[Nix-dev] Re: Suggestion: Home configuration.

[Nicolas Pierron]

On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 14:07, Ludovic Courtès <ludo at gnu.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> "Nicolas Pierron"
> <nicolas.b.pierron at gmail.com> writes:
>
>> I have experimented many issues that may require a kind of $HOME
>> configuration.  Many package provide a /etc which contains a default
>> resource script which is often used as a base for the system.  As Nix
>> packages are pure, the system configuration is not changed unless this
>> packages are installed with the system (I guess).  Therefore if any
>> user install a tool which require a minimal configuration the tool
>> will not work properly.
>
> Most packages typically first honor the system-wide /etc file, then look
> for a $HOME/somethingrc file, and finally look for environment
> variables.  Therefore, in many cases, that the system-wide /etc file is
> immutable doesn't cause any problem.  What application or scenario did
> you have in mind?

Recently I have installed wmii which provide a script in its /etc but
this script is suppose to be run-able and was not able to start due to
a missing runtime-denpendency.  First I thought that the /etc files
were not installed and that the program relies entirely on the user
configuration.

However, it could be interesting that each package that your are
installing provides scripts to set your environment variables instead
of creating a script which tries to do everything.

>> With this feature, I think we can expect to move upstart &
>> configuration script inside nixpkgs instead of nixos.
>
> Hmm, I don't understand the connection.

Apache is configured inside NixOs by using nix expressions.  My
question is, is it possible to move this configuration to NixPkgs and
override the apache default configuration with the same script? Or is
it really necessary to separate the configuration of the package from
the package ?  My point of view is that a configuration is only a
"configuration package" which depends on the tools that are used
inside the configuration and which override the default configuration
of used packages.

-- 
Nicolas Pierron
- If you are doing something twice then you should try to do it once.
- Do not print documents, save your printer ;)