[Nix-dev] Re: Multiple packages from one source package

[Armijn Hemel]

hi,

> Actually, being a Debian user, I'm starting to understand that the basic
> assumption behind source deployment systems (Gentoo, *BSD, NixOS, etc.)
> is that users really have *plenty* of disk space: if you have enough
> space to install all the tools need at compilation-time, you surely have
> enough space to retain (potentially useless) headers, libs, etc.
> (Gentoo allows users to pass configure `--without-' flags, which
> slightly mitigates this problem.)

Hm. I don't know if I would like to see Nix and NixOS as a "source
deployment system". The channels with precompiled packages are blazingly
fast, of course. In Nix it's not about source vs. binary, it's about
dependencies, derivations, and so on :-)

Yes, if you do have a lot of variants of programs/libs then you can
count on needing some diskspace. However, the strict dependency system
can also work in favour by not including any more than you actually
need. In that case having a system like Nix could actually mean using
*less* diskspace than other distros.

armijn

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 armijn at uulug.nl | http://www.uulug.nl/ | UULug: Utrecht Linux Users Group
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