[HN Gopher] Nix in 100 Seconds [video]
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Nix in 100 Seconds [video]
Author : jkarni
Score : 36 points
Date : 2024-08-22 10:17 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| marvel_boy wrote:
| Nice explanation. But Nix is known for a steep learning curve,
| there is any reason for this?
| theshrike79 wrote:
| It's not a curve, it's a wall.
|
| I've tried and failed twice. I think I irreparably messed up my
| macOS installation with tons of crap by trying.
| jkarni wrote:
| Yeah, nix on macOS can be a pain...
|
| You might be too deeply scarred to come close to it, but we
| just wrote a blog post about deploying NixOS servers without
| installing nix locally or provisioning work here that feels
| relevant: https://garnix.io/blog/hosting-nixos
| dazaidesu wrote:
| if anyone is afraid of this happening to them, I'd
| recommend the deterministic nix installer. it has an atomic
| installation process where each step is reversible with the
| uninstaller. This is uniquely a macos issue since the setup
| is a bit different to other OS's in terms of creating a
| read only filesystem for the nix store, but the determinate
| installer was built to fix any worries of that happening.
|
| https://github.com/DeterminateSystems/nix-installer
| 0x69420 wrote:
| can vouch for the detsys installer, and anecdotally, the
| resulting nix install seems more resilient across os
| updates. on a similar note, nix-darwin is a must-have.
| the typical nix-env stuff you see in introductions to nix
| on non-nixos systems really sells it short, as it feels
| like just another package manager to keep track of. by
| contrast, nix-darwin brings the centralised
| configuration.nix approach, which makes it way harder to
| hose your environment.
|
| https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin
| tambourine_man wrote:
| macOS's core is in a read-only volume for a few years now, so
| I doubt you can mess it up unless you disable system
| integrity.
| Iridescent_ wrote:
| The learning curve depends strongly on what you are trying to
| do. Many things are very undocumented in Nix, and the
| interpreter being lazy creates very hard to read errors. No
| static typing makes everything worse.
|
| If you are trying to configure your system using NixOS, the
| available options are very well documented so I personally
| rarely get into trouble.
|
| Packaging an application however can be very difficult.
| Diti wrote:
| Yes, it's the result of a doctoral degree.[1] It was never
| meant to be simple in the first place.
|
| [1]: https://edolstra.github.io/pubs/phd-thesis.pdf
| 0x69420 wrote:
| was wondering when this guy would drop a video on nix. pleasantly
| surprised by the result, although i do find it funny that he had
| to go well over the usual 100 seconds. that's nix for you.
|
| one benefit that doesn't get much lipservice in elevator pitches
| for nix, here included, is the experience of packaging. i think
| the average line count in my personal collection of obscure
| software is ~30, and that's including license/homepage metadata
| and other such junk -- it can make even bsd portfiles look tubby
| by comparison.
| viraptor wrote:
| > over the usual 100 seconds
|
| It's a running joke now. There hasn't been a "100 seconds"
| video shorter than 2 minutes in a long time. Most are around
| 3min.
| drzzhan wrote:
| Nix sounds cool. Nowadays when I dev my research, I usually use
| docker so that I can move my "machine" to any server in my lab.
| Not sure how I should fit Nix into my workflow.
| underlogic wrote:
| The problem for me isn't installing packages and their
| dependencies but removing the dependencies when clearing a
| package. Too many package managers leave garbage on the system
| just in case and now I have packages for who knows what
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