.DRV File Extension

A DRV file is a driver file used by Windows operating systems to connect and communicate with hardware devices (both external and internal). It contains commands and parameters for how a device and the operating system communicate together. DRV files are also used to install a device driver on a computer.

Do not open an unknown DRV file since they have been known to contain viruses.

A DRV file may also be a derivation file created and used by Nix, a multiplatform package manager. It contains information used to track a package's dependencies and the build task associated with those dependencies. DRV files are similar to .O files, in that both are intermediate files created while building a program.

The Nix package manager is available for Linux and macOS. Primarily, it is used alongside NixOS, a Linux distribution built upon Nix.

Developers creating Nix packages do so using Nix expressions, which are written in the Nix language and saved in NIX files. These files specify a series of inputs that, when linked together and built, will comprise a finalized output package. During the build process, Nix compiles NIX files to DRV files, before actually building the described package.

NOTE: Complex Nix packages may be built using multiple DRV files, which refer to each other.

You can use Nix (Linux, macOS) to view the derivation a DRV file contains. To do so, use Nix's show-derivation command. For further instructions on how to use DRV files with Nix, refer to the program's documentation.