[Nix-dev] nixos principles

[Roderick Ford]

Ok, thanks, good to know that there is a wiki page to explain how to do
this.  My thought was that I had found something to help the NixOS
development with, but now I see that this has been done.  So, the lingering
question that needs clarification:

It appears then that NixOS developers do not only wrapper (set up the config
files for) the installation packages by setting build parameters, etc., but
also integrate patching for "special cases" where the package would not
install without some changes.  Is this done at the NixOS package manager
level (by Eelco only?) rather than the config files, or is there some other
location for changing/adding the new options like "virtualbox.enable" and
the code that runs when it is encountered?  I'm sure this is an "advanced
development" item that I will not be learning yet, but I am certainly
curious.

Are there any statistics on how many packages are "done", how many are
"patched" and how many total packages are not completed yet?  I assume that
there are also cases where packages which were "done" or "configured", and
have become "broken" by changes in the package.  Has anyone created a pie
chart, or such, that shows this sort of "progress towards
comprehensiveness"?

I absolutely love the Nix package management and am very glad that it has
been integrated into the NixOS.  Absolutely a BRILLIANT idea!!



On Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 11:01 AM, Sander van der Burg - EWI <
S.vanderBurg at tudelft.nl> wrote:

>  I assume that you tried the 'Install guest additions...' function from
> VirtualBox? This won't work, because the libraries/binaries on the guest
> additions CD must be patched first (because otherwise it won't be able to
> find its dependencies). The guest additions of VirtualBox can be supported
> differently, though. Our wiki has instructions how to use the VirtualBox
> guest additions properly:
>
> http://wiki.nixos.org/wiki/InstallingOnVirtualBox .
>
> This automatically works by enabling some options in your
> /etc/nixos/configuration.nix
>
> I haven't tried VMware though, but I know that the binaries/libraries on
> the VMware CD must also be patched. So far, nobody has tried this yet as far
> as I know.
>
> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> Van: nix-dev-bounces at cs.uu.nl namens Roderick Ford
> Verzonden: vr 24-9-2010 15:20
> Aan: nix-dev at cs.uu.nl
> Onderwerp: [Nix-dev] nixos principles
>
>
> As an introduction to NixOS, a newly interested person may try to install
> NixOS in VirtualBox or VMWare.  (In fact, a co-worker of mine could not get
> the NixOS live cd to install in VirtualBox, or VMWare, so he gave up.)
>
> Now, if VirtualBox hosts a NixOS guest, and we run the
> VirtualBox-GuestAdditions from the host, the automatically mounted iso has
> a shell script and a hybrid shell script.  Opening that up, after it fails
> to complete, I found that it does not support NIXOS specifically.
>
> So, my question is:
> As a matter of "nixos principles", would we want to go out of our way to
> make a "special" package or adaptation for a package?  It seems like NixOS
> principles would suggest we do NEITHER of the following:
>
> 1. the package trying to run is from the host machine, not the NixOS
> machine. Therefore, it seems more likely to be fixable by pursuing Oracle
> with an edit suggestion, but extremely unlikely to happen soon.
> 2. nixos could provide a "new package" ... something like
> "VirtualBox-LinuxAdditions" which contains the customized package.  We
> would
> then be "creating custom NixOS packages" rather than creating
> "configuration
> wrappers for existing packages".
>
> Roderick Ford
>
>
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