[Nix-dev] Re: Integrating a Nix expression into the set of packages

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi,

Michael Raskin <7c6f434c at mail.ru> writes:

> Anyone will be able to add it to configuration.nix this way. You can
> also import /etc/nixos/nixpkgs/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix and pass
> __currentSystem (or check what is done in nixos/system/system.nix ) to it.

That seems specific to NixOS (I'm currently using Nix on Debian).

> Maybe you should think of submitting a few packages tailored for usage
> of your choice and then you'll probably get access at least for the
> packages to be finally committed into all-packages.nix ...

Sure, but that's not very scalable.  :-)

Instead, could the package graph/tree be administratively distributed?
I.e., can a sub-tree (not a completely *separate* tree) of packages be
created and published by people without write access to the Subversion
repository?

Zero Install [0], for instance, was created with such usage patterns in
mind: roughly, packages refer to each other by URL, and anyone can
create a new package, publish it, and its dependencies will be correctly
resolved at installation time.

I know that the goals of Nix and Zero Install are quite different but
still, I find it interesting to think about how Nix could handle such
situations.

Thanks,
Ludovic.

[0] http://0install.net/