Julia EvansNov 14, 2023
some notes on nix flakes https://jvns.ca/blog/2023/11/11/notes-on-nix-flakes/
Some notes on nix flakes

Some notes on nix flakes

Julia Evans
Show threadJulia EvansNov 14, 2023

a few people in the replies are asking why someone might want to use nix as an OS / to manage your python packages / to manage your config files.

does anyone want to share their reasons for doing those things? I don't really know.

(please give examples of some specific problems Nix solves for you and what you like about it, don't just say "it's reproducible/declarative” :) )

Show threadViraptor

@b0rk The amount of work to add a custom package / change version is often trivial, so I've got some custom patches and extra packages included without needing a separate build environment and package repo.

Having the same config installing related software is convenient. For example: The port in caddy and the port in service config come from the same place. The AWS profiles and the aliases using them get generated from the same list.

Generating a container image from a part of the system.

Nov 14, 2023 at 11:51pmWeb
Show threadViraptorNov 14, 2023
@b0rk also I'm moving my home server to new hardware in a few days and I expect it will take ~10min to get the exact same system installed from scratch.
Show threadJulia EvansNov 15, 2023
@viraptor thanks! hearing from a lot of people who manage home servers which makes sense