nix-working-group-meeting-2.md

title	date	tags
Nix installer workgroup meeting #2	2022-09-28	nix meeting

Agenda

• Testing the installer
  • Eelco/Detsys built out Nix some installer tests on Fedora, RHEL, Ubuntu.

    • These are now run on Hydra, in VMs: https://hydra.nixos.org/eval/1782332#tabs-still-succeed

    • Doesn't test the "top level" / bootstrapping script which fetches the binary tarball

    • Doesn't test Fish yet, since no distro uses Fish out of the box

    • Travis: Can we have a "Environment test suite"?

      • create tests that simulate weird environments users had problems with
      • verify the Nix installation worked from there

    • Eelco: probably, if we can create Vagrant disk images which captures the problematic environment.

      • We can add a "mess up" phase which changes the initial conditions
• MacOS?
  • DetSys has bought a set of x86 and aarch64 Macs to test installing on MacOS.
    • Doesn't cover all the cases, like upgrade paths
• Travis: The installer needs a group / panel where people having problems with the installer can ask for help for their specific situation.
  • Christian Hoppner: If we want to really "Do what it takes" we probably want to offer .deb's and .rpm's.
    • https://nix-community.github.io/nix-installers/
  • Not trying to be in the official repos: they'll just slow us all down.
  • Wrench: Nix really wants to manage itself.
  • Eelco: the old nix installer created a /usr/bin
  • Eelco: we can probably use the statically linked Nix to make this easier than it used to be
  • Matthew Kenigsberg: can we use FPM to package Nix easily?
• "How do people install Nix" -- Solene
  • 2 weeks ago I made a poll on discourse to ask how people installed Nix: 74 people voted, 4% used a package manager, 10% use single user mode, 39% installed it system wide
  • https://discourse.nixos.org/t/the-how-did-you-install-nix-poll/21682
  • Might want to poll about single-user Nix
• Nix in WSL testing?
  • Christian Hoppner + Ana
  • Microsoft provides VM images, and Vagrant images are available
    • https://app.vagrantup.com/Microsoft/boxes/EdgeOnWindows10
  • Might be worth looking at AWS EC2's Windows support, which doesn't have the annoyances of reserving a macOS physical host.
  • Mostly it "just works" except for a lack of systemd, and requires a tweak to the sqlite db.
• Solene: Should we have a nix-bootstrap command which sets up the systemd service + store + ...?
  • Travis: Related question: the software updates continuously breaks the shell hooks, should the daemon repair it?
  • Graham: Should running the installer be able to repair it?
  • Matthew Kenigsberg / Christian Hoppner: what if we put a symlink to Nix in /usr/bin so it is always in the PATH?
  • Graham: Should the installer, on macos, do a multi-user install but only update the user's RC files?
    • If another user runs the installer it only has to update their RC files.
    • Homebrew doesn't update any of your files, but prints out instructions on what to do.
• Christian: How about we make a Matrix room?
  • https://matrix.to/#/#install:nixos.org
• Should we use the DetSys installer?
  • Opinionated, but a less opinionated fork could be used if the opinions don't match what the community wants
  • Should it go under the NixOS umbrella?
    • Probably not (same reason)
  • Enabling of flakes by default (and having it non official): Risk of having a more confused situation whereveryone uses the unofficial installer
  • If we push for the DetSys intaller right now or keep it closed-source for too long, ppl risk complaining about a DetSys cabal
    • Need to find the optimal time to have as few ppl complaining as possible
  • How would this be advertised?

Next step

• Next meeting on Oct. 12, same time
• Matrix room (above)