvs\` in the Nix-manual

**URL:** https://discourse.nixos.org/t/description-of-the-attribute-inputdrvs-in-the-nix-manual/60190
**Category:** Documentation
**Created:** [February 12, 2025, 2:03pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/description-of-the-attribute-inputdrvs-in-the-nix-manual/60190 "2025-02-12T14:03:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
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### Author: ![ilneit](https://discourse.nixos.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/b19c9b/32.png) [@ilneit](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/ilneit)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2025, 1:55pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/description-of-the-attribute-inputdrvs-in-the-nix-manual/60190/7 "2025-02-13T13:55:00Z")

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Thank you for your answer @fricklerhandwerk!

There is some additional info in discourse about it: [https://discourse.nixos.org/t/pre-rfc-implement-dependency-retrieval-primitive/43418](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/pre-rfc-implement-dependency-retrieval-primitive/43418) It looks as `inputDrvs` is not accessable from within the NIX-DSL. The Pre-RFC wants to change that.

What I wonder, when having a look at `inputDrvs` is, that there is no distinction between input-derivations that are needed to be in the store when one wants to execute a program in the output of the target-derivation and those which are needed just to build the target-derivation (without executing anything). That probably means when one copies a derivation from a substituter, Nix makes sure that even e.g. compilers needed for building it are in the Nix store.

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_[View the full topic](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/description-of-the-attribute-inputdrvs-in-the-nix-manual/60190)._