nix-gently/nix-gently.org

Nix: a gentle introduction

• Introduction
  • What is this?
  • Who is it for?
    • Who is it not for?
  • Why write it?
  • Why me?
• First steps
  • Installing nix
  • Ways to install packages
    • Ad hoc: nix-shell -p
    • Project environments: shell.nix
    • Declarative user environments: home-manager
    • Declarative operating system: nixos
    • Imperative: nix-env -i (but don't do this!)
  • What does "installing" a package with nix mean?
• Oh S**t, I messed up!
  • Rolling back
  • Pinning dependencies
• Advanced topics
  • What the heck are "nix flakes"?

Introduction

What is this?

Who is it for?

Who is it not for?

Why write it?

Why me?

First steps

Installing nix

Ways to install packages

Ad hoc: nix-shell -p

  nix-shell -p hello --command hello 2>&1

these 2 paths will be fetched (0.09 MiB download, 0.47 MiB unpacked):
  /nix/store/544psc5aqpbmyffi7c6pgf8bhkkabkry-hello-2.10
  /nix/store/y2g5n52pljrmi7sy771njs1s8n58fjz3-bash-interactive-4.4-p23-dev
copying path '/nix/store/y2g5n52pljrmi7sy771njs1s8n58fjz3-bash-interactive-4.4-p23-dev' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/544psc5aqpbmyffi7c6pgf8bhkkabkry-hello-2.10' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
Hello, world!

What happens if we do that again?

  nix-shell -p hello --command hello 2>&1

Hello, world!

Project environments: shell.nix

Declarative user environments: home-manager

Declarative operating system: nixos

Imperative: nix-env -i (but don't do this!)

What does "installing" a package with nix mean?

Oh S**t, I messed up!

Rolling back

Pinning dependencies

Advanced topics

What the heck are "nix flakes"?