| 25 Nov 2023 |
 @bzzm3r:matrix.org | In reply to @proofconstruction:matrix.org
I was just confused about "why the thing people seem to be using the most" is not the thing we are also documenting.
Indeed this is a giant problem: the thing people are using the most is also the most broken. This is not really even my opinion, but a matter of technical fact. I even use flakes for my own system configurations, but this is still the case largely because I, like so many, adopted that workflow without any awareness of the problems lurking beneath the surface (also at the surface; flake.nix is not even a valid Nix file!)
I made an attempt to switch from a flakes based NixOS configuration, to a npins managed standard configuration.nix based one. I almost got there, but couldn't figure out the last trick (getting nixos-rebuild to use the pinned packages instead of whatever it has in store). I found various bits of information about it on the internet (in the context of niv, which I think is mostly applicable here, but ultimately couldn't figure out the last little bit (getting nixos-rebuild switch to work), and I am conceptually lost enough now that the most I can do is write out a Discourse post discussing the situation, and hoping for the best.
So, for now, I am tucking my tail between my legs and trotting off back to flakes.nix. The solution might lie in simply doing a live reboot from an iso that is built that is built using an npins managed nixpkgs from the start (rather than rebuild switching into it).
But yeah, I can see why you'd just continue carrying on with flakes.nix, if yours is already quite complicated (mine isn't, it's just a glorified pinned entrypoint into my configuration modules).
| 20:53:24 |
| @bzzm3r:matrix.org | I've also had one small victory in the last two weeks, which is that I spent quite a bit of time, writing quite a bit of Nix. (I got caught up in a very silly project, that just happened to have this side-benefit: configuring my starship prompt using only Nix.)
In general, Nix-lang is far more readable for me (I'm not sure why I found overlays confusing anymore; it's just attribute overrides 🤷, kind of like a functor). | 20:55:08 |
| @bzzm3r:matrix.org | While I'm not sure I can make it to weekly meetings (anxiety), I think I'm slowly clobbering together enough to eventually contribute more documentation. | 20:56:40 |
| 26 Nov 2023 |
 infinisil | In reply to @bzzm3r:matrix.org
I made an attempt to switch from a flakes based NixOS configuration, to a npins managed standard configuration.nix based one. I almost got there, but couldn't figure out the last trick (getting nixos-rebuild to use the pinned packages instead of whatever it has in store). I found various bits of information about it on the internet (in the context of niv, which I think is mostly applicable here, but ultimately couldn't figure out the last little bit (getting nixos-rebuild switch to work), and I am conceptually lost enough now that the most I can do is write out a Discourse post discussing the situation, and hoping for the best.
So, for now, I am tucking my tail between my legs and trotting off back to flakes.nix. The solution might lie in simply doing a live reboot from an iso that is built that is built using an npins managed nixpkgs from the start (rather than rebuild switching into it).
But yeah, I can see why you'd just continue carrying on with flakes.nix, if yours is already quite complicated (mine isn't, it's just a glorified pinned entrypoint into my configuration modules).
Yeah nixos-rebuild really can't do that, which is why I wrote a small wrapper in https://github.com/infinisil/sanix | 07:03:14 |
| infinisil | I wrote this exactly for what you were trying :) | 07:04:42 |
 @olafklingt:matrix.org | where do i find the functions pkgs.nixos and pkgs.path in the nixpkgs manual? only found nixos but pkgs.path nowhere. | 13:54:26 |
| infinisil | olaf: When you're looking for Nixpkgs docs, the question shouldn't be "Where is", but rather "Is there" xD | 18:39:04 |
| infinisil | Sounds like PR material to me! | 18:39:31 |
| @olafklingt:matrix.org | Yes it should be in nixpkgs manual. | 18:43:11 |
| @olafklingt:matrix.org | I added a commit to the vm tutorial pr with a detailed description of the reproducable command. It's not finished yet but i would like to know if it is the right direction to add such a description. https://github.com/NixOS/nix.dev/pull/807/commits/ff5c7fad92acc9deb4fcd40d39eeb9300cd41cfa | 18:49:22 |
| infinisil | https://discourse.nixos.org/t/announcing-nixlang-wiki/36049 😕 | 19:08:23 |
 sterni | just one more separate documentation resource just one more I promise it’s gonna fix it | 19:33:23 |
| @bzzm3r:matrix.org | In reply to @infinisil:matrix.org
Yeah nixos-rebuild really can't do that, which is why I wrote a small wrapper in https://github.com/infinisil/sanix 🤩 | 23:49:51 |
| 27 Nov 2023 |
 asymmetric | idk if this is the first outside contribution to nrd, but it's a good validation of the choice of moving to python that we got one, imo! https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/269942 | 15:36:38 |
| 28 Nov 2023 |
|  curtismchale joined the room. | 15:47:32 |
| curtismchale | In reply to @infinisil:matrix.org
https://discourse.nixos.org/t/announcing-nixlang-wiki/36049 😕 I saw this and wondered if there was something I could do to help the official docs team. So I'm here now as an experienced dev, but NixOS neophyte. Maybe I can help document stuff when I get stuck because the docs seem to have some decent assumed knowledge that I don't currently have. | 15:49:18 |
| curtismchale set a profile picture. | 15:53:48 |
| infinisil | curtismchale: Awesome! I think one of the easiest things to help out with is to just read through nix.dev, to both learn about Nix, and to discover the structure of nix.dev. And if you find any problems, anything that's unclear or doesn't work, file an issue in the github repo, or even better, submit a PR to fix it :) | 16:17:49 |
 Minijackson | hey! I've had someone skim through the Nix language basics tutorial of nix.dev, and he mentioned something quite interesting, there's no mention of the if ... then ... else ... construct | 17:42:46 |
| Minijackson | is there somewhere else where it's introduced ? | 17:43:00 |
