Nix

Nix is a powerful package manager for Linux and other Unix systems that makes package management reliable and reproducible. It allows you to setup self-contained environments for all your development needs, i.e. a more lightweight and less cumbersome alternative to Docker.

nix-shell -p means get me into a shell with the following packages in scope

nix-channel --list
nix search ghc

Nix uses a central store located at /nix/store where you’ll find every package in use by your current installation.

Check installed packages

nix-env -q

Uninstall a package

nix-env -e ruby

Clean the nix store

nix-collect-garbage -d