[Nix-dev] upgrades and channels

[Mathijs Kwik]

Sergey Mironov <ierton at gmail.com> writes:

> Hi. Please, also take a look also on the topic "nix-env ignores
> NIX_PATH" - it contains some answers on NIX_PATH theme.
>
> +1 for nix-env/nixos-rebuild -I unification. I think their cmdline
> interface is too complicated.

I've read that topic, but no answer there, except for confirmation on
nix-env not looking at NIX_PATH.

The only way I could get what I want was by adding a symlink to
~/.nix-defexprs.

But I would much prefer to be able to do this using only an environment
variable or adding an extra switch.

for now, just swapping .nix-defexprs works ok

Thanks
>
> 2012/7/6 Mathijs Kwik <mathijs at bluescreen303.nl>:
>> On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 11:07 PM, Eelco Dolstra
>> <eelco.dolstra at logicblox.com> wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> On 05/07/12 17:02, Mathijs Kwik wrote:
>>>
>>>>> And a question about NIX_PATH:
>>>>> by default it's
>>>>>
>>>> NIX_PATH='/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos:nixpkgs=/etc/nixos/nixpkgs:nixos=/etc/nixos/nixos:nixos-config=/etc/nixos/configuration.nix:services=/etc/nixos/services'
>>>>>
>>>>> I understand the name=value pairs give the <name> syntax, but how does a plain
>>>> dirname (like the channels/nixos dir) get handled?
>>>
>>> See the description of NIX_PATH in nix-env(1).
>>
>> Nice, I should read the man pages more :)
>>
>>>
>>>>> I see it contains nixos and nixpkgs, but also a cryptic default.nix
>>>
>>> The default.nix just includes Nixpkgs so that nix-env can find the Nixpkgs copy
>>> in the NixOS channel.
>>>
>>>>> My local /home/mathijs/nix-dev dir contains nixos and nixpkgs.
>>>>> If I want to switch to using those instead of the channel (temporarily), can I
>>>> just point NIX_PATH there?
>>>
>>> Yes, or use -I (e.g. "nixos-rebuild switch -I ~mathijs/nix-dev").
>>
>> This works for nixos-rebuild, but not for nix-env.
>>
>> Now, I know I can fiddle with the synlinks below ~/.nix-defexpr, but I
>> would prefer not to.
>> Say I can normally upgrade a package by
>> nix-env -iA nixos.pkgs.xterm
>>
>> Now I want to do this again, but now using my local ~/nix-dev.
>>
>> I tried
>> nix-env -iA nixos.pkgs.xterm -I ~/nix-dev
>> nix-env -iA nixos.pkgs.xterm -f ~/nix-dev
>>
>> NIX_PATH="~/nix-dev" nix-env -iA nixos.pkgs.xterm
>> NIX_PATH="nixpkgs=~/nix-dev/nixpkgs:nixos=~/nix-dev/nixos" nix-env -iA
>> nixos.pkgs.xterm
>>
>> none of these worked.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Eelco Dolstra | LogicBlox, Inc. | http://nixos.org/~eelco/
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> nix-dev mailing list
>>> nix-dev at lists.science.uu.nl
>>> http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev
>> _______________________________________________
>> nix-dev mailing list
>> nix-dev at lists.science.uu.nl
>> http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev