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Recommend using nix-channel instead of an unpined version of master in README.md

Open kira-bruneau opened this issue 4 years ago • 5 comments

I found that using NUR as nix channel is a much better alternative to fetching an unpinned version master. It provides greater controller over when the repo is updated and it's very easy to rollback if an update causes a problem.

I was thinking REAME.md could be updated along the lines of:


To make NUR accessible for your login user, first add a new user-specific channel:

nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/NUR/archive/master.tar.gz nur
nix-channel --update

Or alternatively install a system-wide channel running nix-channel as root:

sudo nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/NUR/archive/master.tar.gz nur
sudo nix-channel --update

and then include the channel in your packageOverrides in ~/.config/nixpkgs/config.nix:

{
  packageOverrides = pkgs: {
    nur = import <nur> {
      inherit pkgs;
    };
  };
}

For NixOS add a new system-wide channel (if it wasn't already added above):

sudo nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/NUR/archive/master.tar.gz nur
sudo nix-channel --update

and then include the channel in your packageOverrides in /etc/nixos/configuration.nix

{
  nixpkgs.config.packageOverrides = pkgs: {
    nur = import <nur> {
      inherit pkgs;
    };
  };
}

What do you think?

kira-bruneau avatar Jul 18 '20 14:07 kira-bruneau

Sure we can have both. Maybe even something like https://github.com/nmattia/niv. Pinning is also possible with the fetchTarball variant. I think there can be multiple ways listed including their trade-offs with a recommend version.

Mic92 avatar Jul 18 '20 14:07 Mic92

I originally used pinning, but I found it cumbersome to add a new commit to two separate repos for both NixOS and home-manager.

kira-bruneau avatar Jul 18 '20 14:07 kira-bruneau

This is where niv comes in handy. Niv is good for teams because you have little control over your colleagues nix channel.

Mic92 avatar Jul 18 '20 14:07 Mic92

It looks like there is a related discussion in #150

kira-bruneau avatar Jul 26 '20 21:07 kira-bruneau

Do you plan to open a pull request for the readme?

Mic92 avatar Jul 28 '20 09:07 Mic92