Glossary

binary cache

Nix can fetch a binary result instead of performing the build by looking up store hash in binary cache API.

nar archive

Deterministic arhive alternative to other archives like tar.

See specification.

narinfo

Metadata information about nar archive used by Nix.

signing key

Secret used by cachix command line interface to sign narinfo before it’s pushed to a binary cache.

access token

Secret for accessing Cachix HTTP API authenticated to a user.

agent

Cachix Deploy Agent manages a lifecycle of a Nix profile. The agent connects to Cachix and awaits new deployments.

store path

Example: /nix/store/41zwxsdh0l66zvq2wqxnyx55xa1jn9b9-nixos-system-cherimoya-21.05.3367.fd8a7fd07da