[Nix-dev] Re: [PATCH] IPython shell

[Cillian de Róiste]

Hi Peter,

On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 8:57 PM, Peter Simons <simons at cryp.to> wrote:
> I have committed the patch, thanks a lot for your efforts.

Brilliant, thank you!

> Just out of curiosity I wonder, why you put ipython into all-packages.nix
> instead of python-packages.nix? It seems to me like some of the problems your
> expression has to solve wouldn't exist in that context, i.e. the values of
> "python" and "buildPythonPackage" would simply be parameters of your
> pythonPackages environment. Isn't that easier?

No good reason really. I initially tried to add it to
python-packages.nix but I had the same problem (no readline support).
I thought it wouldn't be out of place under pkgs/shells/ipython either
and had suspected that I could make use of wrapProgram instead of the
proposed solution.

I don't really understand the alternative you are suggesting. In my
system configuration.nix can I do something like:

pkgs.buildPythonPackage.override { python = pkgs.python26Full; };

or perhaps within the package expression itself  (in
python-packages.nix), can I simply specify:

python = pkgs.python26Full;

I've been reading through the thread Marc pointed to (via the wiki:
http://wiki.nixos.org/wiki/Escape_from_dependency_hell
pkgsFunDeepOverride) but I need to spend some time to figure out how
that would work, perhaps you are suggesting something similar to that?

It sounds like Eelco has a fix up his sleeve for this particular issue
anyway, but if there is a simple alternative solution you know of I
would be interested to hear.

Thanks for your help and feedback!
Cillian