[Nix-dev] Preference for building from source

[Eelco Dolstra]

Hi,

On 08/01/16 11:26, Rok Garbas wrote:

>     Building from source is always possible. That's what Hydra.nixos.org
>     <http://Hydra.nixos.org>
>     does for you. The binaries from there are used iff the build
>     instructions are exactly the same as what is available already.
> 
> 
> I think Juho (awesome name by the way!) was trying to figure out what the is the
> general policy of nixpkgs expressions.
> 
> I would say we are pragmatic there. We prefer to build from source and use
> system libraries, but if this takes to much time to implement we are also ok
> with reverting to building from binaries (or partially built binaries) from
> upstream.

I would state it a bit stronger: using binaries should only be done as a last
resort. E.g. we use binaries for bootstrapping GHC because there really is no
feasible way around that. But they should be avoided in general because they
cannot really be audited or reproduced, let alone modified.

-- 
Eelco Dolstra | LogicBlox, Inc. | http://nixos.org/~eelco/