Move top-level packages to a `pkgs` attribute

[fgaz]

Followup from https://github.com/nix-community/NUR/pull/27#issuecomment-406816320

I propose to move all the packages from the top-level to a pkgs attribute, so that default.nix only contains pkgs, lib, modules, and overlays.

Pros:

• more extensible and maintainable
• avoids workarounds like this or this

Cons:

• slightly more complicated basic structure
• five more characters for the user to type
  • can be avoided by making the packages available at the top-level but using this repo's code, not individually on each nur-packages

[infinisil]

can be avoided by making the packages available at the top-level but using this repo's code, not individually on each nur-packages

You mean like nur.{pkgs,modules,overlays,lib}.paul.foo instead of nur.repos.paul.{pkgs,modules,overlays,lib}.foo? That might be pretty neat.

[fgaz]

I meant nur.repos.paul.foo (but done at this repo's level) in addition to nur.repos.paul.{pkgs,modules,overlays,lib}.foo, but nur.{pkgs,modules,overlays,lib}.paul.foo sounds even better! It's even one character less than the original ;-)

[Mic92]

As compatibility layer we could check for the existence of pkgs in the repository and fallback to top-level otherwise.

[tilpner]

I'm not convinced that compatibility layer would be worth the extra complexity (and documentation effort). Right now, it's cheap to break the interface, only a dozen repos would have to be updated (again).

[zimbatm]

Normally I would expect to be able to nix-build the repo top-level. If additional arguments are introduced it's going to make harder to provide defaults for all of them.

[tilpner]

@zimbatm What argument are you talking about? Implementing this should not add any arguments, just alter the structure of the returned attrset.

[zimbatm]

doh, nevermind. I was still thinking of { pkgs, lib, ...} as the recommended default.nix arguments.

[fgaz]

Bump

[zimbatm]

How about we introduce multiple types of repositories? Instead of cramming everything into one.

• singlePackage for a single package. For example https://github.com/direnv/direnv
• packageSet for a package set like https://github.com/garbas/nixpkgs-python
• distro for a combination of nixos modules and packages
• overlay ?

The details can vary

[rycee]

FWIW I'm not so very fond of the nur.{pkgs,modules,overlays,lib}.paul.foo naming scheme since it seems to limit me to one of a few approved "top-level" namespaces.

So if I wanted to add a set of Home Manager modules I wouldn't know what to choose. I guess nur.modules.rycee.home-manager.foo might work but then it all gets mixed up with NixOS modules (and I also happen to have a NixOS module named home-manager 🙂).

I do think it is a good idea to endorse a pkgs attribute under which all packages go, i.e., nur.repos.paul.pkgs.foo.