In reply to @tpw_rules:matrix.org
is there any reason to ever use the short hash?

In reply to @infinisil:matrix.org
https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Nix_Language_Quirks

I wrote this article on my blog after a few days of strugling learning a few new things (I am not that good with Nix yet). I am wondering if we can get something out of it for the netbooting wiki. For example:

• Do we want to change it to use flake?
• Should we add the nixos-rebuild vm-build to it?

Let me know and if you like the direction I am happy to attempt an improvement :)

I wrote this article (https://gianarb.it/blog/my-workflow-with-nixos) on my blog after a few days of strugling learning a few new things (I am not that good with Nix yet). I am wondering if we can get something out of it for the netbooting wiki. For example:

• Do we want to change it to use flake?
• Should we add the nixos-rebuild vm-build to it?

Let me know and if you like the direction I am happy to attempt an improvement :)

Gianluca Arbezzano: Just took a look at https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Netboot - a great few first steps would be to split out the parts into separate files and add some explanation in between.

Your article appears to be a mostly guide with some story elements: it does not instruct the reader to build up the result step by step to help acquire the skill of making things like a tutorial would. Instead it just presents the absolutely necessary steps, assuming the reader will know what they are about. Also there are some personal things about how you got there.

Due to the large example it's not clear exactly which steps are required to do the job, and which are accidental to the example.The Wiki article could also use some context as introduction, such as linking to or explaining what netbooting is (for).

Gianluca Arbezzano: Thanks for getting in touch.

Just took a look at https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Netboot - a great few first steps would be to split out the parts into separate files and add some explanation in between.

Your article appears to be a mostly guide with some story elements: it does not instruct the reader to build up the result step by step to help acquire the skill of making things like a tutorial would. Instead it just presents the absolutely necessary steps, assuming the reader will know what they are about. Also there are some personal things about how you got there.

Assuming you would want to add contents from your article to the Wiki, I have the following suggestions:

• Due to the large example it's not clear exactly which steps are required to do the job, and which are accidental to the example. Therefore it would be good to reduce it to the absolute minimum to showcase netbooting with NixOS.

• The Wiki article could also use some context as introduction, such as linking to or explaining what netbooting is (for). It should absolutely not have other notes, as guides are supposed to be recipes for skilled users.

I would usually recommend to seize the opportunity and migrate such a guide to nix.dev to get it under proper version control, but to be honest I think it's a fairly niche use case and I wouldn't take time to review a PR on the topic due to different priorities. So please go wild on the Wiki article!