[Nix-dev] How can we make import-from-derivation more useful?

[Shea Levy]

https://github.com/NixOS/nix/pull/31 may be relevant.

On 2015-12-28 11:10, Daniel Peebles wrote:
> A few days ago, I proposed importing from a derivation [1] to save us
> from having to manually manage autogenerated firefox/thunderbird
> fixed-output derivaiton hash files and junk up the nixpkgs repository
> with them. In response, Vladimír Čunát pointed out that nix-env would
> currently force a download at evaluation time as a result of that
> change, and that's undesirable.
>
> I see it as inevitable that we'll have to start importing from
> derivations to make external package ecosystems more manageable.
> Currently, haskellPackages is already eating up a large chunk of the
> overall repository size, and as we start adopting similar automated
> processes to manage other ecosystems, I see no way to keep the repo
> size manageable. It also feels like a bit of an abuse of a VCS to be
> putting autogenerated files in it, as we do today. Especially when 
> nix
> is generally so good at doing that sort of thing for us.
>
> It seems like the main obstacle standing in the way of this pattern
> is nix-env, given its habit (also unsustainable) of forcing the
> evaluation of a large chunk of the packages expression. People have
> expressed a desire to deprecate that sort of functionality, but I
> don't know what sort of timeline such a change could be made on, so
> I'm looking for ways to make it more manageable in the meantime.
>
> Does anyone have ideas on how to improve this? Or am I wrong about
> things getting out of control if we don't? Are there other options?
>
> Thanks,
> Dan
>
>
>
> Links:
> ------
> [1] 
> https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/11319#issuecomment-167144900
>
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