nix-pack-closure pack the closure of a store path into a single file that can be unpacked with nix-unpack-closure nix-pack-closure paths The command nix-pack-closure packs the contents of the store paths paths and all their dependencies into a single file, which is written to standard output. (That is, it serialises paths.) The output can then be unpacked into the Nix store of another machine using nix-unpack-closure. Together, nix-pack-closure and nix-unpack-closure provide a quick and easy way to deploy a package to a different machine. However, as the output of nix-pack-closure tends to be rather large (since it contains all dependencies), it’s not very efficient. nix-push and nix-pull are more efficient, but are also a bit more cumbersome to use. To copy some instance of Subversion with all its dependencies to another machine: $ nix-pack-closure /nix/store/hj232g1r...-subversion-1.3.0 > svn.closure Copy svn.closure to the remote machine, then on the remote machine do: $ nix-unpack-closure < svn.closure Copy the program azureus with all its dependencies to the machine scratchy: $ nix-pack-closure $(which azureus) | ssh scratchy nix-unpack-closure As a variation on the previous example, copy azureus, and also install it in the user’s profile on the target machine: $ nix-pack-closure $(which azureus) | ssh scratchy 'nix-env -i $(nix-unpack-closure)'