[Nix-dev] Package collection problem.

[Nicolas Pierron]

On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 10:45, Marc Weber <marco-oweber at gmx.de> wrote:
> (by PATH)
> $PATH=~/.nix-profile-python-minimal/bin
> $python
>
> $PATH=~/.nix-profile-python-full/bin
> $python
>
> or (by suffix)
>
> $python-wrapper-2.5.0-minimal
> $python-wrapper-2.5.0-full
>
> which one do you prefer?

The first one, is the one you should get by default with Nix, you
create profiles and switch between profiles. (or between result links)

> or (do you have another idea?)

Yes, the idea is that the full and minimal qualifier should never
appear to the user.  And what could you do if you have conflicting
Python libraries in the full version ?  You will provide 2 full
versions ?

What I am suggesting, is not introducing new names to indicates what
is included, but only to install what you are asking, not a predefined
set of libraries.

$ nix-env -i python python-lib-A python-lib-C # I don't want B

The reason that you may not install B could be to ensure that you
don't have too much dependencies.  Nix should handle these cases
__without having to write__ any kind of script or nix expression.

My suggestion is to add some kinds of collection names to packages to
tell Nix that this package extends the python installation.  When Nix
encounter collection names, it will use specific environment builders
to build the final user environment.  This way, we would be able to
remove the stuff related to merging python libraries out of python
library builds and out of the python interpreter compilation.

-- 
Nicolas Pierron
http://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolasbpierron
- If you are doing something twice then you should try to do it once.