u/manelinux

I built a small Bash utility to search installed packages across all NixOS scopes at once — user environment, system-wide, flake profiles, and Home Manager — with keyword filtering, duplicate detection, and package count.

A simple but powerful Bash utility to search and inspect installed packages across all scopes of a NixOS system.

nix-search -a global -k xfce
nix-search -a global,user --count
nix-search --duplicates

Why?

On NixOS, packages can live in several different places:

System-wide via configuration.nix
Per-user via nix-env or user profiles
Via Home Manager

There is no single command to see all of them at once, filter by keyword, or detect duplicates across scopes. nix-search solves that.

This tool is aimed at NixOS newcomers who are still getting familiar with the system and want a simple way to see what is installed and where.

Features

🔍 Search across all scopes at once or pick specific ones
🔑 Keyword filtering to find exactly what you are looking for
👥 Multi-user aware — scans all users and their Home Manager installations
🔁 Duplicate detection — find packages installed in more than one scope
📊 Package count per scope
⚡ Fast and lightweight — pure Bash, no dependencies

Installation

Option 1 — Nix Flake (recommended)

Add nix-search to your flake.nix:

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
    nix-search.url = "github:manelinux/nix-search";
  };

  outputs = { nixpkgs, nix-search, ... }: {
    nixosConfigurations.myhost = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      system = "x86_64-linux";
      modules = [
        ./configuration.nix
        nix-search.nixosModules.default
      ];
    };
  };
}

Then rebuild:

sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake /etc/nixos#myhost

Option 2 — nix-env (per-user, non-flake)

This option uses the included default.nix file, which tells Nix how to build and install nix-search without needing flakes.

Download and install from GitHub:

wget https://github.com/manelinux/nix-search/archive/refs/heads/main.tar.gz -O nix-search.tar.gz

tar -xzf nix-search.tar.gz

nix-env -i -f nix-search-main/

Or clone and install locally:
git clone https://github.com/manelinux/nix-search.git

nix-env -i -f nix-search/

Usage

nix-search [options]

Options:

-a, --scope <scope1,scope2,...> Scopes to search (default: all)
(Values: user, global, home-manager, all)
-k, --keyword <word> Filter results by keyword
-c, --count Show package count per scope
-d, --duplicates Show only packages found in more than one scope
-v, --version Show version
-h, --help Show help

Examples

# Show all packages across all scopes
nix-search

# Show user-installed packages
nix-search -a user

# Search for xfce packages in the global system scope
nix-search -a global -k xfce

# Search across multiple scopes
nix-search -a global,user -k python

# Show all packages with count per scope
nix-search --count

# Find packages duplicated across scopes
nix-search --duplicates

# Find xfce-related duplicates
nix-search --duplicates -k xfce

Example output

🔍 nix-search v2.2.0
Scope: global
Keyword: xfce
Count: no
Duplicates: no

══════════════════════════════════════════

🌐 GLOBAL SYSTEM PACKAGES (/run/current-system) (filtered by: 'xfce')

══════════════════════════════════════════

1c299vsynd0vpbjzflbm4ynvjczrlcm0-xfce4-screensaver-4.20.1
33bkjai3114vi9dkw4fb471w60hhkw4r-xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin-0.5.1
flh2qmmzircss6qf1babnqbp8l0a1q13-xfce4-terminal-1.1.5
fx0ffpy7258wlgqsc6a3cfmyh5y3w9bh-xfce4-panel-4.20.5
...

↳ Total: 17 package(s)

Scopes

Scope Description
user Packages installed via nix-env or user profiles, scans all users
global System-wide packages from /run/current-system
home-manager Packages managed by Home Manager, scans all users
all All of the above

Uninstall

If installed via flake, remove it from your flake.nix and rebuild.

If installed via nix-env:
nix-env -e nix-search

Requirements

NixOS
Bash 4+
Standard NixOS tools (nix-env, nix-store)

Contributing

Pull requests and issues are very welcome! Some ideas for future improvements:
JSON output with --json
--no-color flag for piping output
Show package versions alongside names

GitHub: https://github.com/manelinux/nix-search

Feedback and contributions are very welcome!

A new adoption: iMac 12,1 (2011)

A new adoption: iMac 12,1 (2011)

nix-search: a simple Bash tool to search installed packages across all NixOS scopes