4 ms·
As a person that uses Nix to build Docker images in production, let me explain. Docker is a tool that lets you package a Linux distribution and roll it out on
by otabdeveloper4 7y ago
As a person that uses Nix to build Docker images in production, let me explain.
Docker is a tool that lets you package a Linux distribution and roll it out on any random server cleanly and safely. But the stuff inside that distribution is still very much bespoke and unmaintainable.
Nix is a tool that lets you create a custom Linux distribution with absolutely minimal effort. (Basically, just list your packages in a file and hit 'go'.) But the packaging story for Nix is pretty bad.
To bridge that gap, Nix has code that puts a Nix package with all dependencies into a Docker container. It works, but of course kind of icky; something more integrated and smart would be preferred.
- porker 7y ago> Docker is a tool that lets you package a Linux distribution and roll it out on any random server cleanly and safely. But the stuff inside that distribution is still very much bespoke and unmaintainable. This, a thousand times. If you are deploying the same container 10,000 times, with no modifications - well it makes sense to spend time maintaining that distribution. But if you're using Docker for dev environments (for example) and each one is different... hiiiya you haven't really moved on in terms of maintainability than using Vagrant or any VM setup.