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The flag ‘--check’ to ‘nix-store -r’ or ‘nix-build’ will cause Nix to redo the build of a derivation whose output paths are already valid. If the new output differs from the original output, an error is printed. This makes it easier to test if a build is deterministic. (Obviously this cannot catch all sources of non-determinism, but it catches the most common one, namely the current time.) For example: $ nix-build '<nixpkgs>' -A patchelf ... $ nix-build '<nixpkgs>' -A patchelf --check error: derivation `/nix/store/1ipvxsdnbhl1rw6siz6x92s7sc8nwkkb-patchelf-0.6' may not be deterministic: hash mismatch in output `/nix/store/4pc1dmw5xkwmc6q3gdc9i5nbjl4dkjpp-patchelf-0.6.drv' The --check build fails if not all outputs are valid. Thus the first call to nix-build is necessary to ensure that all outputs are valid. The current outputs are left untouched: the new outputs are either put in a chroot or diverted to a different location in the store using hash rewriting.
Nix is a purely functional package manager. For installation and usage instructions, please read the manual, which can be found in `docs/manual/manual.html', and additionally at the Nix website at <http://nixos.org/>. Acknowledgments This product includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit (http://www.OpenSSL.org/).