Duplication of search results for nix search

[ghost]

I'm on NixOS unstable, last update before this issue was posted.

[root@dev:/home/doom3]# echo $NIX_PATH
/root/.nix-defexpr/channels:nixpkgs=/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos:nixos-config=/etc/nixos/configuration.nix:/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels

[root@dev:/home/doom3]# nix-channel --list
home-manager https://github.com/rycee/home-manager/archive/master.tar.gz
nixos https://nixos.org/channels/nixos-unstable

And whenever I do nix search hello I get

[doom3@dev:~]$ nix search hello
warning: using cached results; pass '-u' to update the cache
* nixos.gnome3.iagno (iagno-3.36.0)
  Computer version of the game Reversi, more popularly called Othello

* nixos.hello (hello)
  A program that produces a familiar, friendly greeting

* nixos.hello-unfree (example-unfree-package-1.0)
  An example package with unfree license (for testing)

* nixos.javaPackages.mavenHello_1_0 (maven-hello)
  Maven Hello World

* nixos.javaPackages.mavenHello_1_1 (maven-hello)
  Maven Hello World

* nixpkgs.gnome3.iagno (iagno-3.36.0)
  Computer version of the game Reversi, more popularly called Othello

* nixpkgs.hello (hello)
  A program that produces a familiar, friendly greeting

* nixpkgs.hello-unfree (example-unfree-package-1.0)
  An example package with unfree license (for testing)

* nixpkgs.javaPackages.mavenHello_1_0 (maven-hello)
  Maven Hello World

* nixpkgs.javaPackages.mavenHello_1_1 (maven-hello)
  Maven Hello World

For my user the $NIX_PATH is the same and the nix-channel --list is empty.

What causes the duplication?

[energizah]

On my system too <nixos> and <nixpkgs> are the same because on NIX_PATH, nixpkgs=/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos, and that nixos channel is https://nixos.org/channels/nixos-unstable.

It would be nice to avoid the duplication of search results in that situation.

[edolstra]

I rewrote nix search a couple of days ago to no longer rely on NIX_PATH. Instead it takes an argument specifying the flake to search, e.g.

$ nix search nixpkgs hello
* legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.hello (hello)
  A program that produces a familiar, friendly greeting

* legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.hello-unfree (example-unfree-package-1.0)
  An example package with unfree license (for testing)

That fixes this issue.