Path Literal

Paths are natively presented in nix instead of as strings

Interpolation

Path can be created from string evaluation

rec {
    user = "john";
    home = /home/${user}/ 
}

NOTE

Path interpolation requires at least one slash before any value were interpolated. ${user}/${email} wound be lowered as a division operation while ./${user}/${email} is a path

From NIX_PATH

Paths from NIX_PATH variable can be recognized directly using <>. This is particularly useful when importing a registered nix channel.

let
    pkgs = import <nixpkgs> {  };
in
    {}

Concatenation

./foo/bar + "file.txt"

Evaluation

Each evaluation for a path will inform nix to copy the file or directory into nix store.

nix-repl> "${~/projects}"
copying '/home/sharpchen/projects' to the store

NOTE

You cannot interpolate paths created from <>.