3 ms·

This is an active area of work; check out the docs for "experimental commands" at https://nixos.org/manual/nix/unstable/command-ref/new-cli/nix.html https://nix

This is an active area of work; check out the docs for "experimental commands" at https://nixos.org/manual/nix/unstable/command-ref/new-cli/nix.html https://nixos.org/manual/nix/unstable/command-ref/new-cli/ni..., especially `nix profile` and `nix search`, where your examples would become: nix profile install nixpkgs#package_name nix search nixpkgs keyword

dmitriid 5y ago
1. How common is it to search outside nixpkgs? 2. How common is it to install from outside nixpkgs? Depending on the answers to the above: `nix install packagename` should default to nixpkgs and install into currently active profile (if auch a thing as currently active profile is a thing in nix, of course) `nix search packagename` should default to searching nixpkgs Boom. You improved developer/user experience 100-fold with little effort. Edit: 99.9% of examples in the linked page have nixpkgs# prefix for packages. Just drop it, and make it default. Everyone will thank you.
- kaba0 5y ago
  I remember there is a thread on this exact issue. The problem is more that there is no one nixpkgs channel, but several.
- callahad 5y ago
  Much more common than you would expect coming from a traditional package manager, since Nix freely allows multiple versions of packages to coexist. E.g., many folks run a stable release of NixOS but install select user packages from unstable, while most development environment and packaging scenarios will pin to a specific commit of nixpkgs. Nevertheless, there is an alternative CLI that infers "nixpkgs" when omitted, but I can't seem to find it right now.
- lucideer 5y ago
  I think nix already does what you want for search, but the install suggestion is a good idea. `nix install packagename` would fall outside the current command convention (since `profile` is a command and `install` is a subcommand of profile), so they would have to introduce a new top-level command "install" which is aliased to `profile install`. Given the `nix` command itself is a newer/experimental alternative to `nix-env`, et al., in a seemingly similar spirit to `apt-get/apt-cache` -vs- `apt`, I think creating such an alias would be a very reasonable thing to do. `nix search packagename` afaik currently does what you (probably) want. It defaults to searching in both `packages.<system>` & `legacyPackages.<system>`, so nixpkgs will be included. I suspect the inclusion of `nixpkgs` in the examples above is actually narrowing the search, possibly for speed: doing `nix search packagename` is currently a bit slow.

dmitriid 5y ago

1. How common is it to search outside nixpkgs? 2. How common is it to install from outside nixpkgs? Depending on the answers to the above: `nix install packagename` should default to nixpkgs and install into currently active profile (if auch a thing as currently active profile is a thing in nix, of course) `nix search packagename` should default to searching nixpkgs Boom. You improved developer/user experience 100-fold with little effort. Edit: 99.9% of examples in the linked page have nixpkgs# prefix for packages. Just drop it, and make it default. Everyone will thank you.

kaba0 5y ago
I remember there is a thread on this exact issue. The problem is more that there is no one nixpkgs channel, but several.
callahad 5y ago
Much more common than you would expect coming from a traditional package manager, since Nix freely allows multiple versions of packages to coexist. E.g., many folks run a stable release of NixOS but install select user packages from unstable, while most development environment and packaging scenarios will pin to a specific commit of nixpkgs. Nevertheless, there is an alternative CLI that infers "nixpkgs" when omitted, but I can't seem to find it right now.
lucideer 5y ago
I think nix already does what you want for search, but the install suggestion is a good idea. `nix install packagename` would fall outside the current command convention (since `profile` is a command and `install` is a subcommand of profile), so they would have to introduce a new top-level command "install" which is aliased to `profile install`. Given the `nix` command itself is a newer/experimental alternative to `nix-env`, et al., in a seemingly similar spirit to `apt-get/apt-cache` -vs- `apt`, I think creating such an alias would be a very reasonable thing to do. `nix search packagename` afaik currently does what you (probably) want. It defaults to searching in both `packages.<system>` & `legacyPackages.<system>`, so nixpkgs will be included. I suspect the inclusion of `nixpkgs` in the examples above is actually narrowing the search, possibly for speed: doing `nix search packagename` is currently a bit slow.