nixpkgs/nixos/README.md
Silvan Mosberger de5a39f5e7 CONTRIBUTING.md: Move boot loader-specific sentence to pkgs/README.md
This needs a rewrite at some point..
2023-08-14 19:50:02 +02:00

87 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
Raw Blame History

This file contains ambiguous Unicode characters

This file contains Unicode characters that might be confused with other characters. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.

# NixOS
NixOS is a Linux distribution based on the purely functional package
management system Nix. More information can be found at
https://nixos.org/nixos and in the manual in doc/manual.
## Testing changes
You can add new module to your NixOS configuration file (usually its `/etc/nixos/configuration.nix`). And do `sudo nixos-rebuild test -I nixpkgs=<path to your local nixpkgs folder> --fast`.
## Reviewing contributions
When changing the bootloader installation process, extra care must be taken. Grub installations cannot be rolled back, hence changes may break peoples installations forever. For any non-trivial change to the bootloader please file a PR asking for review, especially from \@edolstra.
### Module updates
Module updates are submissions changing modules in some ways. These often contains changes to the options or introduce new options.
Reviewing process:
- Ensure that the module maintainers are notified.
- [CODEOWNERS](https://help.github.com/articles/about-codeowners/) will make GitHub notify users based on the submitted changes, but it can happen that it misses some of the package maintainers.
- Ensure that the module tests, if any, are succeeding.
- Ensure that the introduced options are correct.
- Type should be appropriate (string related types differs in their merging capabilities, `loaOf` and `string` types are deprecated).
- Description, default and example should be provided.
- Ensure that option changes are backward compatible.
- `mkRenamedOptionModuleWith` provides a way to make option changes backward compatible.
- Ensure that removed options are declared with `mkRemovedOptionModule`
- Ensure that changes that are not backward compatible are mentioned in release notes.
- Ensure that documentations affected by the change is updated.
Sample template for a module update review is provided below.
```markdown
##### Reviewed points
- [ ] changes are backward compatible
- [ ] removed options are declared with `mkRemovedOptionModule`
- [ ] changes that are not backward compatible are documented in release notes
- [ ] module tests succeed on ARCHITECTURE
- [ ] options types are appropriate
- [ ] options description is set
- [ ] options example is provided
- [ ] documentation affected by the changes is updated
##### Possible improvements
##### Comments
```
### New modules
New modules submissions introduce a new module to NixOS.
Reviewing process:
- Ensure that the module tests, if any, are succeeding.
- Ensure that the introduced options are correct.
- Type should be appropriate (string related types differs in their merging capabilities, `loaOf` and `string` types are deprecated).
- Description, default and example should be provided.
- Ensure that module `meta` field is present
- Maintainers should be declared in `meta.maintainers`.
- Module documentation should be declared with `meta.doc`.
- Ensure that the module respect other modules functionality.
- For example, enabling a module should not open firewall ports by default.
Sample template for a new module review is provided below.
```markdown
##### Reviewed points
- [ ] module path fits the guidelines
- [ ] module tests succeed on ARCHITECTURE
- [ ] options have appropriate types
- [ ] options have default
- [ ] options have example
- [ ] options have descriptions
- [ ] No unneeded package is added to environment.systemPackages
- [ ] meta.maintainers is set
- [ ] module documentation is declared in meta.doc
##### Possible improvements
##### Comments
```