--- title: Changelog: introducing nix nario | daily.dev description: Determinate Nix 3.12.0 introduces `nix nario`, a new command and file format for distributing Nix store closures to air-gapped or offline devices. The nario... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/changelog-introducing-nix-nario-kdxr3idyh twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Changelog: introducing nix nario | daily.dev og:description: Determinate Nix 3.12.0 introduces `nix nario`, a new command and file format for distributing Nix store closures to air-gapped or offline devices. The nario... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/changelog-introducing-nix-nario-kdxr3idyh og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/KdxR3iDyH.png og:image:alt: Changelog: introducing nix nario og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Changelog: introducing nix nario **[Determinate Systems](https://daily.dev/sources/determinate-systems)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Determinate Nix 3.12.0 introduces `nix nario`, a new command and file format for distributing Nix store closures to air-gapped or offline devices. The nario format (version 2) fixes critical issues with the legacy `nix-store --export/--import` approach: it reduces RAM usage from 2048 MiB to just 40 MiB for a typical NixOS system closure, speeds up repeated imports from 7.3 seconds to 0.05 seconds, supports path signatures and content-addressed paths, and adds the ability to list archive contents. The format is analogous to `cpio` but uses NAR (Nix Archive) files concatenated with metadata. The release also adds support for tarball flake references in `nix flake clone` and prints the Nix version at the 'talkative' log level for easier debugging. An upstream PR to NixOS/nix is open. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. 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