[Nix-dev] Notes and ideas about the Nix-UI proposal

zimbatm zimbatm at zimbatm.com
Sat Jan 23 19:42:17 CET 2016


I keep seeing this transaction argument but what is the use-case for it ?

For complex scenarios I think it would be best to have a user-equivalent of
the /etc/nixos/configuration.nix file and a `nix switch` command to apply
the changes in a transactional manner. Then `nix install` and friends might
be implemented in terms of amending the user's configuration.nix or related
file and then run `nix switch`. That way it's easy to synchronize the
profile between computers. `nix install` might even gain a `--no-switch`
flag to just manipulate that list.


On Sat, 23 Jan 2016 at 18:03 Matthias Beyer <mail at beyermatthias.de> wrote:

> So `nix do nix` would do nothing?
>
> (Joke for the germans)
>
> I like the idea of having `nix do`.
>
> On 23-01-2016 17:11:15, Oliver Charles wrote:
> > `nix do`? :)
> >
> > On Sat, Jan 23, 2016 at 4:59 PM Matthias Beyer <mail at beyermatthias.de>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > On 23-01-2016 17:39:09, Christian Theune wrote:
> > > >
> > > > I like the direction where this is going a lot. A big +1 from my
> side.
> > >
> > > Same here.
> > >
> > > >
> > > > As a suggestion to the transactional behaviour, I’d like to avoid
> > > unnecessary shell quoting. How about “+” instead of “;"? I could
> imagine
> > > another non-colliding operator from the nix language, but “;” as a
> > > statement separator is going to be confusing because bash already uses
> it
> > > for almost the same thing.
> > > >
> > >
> > > I want to second this! Especially because "\" is kinda hard to type on
> > > german
> > > keyboards (two strokes and a weird location of both keys,
> ergonomically).
> > > "+"
> > > sounds much better.
> > >
> > > What would be nice is a "repl"-like thing where you can do this:
> > >
> > >     nix transaction
> > >     > install firefox
> > >     > uninstall chromium
> > >     > commit  ## or maybe ctrl-D
> > >     [nix] transaction about to be committed... doing things now
> > >
> > > (ofc, the `nix install firefox $sep uninstall chromium` variant should
> be
> > > available as well)
> > >
> > > --
> > > Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
> > > Kind regards,
> > > Matthias Beyer
> > >
> > > Proudly sent with mutt.
> > > Happily signed with gnupg.
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > nix-dev mailing list
> > > nix-dev at lists.science.uu.nl
> > > http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev
> > >
>
> --
> Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
> Kind regards,
> Matthias Beyer
>
> Proudly sent with mutt.
> Happily signed with gnupg.
> _______________________________________________
> nix-dev mailing list
> nix-dev at lists.science.uu.nl
> http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev
>
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