6 ms·

you can't run binaries built for other distributions, without patching them

by justoreply 4y ago

bfrog 4y ago
Sort of true, you can but it require a fhs environment setup
- Filligree 4y ago
  steam-run usually. That gives you a Ubuntu-like environment.
- throwup 4y ago
  I wonder why Nix doesn't give every package a FHS env by default. In 2022 chroot and overlayfs should be available everywhere. Wouldn't that solve a ton of problems?
  - chriswarbo 4y ago
    Nix has no concept of "package". Applications are defined as derivations, but so is everything else (I wouldn't want an entire FHS directory structure for, e.g., a single text file). If you want an FHS, you can get one using a function like buildFHSUserEnv (that's defined in the Nixpkgs project; Nix itself doesn't know or care what FHS is; indeed, Nix will happily run on non-Linux platforms)
  - SuperSandro2000 4y ago
    A FHS adds slight overhead to a package and to launch times. It also shadows part of the file system. For example /lib would probably be different for every other program which would be even more confusing.
    - pxc 4y ago
      They're also not implemented on macOS, since they rely on Linux sandboxing features.
    - kaba0 4y ago
      Plus nix allows more than possible with FHS alone. What if your package has to use multiple versions of a single dependency? You are back to square one, for no good reason.
rnhmjoj 4y ago
Not true: there are many tools that allows directly running any binary, like nix-autobahn [1]. [1]: https://github.com/Lassulus/nix-autobahn https://github.com/Lassulus/nix-autobahn
- SuperSandro2000 4y ago
  or https://github.com/Mic92/nix-ld https://github.com/Mic92/nix-ld or a FHS. There are many projects to help with this.
331c8c71 4y ago
Haha, sometimes it goes the other way round. The vpn client at work wasn't available for the latest ubuntu and the old version did not work due to changes in some libs. Wrapping it with nix providing the right libs was way easier and much more replicable than manually building the required stuff. Did in on my machine and than 3 mins to do the same for a colleague.

you can't run binaries built for other distributions, without patching them

bfrog 4y ago

Sort of true, you can but it require a fhs environment setup

Filligree 4y ago
steam-run usually. That gives you a Ubuntu-like environment.
throwup 4y ago
I wonder why Nix doesn't give every package a FHS env by default. In 2022 chroot and overlayfs should be available everywhere. Wouldn't that solve a ton of problems?
- chriswarbo 4y ago
  Nix has no concept of "package". Applications are defined as derivations, but so is everything else (I wouldn't want an entire FHS directory structure for, e.g., a single text file). If you want an FHS, you can get one using a function like buildFHSUserEnv (that's defined in the Nixpkgs project; Nix itself doesn't know or care what FHS is; indeed, Nix will happily run on non-Linux platforms)
- SuperSandro2000 4y ago
  A FHS adds slight overhead to a package and to launch times. It also shadows part of the file system. For example /lib would probably be different for every other program which would be even more confusing.
  - pxc 4y ago
    They're also not implemented on macOS, since they rely on Linux sandboxing features.
  - kaba0 4y ago
    Plus nix allows more than possible with FHS alone. What if your package has to use multiple versions of a single dependency? You are back to square one, for no good reason.

rnhmjoj 4y ago

Not true: there are many tools that allows directly running any binary, like nix-autobahn [1]. [1]: https://github.com/Lassulus/nix-autobahn https://github.com/Lassulus/nix-autobahn

SuperSandro2000 4y ago
or https://github.com/Mic92/nix-ld https://github.com/Mic92/nix-ld or a FHS. There are many projects to help with this.

331c8c71 4y ago

Haha, sometimes it goes the other way round. The vpn client at work wasn't available for the latest ubuntu and the old version did not work due to changes in some libs. Wrapping it with nix providing the right libs was way easier and much more replicable than manually building the required stuff. Did in on my machine and than 3 mins to do the same for a colleague.