[Nix-dev] Best Practices on Modularizing Configuration.nix?

[Profpatsch]

On 17-02-27 09:15am, Mark Gardner wrote:
> Now that I am putting NixOS on more and more machines, I would like to
> modularize and share parts of the config to maximize reuse and ensure
> uniformity. 

As far as the non-dev-ops-y parts go
(that is: the nix expression parts),
there’s basically two ways to structure modules:

1. Using `import`
2. Using `imports` from the module system
3. Using option definitions

All have their place, I personally use the first
two for more ephemeral settings and the latter if
I want to share something for use by others.

Example from my current machine config in our vuizvui repo:

I have a folder for my personal machines, with a lib.nix
and pkgs.nix; these are included as attrsets with `import`
https://github.com/openlab-aux/vuizvui/blob/ac8da8796649e463b7d31dad6bfc95f01008c787/machines/profpatsch/katara.nix#L4

My config for workstation/server/base is split into various
module files, which get included with `imports`.
https://github.com/openlab-aux/vuizvui/blob/ac8da8796649e463b7d31dad6bfc95f01008c787/machines/profpatsch/katara.nix#L9
https://github.com/openlab-aux/vuizvui/blob/ac8da8796649e463b7d31dad6bfc95f01008c787/machines/profpatsch/base-workstation.nix#L11

Then finally there’s the Thinkpad-specific setup,
which I have put into a module with an enable option
for others to use.
https://github.com/openlab-aux/vuizvui/blob/ac8da8796649e463b7d31dad6bfc95f01008c787/machines/profpatsch/katara.nix#L45
https://github.com/openlab-aux/vuizvui/blob/ac8da8796649e463b7d31dad6bfc95f01008c787/modules/hardware/thinkpad.nix
and it’s actually used by our hackerspace’s Thinkpad, too:
https://github.com/openlab-aux/vuizvui/blob/cd4bc6fde00e3da0382a3eb151dbbd0087449377/machines/labnet/labtops.nix#L9

I hope that helps.


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