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What is special about /nix that would make it better suited elsewhere? Aesthetic? Clutter? I don't think there are any technical reasons why the root of the fil

What is special about /nix that would make it better suited elsewhere? Aesthetic? Clutter? I don't think there are any technical reasons why the root of the filesystem is important. The /nix folder is just another folder with some ACLs/Permissions (however OSX works, idk)

prewett 6y ago
Historically / has been reserved for the use of the Unix system (the distribution that packaged it, not the computer you're running on). Local programs were installed to /usr/local. Packages installing themselves in /packagename are making your root directory like Windows' Start Menu. Furthermore, if your, say, Physics department has 20 machines, your sysadmin would install everything on an NFS share, which probably got mounted at /opt. Your sysadmin definitely did not want to mount /this, /that, /theother. So while /nix is no problem from the filesystem driver, it is completely flaunting established Unix norms.
- Spivak 6y ago
  Everything not specified in the FHS is reserved for use by the administrator. The FHS isn’t all-encompassing. It’s a contract about what directories the OS wont touch. Generally you’re right and if you make a piece of software not follow the FHS you better have good reason. Nix, I think, makes a solid case since existing outside of the FHS is the only safe way to not conflict with every package manager.
- eximius 6y ago
  You're not _wrong_, but I'm not sure that those reasons really mean anything. They were all new and arbitrary at some point and we're a long way from Unix. > it is completely flaunting established Unix norms. Also, _nix_ is completely flaunting established Unix norms in more ways than one. /nix is where all of the nix stores go, the immutable bundles that get pieced together to form all of the stuff you install. It could go in /var/nix or wherever, it doesn't really matter. But putting it in /nix is kind of nice in that it's so different from the purposes of the rest of the filesystem. /nix doesn't behave like the rest of a normal Linux system, so it is separate. You can still symlink from /usr/local/bin/foo -> /nix/store/abcdef-1.1.0/bin/foo so the rest of your system has the same expectations.

prewett 6y ago

Historically / has been reserved for the use of the Unix system (the distribution that packaged it, not the computer you're running on). Local programs were installed to /usr/local. Packages installing themselves in /packagename are making your root directory like Windows' Start Menu. Furthermore, if your, say, Physics department has 20 machines, your sysadmin would install everything on an NFS share, which probably got mounted at /opt. Your sysadmin definitely did not want to mount /this, /that, /theother. So while /nix is no problem from the filesystem driver, it is completely flaunting established Unix norms.

Spivak 6y ago
Everything not specified in the FHS is reserved for use by the administrator. The FHS isn’t all-encompassing. It’s a contract about what directories the OS wont touch. Generally you’re right and if you make a piece of software not follow the FHS you better have good reason. Nix, I think, makes a solid case since existing outside of the FHS is the only safe way to not conflict with every package manager.
eximius 6y ago
You're not _wrong_, but I'm not sure that those reasons really mean anything. They were all new and arbitrary at some point and we're a long way from Unix. > it is completely flaunting established Unix norms. Also, _nix_ is completely flaunting established Unix norms in more ways than one. /nix is where all of the nix stores go, the immutable bundles that get pieced together to form all of the stuff you install. It could go in /var/nix or wherever, it doesn't really matter. But putting it in /nix is kind of nice in that it's so different from the purposes of the rest of the filesystem. /nix doesn't behave like the rest of a normal Linux system, so it is separate. You can still symlink from /usr/local/bin/foo -> /nix/store/abcdef-1.1.0/bin/foo so the rest of your system has the same expectations.