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I found the documentation to be plentiful compared to other projects, though it's not as comprehensive as the Arch Wiki. The docs definitely mention how to inst

I found the documentation to be plentiful compared to other projects, though it's not as comprehensive as the Arch Wiki. The docs definitely mention how to install KDE [1] and firefox [2]. To learn more about Nix, I'd recommend grepping the nixpkgs [3] repository once you grasp the basics of the Nix language (Nix Pills [4] would be a good start for that). Since everything in the Nix official repository belongs in nixpkgs, it's easy to search for the information I want. I just wish CentOS and Debian had a way of searching across the entire codebase this easily when I couldn't figure out something from the docs. [1]: https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/#sec-x11 https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/#sec-x11 [2]: https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/#idm140737322634320 https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/#idm140737322634320 [3]: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs [4]: https://nixos.org/guides/nix-pills/ https://nixos.org/guides/nix-pills/

siraben 6y ago
I found reading code from Nixpkgs to be very valuable as well, and can't recommend it enough. I managed to get by using NixOS without writing my own derivations for several months until I inevitably ran into a need to package something new. Even then, Nix Pills isn't a super useful reference, it's sort of like learning Git by understanding blobs, too focused on details. Another pain point is looking for documentation of Nix library functions, I've solved this by using Manix[0] [0] https://github.com/mlvzk/manix https://github.com/mlvzk/manix
lakecresva 6y ago
I filed a PR in the nix pills repo like eight months ago that never got touched; they're effectively abandoned and contain hard errors. One more snare trap in the mine field that is nix documentation. To anyone that wanders by this, if you value your time at all, don't bother with nix unless you have someone you can corner and directly get answers from.
- soraminazuki 6y ago
  > they're effectively abandoned and contain hard errors Provably false. The last commit was Oct 9, not "eight months ago," and numerous PRs were merged since then: https://github.com/NixOS/nix-pills/commits/master https://github.com/NixOS/nix-pills/commits/master https://github.com/NixOS/nix-pills/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aclosed https://github.com/NixOS/nix-pills/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aclos... > don't bother with nix unless you have someone you can corner and directly get answers from. Just because your single PR slipped through the maintainers attention? Wow, you must have to avoid a lot of high profile open source projects. Furthermore, the official page very clearly states how you could reach the community for help, although I highly recommend you to lower your tone before doing so: https://nixos.org/community.html https://nixos.org/community.html
alephu5 6y ago
I find nix pills hard to digest since they use the repl, and for a newbie it's hard to see how they apply to real-world packing of something like a python application. This video helped me a lot though, but unfortunately there are a few minutes of broken audio in the middle https://youtu.be/2mG0zM_wtYs https://youtu.be/2mG0zM_wtYs
drybjed 6y ago
> I just wish CentOS and Debian had a way of searching across the entire codebase this easily when I couldn't figure out something from the docs. You can use https://sources.debian.org/ https://sources.debian.org/ website to search in the Debian packages and their source code.
- soraminazuki 6y ago
  Thanks for the tip. I was only aware of https://salsa.debian.org/debian https://salsa.debian.org/debian

siraben 6y ago

I found reading code from Nixpkgs to be very valuable as well, and can't recommend it enough. I managed to get by using NixOS without writing my own derivations for several months until I inevitably ran into a need to package something new. Even then, Nix Pills isn't a super useful reference, it's sort of like learning Git by understanding blobs, too focused on details. Another pain point is looking for documentation of Nix library functions, I've solved this by using Manix[0] [0] https://github.com/mlvzk/manix https://github.com/mlvzk/manix

lakecresva 6y ago

I filed a PR in the nix pills repo like eight months ago that never got touched; they're effectively abandoned and contain hard errors. One more snare trap in the mine field that is nix documentation. To anyone that wanders by this, if you value your time at all, don't bother with nix unless you have someone you can corner and directly get answers from.

soraminazuki 6y ago
> they're effectively abandoned and contain hard errors Provably false. The last commit was Oct 9, not "eight months ago," and numerous PRs were merged since then: https://github.com/NixOS/nix-pills/commits/master https://github.com/NixOS/nix-pills/commits/master https://github.com/NixOS/nix-pills/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aclosed https://github.com/NixOS/nix-pills/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aclos... > don't bother with nix unless you have someone you can corner and directly get answers from. Just because your single PR slipped through the maintainers attention? Wow, you must have to avoid a lot of high profile open source projects. Furthermore, the official page very clearly states how you could reach the community for help, although I highly recommend you to lower your tone before doing so: https://nixos.org/community.html https://nixos.org/community.html

alephu5 6y ago

I find nix pills hard to digest since they use the repl, and for a newbie it's hard to see how they apply to real-world packing of something like a python application. This video helped me a lot though, but unfortunately there are a few minutes of broken audio in the middle https://youtu.be/2mG0zM_wtYs https://youtu.be/2mG0zM_wtYs

drybjed 6y ago

> I just wish CentOS and Debian had a way of searching across the entire codebase this easily when I couldn't figure out something from the docs. You can use https://sources.debian.org/ https://sources.debian.org/ website to search in the Debian packages and their source code.

soraminazuki 6y ago
Thanks for the tip. I was only aware of https://salsa.debian.org/debian https://salsa.debian.org/debian