[Nix-dev] yet another npm2nix reengineering attempt

[Thomas Hunger]

Thanks Sander for trying again!

As a data point: We've had too many issues with integrating NPM and nix
more tightly so we've given up and run [1] in combination with shrink-wrap.
I think there may be value in pushing the "resolved" fields from the
npm-shrinkwrap.json file into nix but trying to reproduce the ever-changing
behaviour of the NPM resolver didn't seem like a good time investment to me.

[1]
{ pkgs, stdenv, git, nodejs-5_x }:
#  Notes:
#  * This still caches in HOME, can't find out how to disable so we
#    store in a temporary directory which is cleaned up after the build.
#  * This connects NPM to the internet which is sad but
#    packaging NPM for nix is even sadder :(
stdenv.mkDerivation {
  name = "proppyweb-frontend-node_modules";
  src = builtins.filterSource (path: type: baseNameOf path ==
"package.json") ../frontend;
  phases = "unpackPhase installPhase";
  buildInputs = [ nodejs-5_x git ];
  installPhase = ''
    mkdir ./npm-home
    mkdir -p $out
    export HOME=$(readlink -f ./npm-home)  # For .npm/cache. Will be
discarded.
    cp ./package.json $out/
    cd $out
    npm install
  '';
}


On 2 March 2016 at 01:11, Colin Putney <colin at wiresong.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Tue, Mar 1, 2016 at 6:42 AM, Sander van der Burg <svanderburg at gmail.com
> > wrote:
>
>
>> So as you may see: it is all quite annoying and painful. :(
>>
>
> I'm starting to think that it's pointless to try to make it all work
> automatically. At some point it's so compatible with npm that it replicates
> all of npm's quirks and bugs and you might as well use npm directly,
> because you're not enjoying any of the advantages of nix anymore.
>
> What I've been trying to do is import dependency information from npm, but
> make it easier to customize so that you can work around the quirks of
> specific npm packages with less pain. I'm using the npm2nix in nixpkgs, but
> ignoring the default.nix it generates, and building custom derivations from
> the registry. It's still pretty painful when the generated registry doesn't
> work, but I have managed to get things to work the nix way.
>
> Colin
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> nix-dev at lists.science.uu.nl
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>
>
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