[Nix-dev] Nix expressions and latest packages <CA+cPLChywLnpF=+FQVNV+p+kyMQGMNos2V3zUPSr+eRxUS7j3g at mail.gmail.com> ( "胡 雨軒"'s message of "Mon, 30 Mar 2015 01:06:04 +0200")

[Tomas Hlavaty]

Hi 胡雨軒

胡雨軒 <pde-bois at isep.fr> writes:
> The documentation says Nix conceptually builds package from
> source but relies on stores (some package caches) to download
> already built packages. So there is some set of fixed package
> versions and system update depends on the store update pace,
> doesn't it?

yes.  But if you desire, you can have more control over that, for
example, if you check out nixpkgs repository and install from there.
You can choose a commiy, branch or tag or create your own modifications.
Or you can customize your packages via ~/.nixpkgs/config.nix for
example.  If there is an already compiled version in the cache, it will
be downloaded.  If not, the package will be compiled on your system.

> Is it possible to set nix to always download latest versions of
> installed packages, built it aside the old version and upgrade
> the system automatically?

This is what nix does.

> I know one could think some latest package may be not compatible
> with each other, but this leads me to the next question. I'm
> planning to use nix package manager within Arch Linux distro, so
> the distro team would do what's necessary to avoid
> incompatibilities.

I am using nix on ArchLinux atm.  There are no incompatibilities because
of the way nix works.

> Then, is it possible to configure nix to retrieve data both from Arch
> repositories and from the AUR?

No, nix has its own package language and does not understand ArchLinux
packaging format.

Cheers,

Tomas