6 ms·

This is interesting. One of my major complaints of Nix (of which i'm typing on, NixOS) is that my app states easily clobber each other. Ie moving between large

This is interesting. One of my major complaints of Nix (of which i'm typing on, NixOS) is that my app states easily clobber each other. Ie moving between large nix changes can break, and even rolling back is broke, because the state is not managed in the same safe way that apps themselves are. If this solves that problem i'd definitely be interested in trying it out. As the only thought i had was manage to put 100% of my state into my nix config which seems.. a nightmare.

fouc 5y ago
I'm surprised the app state isn't backed up so that rolling back restores it?
seniorivn 5y ago
you can use fs snapshots and backups
nerdponx 5y ago
For a non-Nix user, what do you mean by "app state"? Things like config files?
- lijogdfljk 5y ago
  Correct. Though sometimes apps also store little files as local databases, effectively, and switching versions of the apps can jack with that file as well. Making rollbacks more difficult
isr 5y ago
Could you elaborate a bit on this? Not arguing, genuinely interested ...
SkyMarshal 5y ago
As a (new) NixOS user too, I'd be interested to hear more about this. Have you tried setups like "Erase Your Darlings" and "NixOS: tmpfs as root" to explicitly persist and manage state? https://grahamc.com/blog/erase-your-darlings https://grahamc.com/blog/erase-your-darlings https://elis.nu/blog/2020/05/nixos-tmpfs-as-root/ https://elis.nu/blog/2020/05/nixos-tmpfs-as-root/
- lijogdfljk 5y ago
  Nope, but that's exactly what i had in mind when i said "put everything in my nix config". Any setting for my desktop, browser, etc would need to be in that config. The tempfs would just help me practice it. Big PITA though, imo. At least until i'm "better" at Nix.
  - SkyMarshal 5y ago
    I spent about 3-4 months learning Nix/OS this past spring/summer. After some trial and error and source code spelunking, I finally got my system working according to these two blog posts, with some tweaks [1]. It was a lot of work to ramp up that learning curve, but now that I have I don’t think I can ever go back to another standard Linux again. They all feel so messy now by comparison.

fouc 5y ago

I'm surprised the app state isn't backed up so that rolling back restores it?

seniorivn 5y ago

you can use fs snapshots and backups

nerdponx 5y ago

For a non-Nix user, what do you mean by "app state"? Things like config files?

lijogdfljk 5y ago
Correct. Though sometimes apps also store little files as local databases, effectively, and switching versions of the apps can jack with that file as well. Making rollbacks more difficult

isr 5y ago

Could you elaborate a bit on this? Not arguing, genuinely interested ...

SkyMarshal 5y ago

As a (new) NixOS user too, I'd be interested to hear more about this. Have you tried setups like "Erase Your Darlings" and "NixOS: tmpfs as root" to explicitly persist and manage state? https://grahamc.com/blog/erase-your-darlings https://grahamc.com/blog/erase-your-darlings https://elis.nu/blog/2020/05/nixos-tmpfs-as-root/ https://elis.nu/blog/2020/05/nixos-tmpfs-as-root/

lijogdfljk 5y ago
Nope, but that's exactly what i had in mind when i said "put everything in my nix config". Any setting for my desktop, browser, etc would need to be in that config. The tempfs would just help me practice it. Big PITA though, imo. At least until i'm "better" at Nix.
- SkyMarshal 5y ago
  I spent about 3-4 months learning Nix/OS this past spring/summer. After some trial and error and source code spelunking, I finally got my system working according to these two blog posts, with some tweaks [1]. It was a lot of work to ramp up that learning curve, but now that I have I don’t think I can ever go back to another standard Linux again. They all feel so messy now by comparison.