Nix Flakes[[0]] are a more modular way of expressing nix derivations.
The `flake.nix` file describes:
- How to build the project, or components of a projet, via `nix build`
- What "checks" can run for a project, which can be executed via
`nix flake check`
- What binaries can be run, e.g. `nix run .#rad` to execute the CLI
This approach is preferable since a lot of the Nix ecosystem is using
Flakes -- despite it still being marked as experimental.
One interesting benefit, that needs confirming, is that a check can be
run from a remote Git source. So if someone creates a patch on
Radicle, someone else with the `nix` binary can execute:
nix flake check git+https://app.radicle.xyz/nodes/seed.radicle.xyz/rad:z3gqcJUoA1n9HaHKufZs5FCSGazv5?refs=patches/<patch id>
This means that anyone with `nix` can check patches without having to
fetch the patch itself.
Another obvious benefit will be that it allows the Radicle binaries to
enter the Nix ecosystem.
The big caveat to both of the above is that, currently, the tests are
failing while running `nix flake check`. They are currently disabled
with `doCheck = false`. They are potentially failing due to some
strange sandboxing issues which are being looked into.
[0]: https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Flakes
Signed-off-by: Fintan Halpenny <fintan.halpenny@gmail.com>
X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
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