How to delete specific generation with nix profile

herrvonvoid · May 5, 2025, 3:09pm

nix-env could delete specific versions with nix-env --delete-generations 1 3

nix profile wipe-history does not seem to be able to do this?

nicolas-goudry · May 5, 2025, 4:58pm

Isn’t the --profile flag what you’re looking for?

      · --profile path
        
        The profile to operate on.

EDIT: can’t make it work though…

waffle8946 · May 6, 2025, 1:15pm

nixos-rebuild uses nix-env to manage system profile generations, so you cannot use nix profile to manipulate these.

github.com

NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/e8f532dea2f4470f8e78da764bb6d2fae07ec4ce/pkgs/os-specific/linux/nixos-rebuild/nixos-rebuild.sh#L806


      
          log "building the system configuration..."
          if [[ "$action" = switch || "$action" = boot ]]; then
              if [[ -z $buildingAttribute ]]; then
                  pathToConfig="$(nixBuild $buildFile -A "${attr:+$attr.}config.system.build.toplevel" "${extraBuildFlags[@]}")"
              elif [[ -z $flake ]]; then
                  pathToConfig="$(nixBuild '<nixpkgs/nixos>' --no-out-link -A system "${extraBuildFlags[@]}")"
              else
                  pathToConfig="$(nixFlakeBuild "$flake#$flakeAttr.config.system.build.toplevel" "${extraBuildFlags[@]}" "${lockFlags[@]}")"
              fi
              copyToTarget "$pathToConfig"
              targetHostSudoCmd nix-env -p "$profile" --set "$pathToConfig"
          elif [[ "$action" = test || "$action" = build || "$action" = dry-build || "$action" = dry-activate ]]; then
              if [[ -z $buildingAttribute ]]; then
                  pathToConfig="$(nixBuild $buildFile -A "${attr:+$attr.}config.system.build.toplevel" "${extraBuildFlags[@]}")"
              elif [[ -z $flake ]]; then
                  pathToConfig="$(nixBuild '<nixpkgs/nixos>' -A system -k "${extraBuildFlags[@]}")"
              else
                  pathToConfig="$(nixFlakeBuild "$flake#$flakeAttr.config.system.build.toplevel" "${extraBuildFlags[@]}" "${lockFlags[@]}")"
              fi
          elif [ "$action" = build-vm ]; then
              if [[ -z $buildingAttribute ]]; then