When maintainers override stages of `fetchgit' (e.g. `postPatch`) it is very easy for them to accidentally leak the outpath-hash of their current `stdenv` into `fetchgit''s output, and therefore into the value they paste into `sha256`. This is a problem, because the resulting expression will break whenever any change is made to `stdenv` or when anybody attempts to build the expression on a different platform than the one used by the original maintainer. Almost as much of a problem is the fact that CI **does not catch** these problems. The `fetchgit` is run only once, then its output goes into cachix, and all future builds (hydra, CI, ofborg) pull from cachix. Let's offer maintainers the option to check that they aren't making this mistake, by passing through `allowedRequisites`. The default value is `null`, but it might be worth changing that at some point in the future. It is also sometimes difficult to communicate to package maintainers why their expression is problematic. Having `allowedRequisites` passed through makes it easier to do this: "look, when I switch on `allowedRequisites` your package breaks; are you sure you meant to hardcode the hash today's `x86_64-linux.stdenv` into your expression?` For an example use case, see https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/171223 The issue above is part of a larger problem with nixpkgs infra: there large parts of cachix cannot be reproduced easily if they are lost. Once something ends goes into cachix, we never ever again reverify the procedure by which it was placed into cachix. |
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.github | ||
doc | ||
lib | ||
maintainers | ||
nixos | ||
pkgs | ||
.editorconfig | ||
.git-blame-ignore-revs | ||
.gitattributes | ||
.gitignore | ||
.version | ||
CONTRIBUTING.md | ||
COPYING | ||
default.nix | ||
flake.nix | ||
README.md |
Nixpkgs is a collection of over 80,000 software packages that can be installed with the Nix package manager. It also implements NixOS, a purely-functional Linux distribution.
Manuals
- NixOS Manual - how to install, configure, and maintain a purely-functional Linux distribution
- Nixpkgs Manual - contributing to Nixpkgs and using programming-language-specific Nix expressions
- Nix Package Manager Manual - how to write Nix expressions (programs), and how to use Nix command line tools
Community
- Discourse Forum
- Matrix Chat
- NixOS Weekly
- Community-maintained wiki
- Community-maintained list of ways to get in touch (Discord, Telegram, IRC, etc.)
Other Project Repositories
The sources of all official Nix-related projects are in the NixOS organization on GitHub. Here are some of the main ones:
- Nix - the purely functional package manager
- NixOps - the tool to remotely deploy NixOS machines
- nixos-hardware - NixOS profiles to optimize settings for different hardware
- Nix RFCs - the formal process for making substantial changes to the community
- NixOS homepage - the NixOS.org website
- hydra - our continuous integration system
- NixOS Artwork - NixOS artwork
Continuous Integration and Distribution
Nixpkgs and NixOS are built and tested by our continuous integration system, Hydra.
- Continuous package builds for unstable/master
- Continuous package builds for the NixOS 22.05 release
- Tests for unstable/master
- Tests for the NixOS 22.05 release
Artifacts successfully built with Hydra are published to cache at https://cache.nixos.org/. When successful build and test criteria are met, the Nixpkgs expressions are distributed via Nix channels.
Contributing
Nixpkgs is among the most active projects on GitHub. While thousands of open issues and pull requests might seem a lot at first, it helps consider it in the context of the scope of the project. Nixpkgs describes how to build tens of thousands of pieces of software and implements a Linux distribution. The GitHub Insights page gives a sense of the project activity.
Community contributions are always welcome through GitHub Issues and Pull Requests. When pull requests are made, our tooling automation bot, OfBorg will perform various checks to help ensure expression quality.
The Nixpkgs maintainers are people who have assigned themselves to maintain specific individual packages. We encourage people who care about a package to assign themselves as a maintainer. When a pull request is made against a package, OfBorg will notify the appropriate maintainer(s). The Nixpkgs committers are people who have been given permission to merge.
Most contributions are based on and merged into these branches:
master
is the main branch where all small contributions gostaging
is branched from master, changes that have a big impact on Hydra builds go to this branchstaging-next
is branched from staging and only fixes to stabilize and security fixes with a big impact on Hydra builds should be contributed to this branch. This branch is merged into master when deemed of sufficiently high quality
For more information about contributing to the project, please visit the contributing page.
Donations
The infrastructure for NixOS and related projects is maintained by a nonprofit organization, the NixOS Foundation. To ensure the continuity and expansion of the NixOS infrastructure, we are looking for donations to our organization.
You can donate to the NixOS foundation through SEPA bank transfers or by using Open Collective:
License
Nixpkgs is licensed under the MIT License.
Note: MIT license does not apply to the packages built by Nixpkgs, merely to the files in this repository (the Nix expressions, build scripts, NixOS modules, etc.). It also might not apply to patches included in Nixpkgs, which may be derivative works of the packages to which they apply. The aforementioned artifacts are all covered by the licenses of the respective packages.