[Nix-dev] Managing private Nix packages outside the Nixpkgs tree

[Eike]

Hello Matthias,

I wanted to manage my private packages as well and I got most
inspiration from aszlig's vuizvui (thank you!). I can show what I'm
doing to achieve this, but I'm new to nixos myself, so take this with a
good grain of salt.

AFAICS, its enough to specify your own definitions in
`nixpkgs.packageOverrides'. This takes the original package collection
and returns a map with new/overriden packages. I have this setup:

common.nix (imported in all machine configs):
nixpkgs = {
  config = {
    allowUnfree = true;
    packageOverrides = import ./pkgs;
  };
};

then ./pkgs/default.nix looks like this:
pkgs:
let
  callPackage = pkgs.lib.callPackageWith(pkgs // custom);
  custom = {
    cdparanoiax = callPackage ./cdparanoiax {};
    ...other packages...
  };
in custom

Since the callPackage function is redefined that way, you can have
dependencies between your own packages. Then each directory in pkgs is a
package definition just like it is done in nixpkgs. I can then add
`pkgs.cdparanoiax' to `environment.systemPackages'.

hth with the your first question, can't help with the second one…

Regards
Eike


Matthias Beyer writes:

> Hi nixos-ML,
>
> So, I tried to ask Sander van de Burg soem questions which are related
> to one blog article of him, but unfortunately my mail server bounced
> the mail back to me, telling me that his mail address is not valid.
>
> So, I'm posting the email here, hopefully I can get an answer on the
> topic from you guys:
>
> On 16-01-2015 23:52:36, Matthias Beyer wrote:
>> Hi Sander,
>>
>> I have a question which could be or is related to the problem you
>> solved in your blog post about managing private nix packages outside
>> of the nixpkgs tree.
>>
>> My Problem is that I want to build a package out of vim_configurable
>> and a set of vim plugins I specify myself and install the whole
>> package as system package. So basically, it should look like this in
>> my configuration.nix:
>>
>>     systemPackages = [ ... myVimPackage ... ];
>>
>> I tried to follow the configuration here[0], but I'm completely lost
>> and I don't understand most of it.
>>
>> I specified my vim plugin packages like aszlig did here[1], but
>> returing only a set of plugin packages at the end, no vimrc (which I
>> want to out-source into another package, for modularity).
>>
>> My overall setup for my configuration looks like this:
>>
>>     ~/config/nixos/                 # dir with _all_ nixos confs
>>         ./base-configuration.nix    # default shell, bootloaded, etc
>>         ./nox.nix                   # Machine "nox"
>>         ./pkgs/                     # Dir, holding package lists
>>             ./basePackages.nix      # whereas each of these returns an
>>             ./desktopPackages.nix   # array or packages
>>             ./developPackages.nix
>>         ./services                  # Dir, holding service definitions
>>             ./redshift.nix
>>             ./x.nix
>>
>> My `nox.nix` looks basically like this:
>>
>>     { config, pkgs, ... }:
>>
>>     let
>>       configDir = /home/m/config/nixos;
>>     in
>>
>>     {
>>       imports = [
>>         # Base configuration
>>         "${configDir}/base-configuration.nix"
>>
>>         # Users
>>         "${configDir}/users/m.nix"
>>
>>         # Services
>>         "${configDir}/services/x.i3.nix"
>>         "${configDir}/services/redshift.nix"
>>       ];
>>
>>       # Define on which hard drive you want to install Grub.
>>       boot.loader.grub.device = "/dev/sda";
>>
>>       networking.hostName = "nox";
>>
>>       environment.systemPackages = let
>>         basePkgs    = import "${configDir}/pkgs/basePackages.nix" pkgs;
>>         devPkgs     = import "${configDir}/pkgs/devPackages.nix" pkgs;
>>         desktopPkgs = import "${configDir}/pkgs/desktopPackages.nix" pkgs;
>>       in
>>         basePkgs ++ devPkgs ++ desktopPkgs;
>>
>>     }
>>
>> And I would like to put my vim package into basePackages.nix:
>>
>>
>>     pkgs: [
>>       pkgs.acpitool
>>       pkgs.coreutils
>>       pkgs.mosh
>>       # here goes my vim package
>>       # ...
>>     ]
>>
>> ---
>>
>> So, in your blog post[2], you described how to maintain packages
>> outside of the nixos package tree, which is what I want, I guess.
>>
>> How to approach this?
>>
>> Is this even the right approach for the problem? Or am I heading
>> for the wrong way?
>>
>> The second part of the question would be how to write a package which
>> defines the vimrc file, as aszlig does here[3]? Is this even
>> feasible?
>>
>> I hope you can help me with my problem(s) and teach me how to do
>> things right!
>>
>> I'd love to say "See you at FOSDEM, then", but unfortunately my exams
>> are exactly around this weekend, so I can not participate! :-(
>> I hope there will be a nixos spring nearby my home some time, thought.
>>
>> [0]: https://github.com/aszlig/vuizvui
>> [1]: https://github.com/aszlig/vuizvui/blob/3e9771d4dce455fd68c8cadcbff6ba695625c372/pkgs/vim/default.nix#L5
>> [2]: http://sandervanderburg.blogspot.de/2014/07/managing-private-nix-packages-outside.html
>> [3]: https://github.com/aszlig/vuizvui/blob/master/pkgs/vim/default.nix#L236
>>
>> --
>> Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
>> Kind regards,
>> Matthias Beyer
>>
>> Proudly sent with mutt.
>> Happily signed with gnupg.

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