[Nix-dev] Stable NixOS releases

[Bryce L Nordgren]

Why not make a Nix friendly solution to NixOS stable?

1] Make a reference to a particular git branch/commit in the nix store.
2] Retrieve the reference;
3] Build the system off of the nix expressions in the reference.

Currently, Nix lacks a way to uniquely reference the complete Nix
expression from which the system is built. This would fix that. Rolling
back just the binaries/derivations is good. To roll back the state of the
system to the point where you can build new stuff on the old system, you
also need to roll back the nix expression the system was built from.

Also, the uniquely identified NixOS nix expression should be able to
reference a particular nixpkgs nix expression.

Likewise, "nixpkgs" could be less monolithic if (when!) you start feeling
growing pains. It would be possible to break out themes, like desktop
environments (X/KDE/Gnome), into their own repository. Desktop apps, if
similarly broken out, could reference particular expressions in the "core"
as well as the "desktop env" repos.

Likewise, a "personal packages" expression set doesn't need to be related
to the official repos in any way, other than to refer to them.

This is important to capture even now because package names evolve. So do
the provided options. Already one needs to coordinate the NixOS expression
with the Nixpkgs expression. Given a desired NixOS expression revision, nix
should be able to figure out which commit of nixpkgs is compatible.  Don't
use git branches to provide this coordination. Use the nix store.

Just a thought.
Bryce
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