[Nix-dev] Notes and ideas about the Nix-UI proposal

[Thomas Hunger]

Would anyone be interested in collecting some data on how people are using
nix? I had a look though my bash history and I can see myself doing the
following a lot (using ipython as an example).

man nix-store
nix-shell -p pythonPackages.ipython ...
nix-env -qaP | grep -i ipython | grep noteb
[reinstalling to update]

The most common mistake I make is:

nix-env -iA pythonPackages.ipython
error: attribute ‘pythonPackages’ in selection path
‘pythonPackages.ipython’ not found
(should be nix-env -iA nixpkgs.pythonPackages.ipython)


Based on my one sample point I'd make the following decisions:

* "nixpkgs" is implied when installing
* search is AND-ed like in "apt-cache search ...", i.e. "nix search virtual
box" only shows packages that contain both virtual and box
* install is declarative by default


I think a questionnaire would have to be semi-qualitative with questions
like:
1) Which documentation do you check most often?
2) What's your most common mistake?
3) ... other ideas?

~



On 24 January 2016 at 10:09, Thomas Strobel <
4ZKTUB6TEP74PYJOPWIR013S2AV29YUBW5F9ZH2F4D5UMJUJ6S at hash.domains> wrote:

> It is on its way: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/9250 :)
>
> On 01/24/2016 05:46 AM, Taeer Bar-Yam wrote:
> > +1 on the user-level configuration.nix.
> >
> > Could we also use this to bring dotfiles into the nix fold?
> >
> > I'm not sure what the current system for dotfile management is, but my
> impression is it is close to nonexistant. It would be nice to add this to
> the nix way of managing things. A user-level configuration file seems like
> *a* right way to do this.
> >    --Taeer
> >> On Jan 23, 2016, at 1:42 PM, zimbatm <zimbatm at zimbatm.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> I keep seeing this transaction argument but what is the use-case for it
> ?
> >>
> >> For complex scenarios I think it would be best to have a
> user-equivalent of the /etc/nixos/configuration.nix file and a `nix switch`
> command to apply the changes in a transactional manner. Then `nix install`
> and friends might be implemented in terms of amending the user's
> configuration.nix or related file and then run `nix switch`. That way it's
> easy to synchronize the profile between computers. `nix install` might even
> gain a `--no-switch` flag to just manipulate that list.
> >>
> >>
> >> On Sat, 23 Jan 2016 at 18:03 Matthias Beyer <mail at beyermatthias.de
> <mailto:mail at beyermatthias.de>> wrote:
> >> So `nix do nix` would do nothing?
> >>
> >> (Joke for the germans)
> >>
> >> I like the idea of having `nix do`.
> >>
> >> On 23-01-2016 17:11:15, Oliver Charles wrote:
> >>> `nix do`? :)
> >>>
> >>> On Sat, Jan 23, 2016 at 4:59 PM Matthias Beyer <mail at beyermatthias.de
> <mailto:mail at beyermatthias.de>>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Hi,
> >>>>
> >>>> On 23-01-2016 17:39:09, Christian Theune wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> I like the direction where this is going a lot. A big +1 from my
> side.
> >>>>
> >>>> Same here.
> >>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> As a suggestion to the transactional behaviour, I’d like to avoid
> >>>> unnecessary shell quoting. How about “+” instead of “;"? I could
> imagine
> >>>> another non-colliding operator from the nix language, but “;” as a
> >>>> statement separator is going to be confusing because bash already
> uses it
> >>>> for almost the same thing.
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> I want to second this! Especially because "\" is kinda hard to type on
> >>>> german
> >>>> keyboards (two strokes and a weird location of both keys,
> ergonomically).
> >>>> "+"
> >>>> sounds much better.
> >>>>
> >>>> What would be nice is a "repl"-like thing where you can do this:
> >>>>
> >>>>      nix transaction
> >>>>      > install firefox
> >>>>      > uninstall chromium
> >>>>      > commit  ## or maybe ctrl-D
> >>>>      [nix] transaction about to be committed... doing things now
> >>>>
> >>>> (ofc, the `nix install firefox $sep uninstall chromium` variant
> should be
> >>>> available as well)
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>> Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
> >>>> Kind regards,
> >>>> Matthias Beyer
> >>>>
> >>>> Proudly sent with mutt.
> >>>> Happily signed with gnupg.
> >>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>> nix-dev mailing list
> >>>> nix-dev at lists.science.uu.nl <mailto:nix-dev at lists.science.uu.nl>
> >>>> http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev <
> http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev>
> >>>>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
> >> Kind regards,
> >> Matthias Beyer
> >>
> >> Proudly sent with mutt.
> >> Happily signed with gnupg.
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> nix-dev mailing list
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> http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev>
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> >> http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev
> >
> >
> >
> >
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