Anyway, I'm interested in contributing a series of small packages to nixpkgs which are meant to serve as documented examples/best-practices for how to make packages for various languages using the Nix language (i.e. no use of nix-community tools, and extremely conservative use of overlay/override: only when there is no other option).

Likely these can also be referenced in the docs, but for now, my goal is in particular, to get the examples out.

Do you all think this makes sense as a project? If it does then: as I am a complete Nix beginner (I have just gotten my NixOS setup stable after 2+ weeks of work), I would really benefit from being able to ask for help (the alternative is to get side-tracked with random information from the internet, until I am ultimately corrected by someone who knows better). Where would it be appropriate for me to ask questions without worry/judgement?

In reply to @bzzm3r:matrix.org

Anyway, I'm interested in contributing a series of small packages to nixpkgs which are meant to serve as documented examples/best-practices for how to make packages for various languages using the Nix language (i.e. no use of nix-community tools, and extremely conservative use of overlay/override: only when there is no other option).

Likely these can also be referenced in the docs, but for now, my goal is in particular, to get the examples out.

Do you all think this makes sense as a project? If it does then: as I am a complete Nix beginner (I have just gotten my NixOS setup stable after 2+ weeks of work), I would really benefit from being able to ask for help (the alternative is to get side-tracked with random information from the internet, until I am ultimately corrected by someone who knows better). Where would it be appropriate for me to ask questions without worry/judgement?

If you can devote time to that, it would be a blast. There's a fairly old issue about it here, but it's still on the radar: https://github.com/NixOS/nix.dev/issues/278

You'll surely get lots of feedback on the didactic part and about generic Nix aspects from the docs team, and it may be worth upstreaming things into Nixpkgs on the side to get maintainer feedback for stylistic.

And while I really don't want to hamper your enthusiasm, expect it to be a big project that may not terminate within your available time. The reference documentation is often so sparse it's useless. Start out with one language, do a cheap draft and bounce it against us.

In reply to @bzzm3r:matrix.org

Anyway, I'm interested in contributing a series of small packages to nixpkgs which are meant to serve as documented examples/best-practices for how to make packages for various languages using the Nix language (i.e. no use of nix-community tools, and extremely conservative use of overlay/override: only when there is no other option).

Likely these can also be referenced in the docs, but for now, my goal is in particular, to get the examples out.

Do you all think this makes sense as a project? If it does then: as I am a complete Nix beginner (I have just gotten my NixOS setup stable after 2+ weeks of work), I would really benefit from being able to ask for help (the alternative is to get side-tracked with random information from the internet, until I am ultimately corrected by someone who knows better). Where would it be appropriate for me to ask questions without worry/judgement?

If you can devote time to that, it would be a blast. There's a fairly old issue about it here, but it's still on the radar: https://github.com/NixOS/nix.dev/issues/278

You'll surely get lots of feedback on the didactic part and about generic Nix aspects from the docs team, and it may be worth upstreaming things into Nixpkgs on the side to get maintainer feedback on style and conventions.

And while I really don't want to hamper your enthusiasm, expect it to be a big project that may not terminate within your available time. The reference documentation is often so sparse it's useless. Start out with one language, do a cheap draft and bounce it against us.

i am trying to react to fricklerhandwerk comment in a pr.

but i am stuck.

I am wondering how one could pass a configuration option to

$ nix-shell -p nixos-install-tools -I nixpkgs=channel:nixos-21.05

so that xserverEnabled is true independent from the host configuration. so that it is passed to the script here

i am trying to react to fricklerhandwerk comment in a pr.

but i am stuck.

I am wondering how one could pass a configuration option to

$ nix-shell -p nixos-install-tools -I nixpkgs=channel:nixos-21.05

so that xserverEnabled is true independent from the host configuration. so that it is passed to the script here or rather here to be more precise.

In reply to @olafklingt:matrix.org

i am trying to react to fricklerhandwerk comment in a pr.

but i am stuck.

I am wondering how one could pass a configuration option to

$ nix-shell -p nixos-install-tools -I nixpkgs=channel:nixos-21.05

so that xserverEnabled is true independent from the host configuration. so that it is passed to the script here or rather here to be more precise.

nix-shell --expr "with (import <nixpkgs> {}); (nixos { services.xserver.enable = true; }).config.system.build.nixos-install" -I nixpkgs=channel:nixos-unstable

however that only contains nixos-install

pkgs.nixos-install-tools aggregates all the install tools https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/tools/nix/nixos-install-tools/default.nix

Instead of re-implement what the package is doing it would be better to add a argument to the package which will then be passed to the nixos call here https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/d6400c8a2a27e8ba20971d72c76793b7c684f9ec/pkgs/tools/nix/nixos-install-tools/default.nix#L13

In reply to @artturin:matrix.org

nix-shell --expr "with (import <nixpkgs> {}); (nixos { services.xserver.enable = true; }).config.system.build.nixos-install" -I nixpkgs=channel:nixos-unstable

however that only contains nixos-install

pkgs.nixos-install-tools aggregates all the install tools https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/tools/nix/nixos-install-tools/default.nix

Instead of re-implement what the package is doing it would be better to add a argument to the package which will then be passed to the nixos call here https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/d6400c8a2a27e8ba20971d72c76793b7c684f9ec/pkgs/tools/nix/nixos-install-tools/default.nix#L13

It's possible to override the nixos argument of the package with a function and then discarding the {} part of nixos {}

$ nix-shell --expr "with (import <nixpkgs> {}); nixos-install-tools.override (old: { nixos = _: old.nixos { services.xserver.enable = true; }; })" -I nixpkgs=channel:nixos-unstable

It's possible to override the nixos argument of the package with a function and then discarding(not using) the {} part of nixos {}

$ nix-shell --expr "with (import <nixpkgs> {}); nixos-install-tools.override (old: { nixos = _: old.nixos { services.xserver.enable = true; }; })" -I nixpkgs=channel:nixos-unstable

In reply to @olafklingt:matrix.org
what is the _: syntax? in nixos = _: old

In reply to @olafklingt:matrix.org
what is the _: syntax? in nixos = _: old