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Diffstat (limited to '_posts')
| -rw-r--r-- | _posts/2018-07-17-running-guix-on-nixos.md | 194 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | _posts/2018-08-01-verifying-npm-ci-reproducibility.md | 153 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | _posts/2018-12-21-using-youtube-dl-to-manage-youtube-subscriptions.md | 279 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | _posts/2019-06-02-stateless-os.md | 145 |
4 files changed, 0 insertions, 771 deletions
diff --git a/_posts/2018-07-17-running-guix-on-nixos.md b/_posts/2018-07-17-running-guix-on-nixos.md deleted file mode 100644 index 69a9d1a..0000000 --- a/_posts/2018-07-17-running-guix-on-nixos.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,194 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: Running Guix on NixOS -date: 2018-07-17 -layout: post ---- -I wanted to run -Guix on a NixOS machine. Even though the Guix manual explains how to do -it [step by -step](https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/en/html_node/Binary-Installation.html#Binary-Installation), -I needed a few extra ones to make it work properly. - -I couldn\'t just install GuixSD because my wireless network card -doesn\'t have any free/libre drivers (yet). - -Creating `guixbuilder` users ----------------------------- - -Guix requires you to create non-root users that will be used to perform -the builds in the isolated environments. - -The -[manual](https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/en/html_node/Build-Environment-Setup.html#Build-Environment-Setup) -already provides you with a ready to run (as root) command for creating -the build users: - -``` {.bash .numberLines startFrom=""} -groupadd --system guixbuild -for i in `seq -w 1 10`; -do - useradd -g guixbuild -G guixbuild \ - -d /var/empty -s `which nologin` \ - -c "Guix build user $i" --system \ - guixbuilder$i; -done -``` - -However, In my personal NixOS I have disabled -[`users.mutableUsers`](https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/index.html#sec-user-management), -which means that even if I run the above command it means that they\'ll -be removed once I rebuild my OS: - -``` {.shell .numberLines startFrom=""} -$ sudo nixos-rebuild switch -(...) -removing user ‘guixbuilder7’ -removing user ‘guixbuilder3’ -removing user ‘guixbuilder10’ -removing user ‘guixbuilder1’ -removing user ‘guixbuilder6’ -removing user ‘guixbuilder9’ -removing user ‘guixbuilder4’ -removing user ‘guixbuilder2’ -removing user ‘guixbuilder8’ -removing user ‘guixbuilder5’ -(...) -``` - -Instead of enabling `users.mutableUsers` I could add the Guix users by -adding them to my system configuration: - -``` {.nix .numberLines startFrom=""} -{ config, pkgs, ...}: - -{ - - # ... NixOS usual config ellided ... - - users = { - mutableUsers = false; - - extraUsers = - let - andrehUser = { - andreh = { - # my custom user config - }; - }; - buildUser = (i: - { - "guixbuilder${i}" = { # guixbuilder$i - group = "guixbuild"; # -g guixbuild - extraGroups = ["guixbuild"]; # -G guixbuild - home = "/var/empty"; # -d /var/empty - shell = pkgs.nologin; # -s `which nologin` - description = "Guix build user ${i}"; # -c "Guix buid user $i" - isSystemUser = true; # --system - }; - } - ); - in - # merge all users - pkgs.lib.fold (str: acc: acc // buildUser str) - andrehUser - # for i in `seq -w 1 10` - (map (pkgs.lib.fixedWidthNumber 2) (builtins.genList (n: n+1) 10)); - - extraGroups.guixbuild = { - name = "guixbuild"; - }; - }; -} -``` - -Here I used `fold` and the `//` operator to merge all of the -configuration sets into a single `extraUsers` value. - -Creating the `systemd` service ------------------------------- - -One other thing missing was the `systemd` service. - -First I couldn\'t just copy the `.service` file to `/etc` since in NixOS -that folder isn\'t writable. But also I wanted the service to be better -integrated with the OS. - -That was a little easier than creating the users, all I had to do was -translate the provided -[`guix-daemon.service.in`](https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/etc/guix-daemon.service.in?id=00c86a888488b16ce30634d3a3a9d871ed6734a2) -configuration to an equivalent Nix expression - -``` {.ini .numberLines startFrom=""} -# This is a "service unit file" for the systemd init system to launch -# 'guix-daemon'. Drop it in /etc/systemd/system or similar to have -# 'guix-daemon' automatically started. - -[Unit] -Description=Build daemon for GNU Guix - -[Service] -ExecStart=/var/guix/profiles/per-user/root/guix-profile/bin/guix-daemon --build-users-group=guixbuild -Environment=GUIX_LOCPATH=/root/.guix-profile/lib/locale -RemainAfterExit=yes -StandardOutput=syslog -StandardError=syslog - -# See <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2016-04/msg00608.html>. -# Some package builds (for example, go@1.8.1) may require even more than -# 1024 tasks. -TasksMax=8192 - -[Install] -WantedBy=multi-user.target -``` - -This sample `systemd` configuration file became: - -``` {.nix .numberLines startFrom=""} -guix-daemon = { - enable = true; - description = "Build daemon for GNU Guix"; - serviceConfig = { - ExecStart = "/var/guix/profiles/per-user/root/guix-profile/bin/guix-daemon --build-users-group=guixbuild"; - Environment="GUIX_LOCPATH=/root/.guix-profile/lib/locale"; - RemainAfterExit="yes"; - StandardOutput="syslog"; - StandardError="syslog"; - TaskMax= "8192"; - }; - wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ]; -}; -``` - -There you go! After running `sudo nixos-rebuild switch` I could get Guix -up and running: - -``` {.bash .numberLines startFrom=""} -$ guix package -i hello -The following package will be installed: - hello 2.10 /gnu/store/bihfrh609gkxb9dp7n96wlpigiv3krfy-hello-2.10 - -substitute: updating substitutes from 'https://mirror.hydra.gnu.org'... 100.0% -The following derivations will be built: - /gnu/store/nznmdn6inpwxnlkrasydmda4s2vsp9hg-profile.drv - /gnu/store/vibqrvw4c8lacxjrkqyzqsdrmckv77kq-fonts-dir.drv - /gnu/store/hi8alg7wi0wgfdi3rn8cpp37zhx8ykf3-info-dir.drv - /gnu/store/cvkbp378cvfjikz7mjymhrimv7j12p0i-ca-certificate-bundle.drv - /gnu/store/d62fvxymnp95rzahhmhf456bsf0xg1c6-manual-database.drv -Creating manual page database... -1 entries processed in 0.0 s -2 packages in profile -$ hello -Hello, world! -``` - -Some improvements to this approach are: - -1. looking into [NixOS - modules](https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/index.html#sec-writing-modules) - and trying to bundle everything together into a single logical unit; -2. [build Guix from - source](https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/en/html_node/Requirements.html#Requirements) - and share the Nix store and daemon with Guix. - -Happy Guix/Nix hacking! diff --git a/_posts/2018-08-01-verifying-npm-ci-reproducibility.md b/_posts/2018-08-01-verifying-npm-ci-reproducibility.md deleted file mode 100644 index efb5fea..0000000 --- a/_posts/2018-08-01-verifying-npm-ci-reproducibility.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,153 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: Verifying "npm ci" reproducibility -date: 2018-08-01 -layout: post ---- -When -[npm\@5](https://blog.npmjs.org/post/161081169345/v500) came bringing -[package-locks](https://docs.npmjs.com/files/package-locks) with it, I -was confused about the benefits it provided, since running `npm install` -more than once could resolve all the dependencies again and yield yet -another fresh `package-lock.json` file. The message saying \"you should -add this file to version control\" left me hesitant on what to do[^1]. - -However the [addition of -`npm ci`](https://blog.npmjs.org/post/171556855892/introducing-npm-ci-for-faster-more-reliable) -filled this gap: it\'s a stricter variation of `npm install` which -guarantees that \"[subsequent installs are able to generate identical -trees](https://docs.npmjs.com/files/package-lock.json)\". But are they -really identical? I could see that I didn\'t have the same problems of -different installation outputs, but I didn\'t know for **sure** if it -was really identical. - -Computing the hash of a directory\'s content --------------------------------------------- - -I quickly searched for a way to check for the hash signature of an -entire directory tree, but I couldn\'t find one. I\'ve made a poor -man\'s [Merkle tree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkle_tree) -implementation using `sha256sum` and a few piped commands at the -terminal: - -``` {.bash .numberLines startFrom=""} -merkle-tree () { - dirname="${1-.}" - pushd "$dirname" - find . -type f | \ - sort | \ - xargs -I{} sha256sum "{}" | \ - sha256sum | \ - awk '{print $1}' - popd -} -``` - -Going through it line by line: - -- \#1 we define a Bash function called `merkle-tree`; -- \#2 it accepts a single argument: the directory to compute the - merkle tree from. If nothing is given, it runs on the current - directory (`.`); -- \#3 we go to the directory, so we don\'t get different prefixes in - `find`\'s output (like `../a/b`); -- \#4 we get all files from the directory tree. Since we\'re using - `sha256sum` to compute the hash of the file contents, we need to - filter out folders from it; -- \#5 we need to sort the output, since different file systems and - `find` implementations may return files in different orders; -- \#6 we use `xargs` to compute the hash of each file individually - through `sha256sum`. Since a file may contain spaces we need to - escape it with quotes; -- \#7 we compute the hash of the combined hashes. Since `sha256sum` - output is formatted like `<hash> <filename>`, it produces a - different final hash if a file ever changes name without changing - it\'s content; -- \#8 we get the final hash output, excluding the `<filename>` (which - is `-` in this case, aka `stdin`). - -### Positive points: - -1. ignore timestamp: running more than once on different installation - yields the same hash; -2. the name of the file is included in the final hash computation. - -### Limitations: - -1. it ignores empty folders from the hash computation; -2. the implementation\'s only goal is to represent using a digest - whether the content of a given directory is the same or not. Leaf - presence checking is obviously missing from it. - -### Testing locally with sample data - -``` {.bash .numberLines startFrom=""} -mkdir /tmp/merkle-tree-test/ -cd /tmp/merkle-tree-test/ -mkdir -p a/b/ a/c/ d/ -echo "one" > a/b/one.txt -echo "two" > a/c/two.txt -echo "three" > d/three.txt -merkle-tree . # output is be343bb01fe00aeb8fef14a3e16b1c3d1dccbf86d7e41b4753e6ccb7dc3a57c3 -merkle-tree . # output still is be343bb01fe00aeb8fef14a3e16b1c3d1dccbf86d7e41b4753e6ccb7dc3a57c3 -echo "four" > d/four.txt -merkle-tree . # output is now b5464b958969ed81815641ace96b33f7fd52c20db71a7fccc45a36b3a2ae4d4c -rm d/four.txt -merkle-tree . # output back to be343bb01fe00aeb8fef14a3e16b1c3d1dccbf86d7e41b4753e6ccb7dc3a57c3 -echo "hidden-five" > a/b/one.txt -merkle-tree . # output changed 471fae0d074947e4955e9ac53e95b56e4bc08d263d89d82003fb58a0ffba66f5 -``` - -It seems to work for this simple test case. - -You can try copying and pasting it to verify the hash signatures. - -Using `merkle-tree` to check the output of `npm ci` ---------------------------------------------------- - -*I\'ve done all of the following using Node.js v8.11.3 and npm\@6.1.0.* - -In this test case I\'ll take the main repo of -[Lerna](https://lernajs.io/)[^2]: - -``` {.bash .numberLines startFrom=""} -cd /tmp/ -git clone https://github.com/lerna/lerna.git -cd lerna/ -git checkout 57ff865c0839df75dbe1974971d7310f235e1109 -npm ci -merkle-tree node_modules/ # outputs 11e218c4ac32fac8a9607a8da644fe870a25c99821167d21b607af45699afafa -rm -rf node_modules/ -npm ci -merkle-tree node_modules/ # outputs 11e218c4ac32fac8a9607a8da644fe870a25c99821167d21b607af45699afafa -npm ci # test if it also works with an existing node_modules/ folder -merkle-tree node_modules/ # outputs 11e218c4ac32fac8a9607a8da644fe870a25c99821167d21b607af45699afafa -``` - -Good job `npm ci` :) - -\#6 and \#9 take some time to run (21 seconds in my machine), but this -specific use case isn\'t performance sensitive. The slowest step is -computing the hash of each individual file. - -Conclusion ----------- - -`npm ci` really \"generates identical trees\". - -I\'m not aware of any other existing solution for verifying the hash -signature of a directory. If you know any I\'d [like to -know](mailto:eu@euandre.org). - -*Edit* ------- - -2019/05/22: Fix spelling. - -[^1]: The - [documentation](https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/install#description) - claims `npm install` is driven by the existing `package-lock.json`, - but that\' actually [a little bit - tricky](https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/17979#issuecomment-332701215). - -[^2]: Finding a big known repo that actually committed the - `package-lock.json` file was harder than I expected. diff --git a/_posts/2018-12-21-using-youtube-dl-to-manage-youtube-subscriptions.md b/_posts/2018-12-21-using-youtube-dl-to-manage-youtube-subscriptions.md deleted file mode 100644 index 21b6686..0000000 --- a/_posts/2018-12-21-using-youtube-dl-to-manage-youtube-subscriptions.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,279 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: Using "youtube-dl" to manage YouTube subscriptions -date: 2018-12-21 -layout: post ---- -I\'ve recently read the -[announcement](https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/9sg8q5/i_built_a_selfhosted_youtube_subscription_manager/) -of a very nice [self-hosted YouTube subscription -manager](https://github.com/chibicitiberiu/ytsm). I haven\'t used -YouTube\'s built-in subscriptions for a while now, and haven\'t missed -it at all. When I saw the announcement, I considered writing about the -solution I\'ve built on top of [youtube-dl](https://youtube-dl.org/). - -Background: the problem with YouTube ------------------------------------- - -In many ways, I agree with [André Staltz\'s view on data ownership and -privacy](https://staltz.com/what-happens-when-you-block-internet-giants.html): - -> I started with the basic premise that "I want to be in control of my -> data". Sometimes that meant choosing when to interact with an internet -> giant and how much I feel like revealing to them. Most of times it -> meant not interacting with them at all. I don't want to let them be in -> full control of how much they can know about me. I don't want to be in -> autopilot mode. (...) Which leads us to YouTube. While I was able to -> find alternatives to Gmail (Fastmail), Calendar (Fastmail), Translate -> (Yandex Translate), etc, YouTube remains as the most indispensable -> Google-owned web service. It is really really hard to avoid consuming -> YouTube content. It was probably the smartest startup acquisition -> ever. My privacy-oriented alternative is to watch YouTube videos -> through Tor, which is technically feasible but not polite to use the -> Tor bandwidth for these purposes. I'm still scratching my head with -> this issue. - -Even though I don\'t use most alternative services he mentions, I do -watch videos from YouTube. But I also feel uncomfortable logging in to -YouTube with a Google account, watching videos, creating playlists and -similar things. - -Using the mobile app is worse: you can\'t even block ads in there. -You\'re in less control on what you share with YouTube and Google. - -youtube-dl ----------- - -youtube-dl is a command-line tool for downloading videos, from YouTube -and [many other -sites](https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/supportedsites.html): - -``` {.shell} -$ youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnMYZnY3uLA -[youtube] rnMYZnY3uLA: Downloading webpage -[youtube] rnMYZnY3uLA: Downloading video info webpage -[download] Destination: A Origem da Vida _ Nerdologia-rnMYZnY3uLA.mp4 -[download] 100% of 32.11MiB in 00:12 -``` - -It can be used to download individual videos as showed above, but it -also has some interesting flags that we can use: - -- `--output`: use a custom template to create the name of the - downloaded file; -- `--download-archive`: use a text file for recording and remembering - which videos were already downloaded; -- `--prefer-free-formats`: prefer free video formats, like `webm`, - `ogv` and Matroska `mkv`; -- `--playlist-end`: how many videos to download from a \"playlist\" (a - channel, a user or an actual playlist); -- `--write-description`: write the video description to a - `.description` file, useful for accessing links and extra content. - -Putting it all together: - -``` {.shell} -$ youtube-dl "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClu474HMt895mVxZdlIHXEA" \ - --download-archive ~/Nextcloud/cache/youtube-dl-seen.conf \ - --prefer-free-formats \ - --playlist-end 20 \ - --write-description \ - --output "~/Downloads/yt-dl/%(uploader)s/%(upload_date)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" -``` - -This will download the latest 20 videos from the selected channel, and -write down the video IDs in the `youtube-dl-seen.conf` file. Running it -immediately after one more time won\'t have any effect. - -If the channel posts one more video, running the same command again will -download only the last video, since the other 19 were already -downloaded. - -With this basic setup you have a minimal subscription system at work, -and you can create some functions to help you manage that: - -``` {.shell} -#!/bin/sh - -export DEFAULT_PLAYLIST_END=15 - -download() { - youtube-dl "$1" \ - --download-archive ~/Nextcloud/cache/youtube-dl-seen.conf \ - --prefer-free-formats \ - --playlist-end $2 \ - --write-description \ - --output "~/Downloads/yt-dl/%(uploader)s/%(upload_date)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" -} -export -f download - - -download_user() { - download "https://www.youtube.com/user/$1" ${2-$DEFAULT_PLAYLIST_END} -} -export -f download_user - - -download_channel() { - download "https://www.youtube.com/channel/$1" ${2-$DEFAULT_PLAYLIST_END} -} -export -f download_channel - - -download_playlist() { - download "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=$1" ${2-$DEFAULT_PLAYLIST_END} -} -export -f download_playlist -``` - -With these functions, you now can have a subscription fetching script to -download the latest videos from your favorite channels: - -``` {.shell} -#!/bin/sh - -download_user ClojureTV 15 -download_channel "UCmEClzCBDx-vrt0GuSKBd9g" 100 -download_playlist "PLqG7fA3EaMRPzL5jzd83tWcjCUH9ZUsbX" 15 -``` - -Now, whenever you want to watch the latest videos, just run the above -script and you\'ll get all of them in your local machine. - -Tradeoffs ---------- - -### I\'ve made it for myself, with my use case in mind - -1. Offline - - My internet speed it somewhat reasonable[^1], but it is really - unstable. Either at work or at home, it\'s not uncommon to loose - internet access for 2 minutes 3\~5 times every day, and stay - completely offline for a couple of hours once every week. - - Working through the hassle of keeping a playlist on disk has payed - off many, many times. Sometimes I even not notice when the - connection drops for some minutes, because I\'m watching a video and - working on some document, all on my local computer. - - There\'s also no quality adjustment for YouTube\'s web player, I - always pick the higher quality and it doesn\'t change during the - video. For some types of content, like a podcast with some tiny - visual resources, this doesn\'t change much. For other types of - content, like a keynote presentation with text written on the - slides, watching on 144p isn\'t really an option. - - If the internet connection drops during the video download, - youtube-dl will resume from where it stopped. - - This is an offline first benefit that I really like, and works well - for me. - -2. Sync the \"seen\" file - - I already have a running instance of Nextcloud, so just dumping the - `youtube-dl-seen.conf` file inside Nextcloud was a no-brainer. - - You could try putting it in a dedicated git repository, and wrap the - script with an autocommit after every run. If you ever had a merge - conflict, you\'d simply accept all changes and then run: - - ``` {.shell} - $ uniq youtube-dl-seen.conf > youtube-dl-seen.conf - ``` - - to tidy up the file. - -3. Doesn\'t work on mobile - - My primary device that I use everyday is my laptop, not my phone. It - works well for me this way. - - Also, it\'s harder to add ad-blockers to mobile phones, and most - mobile software still depends on Google\'s and Apple\'s blessing. - - If you wish, you can sync the videos to the SD card periodically, - but that\'s a bit of extra manual work. - -### The Good - -1. Better privacy - - We don\'t even have to configure the ad-blocker to keep ads and - trackers away! - - YouTube still has your IP address, so using a VPN is always a good - idea. However, a timing analysis would be able to identify you - (considering the current implementation). - -2. No need to self-host - - There\'s no host that needs maintenance. Everything runs locally. - - As long as you keep youtube-dl itself up to date and sync your - \"seen\" file, there\'s little extra work to do. - -3. Track your subscriptions with git - - After creating a `subscriptions.sh` executable that downloads all - the videos, you can add it to git and use it to track metadata about - your subscriptions. - -### The Bad - -1. Maximum playlist size is your disk size - - This is a good thing for getting a realistic view on your actual - \"watch later\" list. However I\'ve run out of disk space many - times, and now I need to be more aware of how much is left. - -### The Ugly - -We can only avoid all the bad parts of YouTube with youtube-dl as long -as YouTube keeps the videos public and programmatically accessible. If -YouTube ever blocks that we\'d loose the ability to consume content this -way, but also loose confidence on considering YouTube a healthy -repository of videos on the internet. - -Going beyond ------------- - -Since you\'re running everything locally, here are some possibilities to -be explored: - -### A playlist that is too long for being downloaded all at once - -You can wrap the `download_playlist` function (let\'s call the wrapper -`inc_download`) and instead of passing it a fixed number to the -`--playlist-end` parameter, you can store the `$n` in a folder -(something like `$HOME/.yt-db/$PLAYLIST_ID`) and increment it by `$step` -every time you run `inc_download`. - -This way you can incrementally download videos from a huge playlist -without filling your disk with gigabytes of content all at once. - -### Multiple computer scenario - -The `download_playlist` function could be aware of the specific machine -that it is running on and apply specific policies depending on the -machine: always download everything; only download videos that aren\'t -present anywhere else; etc. - -Conclusion ----------- - -youtube-dl is a great tool to keep at hand. It covers a really large -range of video websites and works robustly. - -Feel free to copy and modify this code, and [send -me](mailto:eu@euandre.org) suggestions of improvements or related -content. - -*Edit* ------- - -2019/05/22: Fix spelling. - -[^1]: Considering how expensive it is and the many ways it could be - better, but also how much it has improved over the last years, I say - it\'s reasonable. diff --git a/_posts/2019-06-02-stateless-os.md b/_posts/2019-06-02-stateless-os.md deleted file mode 100644 index 64e74f7..0000000 --- a/_posts/2019-06-02-stateless-os.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,145 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: Using NixOS as an stateless workstation -date: 2019-06-02 -layout: post ---- -Last week[^1] I changed back to an old[^2] Samsung laptop, and installed -[NixOS](https://nixos.org/) on it. - -After using NixOS on another laptop for around two years, I wanted -verify how reproducible was my desktop environment, and how far does -NixOS actually can go on recreating my whole OS from my configuration -files and personal data. I gravitated towards NixOS after trying (and -failing) to create an `install.sh` script that would imperatively -install and configure my whole OS using apt-get. When I found a -GNU/Linux distribution that was built on top of the idea of -declaratively specifying the whole OS I was automatically convinced[^3]. - -I was impressed. Even though I\'ve been experiencing the benefits of Nix -isolation daily, I always felt skeptical that something would be -missing, because the devil is always on the details. But the result was -much better than expected! - -There were only 2 missing configurations: - -1. tap-to-click on the touchpad wasn\'t enabled by default; -2. the default theme from the gnome-terminal is \"Black on white\" - instead of \"White on black\". - -That\'s all. - -I haven\'t checked if I can configure those in NixOS GNOME module, but I -guess both are scriptable and could be set in a fictional `setup.sh` -run. - -This makes me really happy, actually. More happy than I anticipated. - -Having such a powerful declarative OS makes me feel like my data is the -really important stuff (as it should be), and I can interact with it on -any workstation. All I need is an internet connection and a few hours to -download everything. It feels like my physical workstation and the -installed OS are serving me and my data, instead of me feeling as -hostage to the specific OS configuration at the moment. Having a few -backup copies of everything important extends such peacefulness. - -After this positive experience with recreating my OS from simple Nix -expressions, I started to wonder how far I could go with this, and -started considering other areas of improvements: - -### First run on a fresh NixOS installation - -Right now the initial setup relies on non-declarative manual tasks, like -decrypting some credentials, or manually downloading **this** git -repository with specific configurations before **that** one. - -I wonder what some areas of improvements are on this topic, and if -investing on it is worth it (both time-wise and happiness-wise). - -### Emacs - -Right now I\'m using the [Spacemacs](http://spacemacs.org/), which is a -community package curation and configuration on top of -[Emacs](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/). - -Spacemacs does support the notion of -[layers](http://spacemacs.org/doc/LAYERS.html), which you can -declaratively specify and let Spacemacs do the rest. - -However this solution isn\'t nearly as robust as Nix: being purely -functional, Nix does describe everything required to build a derivation, -and knows how to do so. Spacemacs it closer to more traditional package -managers: even though the layers list is declarative, the installation -is still very much imperative. I\'ve had trouble with Spacemacs not -behaving the same on different computers, both with identical -configurations, only brought to convergence back again after a -`git clean -fdx` inside `~/.emacs.d/`. - -The ideal solution would be managing Emacs packages with Nix itself. -After a quick search I did found that [there is support for Emacs -packages in -Nix](https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/index.html#module-services-emacs-adding-packages). -So far I was only aware of [Guix support for Emacs -packages](https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/en/html_node/Application-Setup.html#Emacs-Packages). - -This isn\'t a trivial change because Spacemacs does include extra -curation and configuration on top of Emacs packages. I\'m not sure the -best way to improve this right now. - -### myrepos - -I\'m using [myrepos](https://myrepos.branchable.com/) to manage all my -git repositories, and the general rule I apply is to add any repository -specific configuration in myrepos\' `checkout` phase: - -``` {.shell} -# sample ~/.mrconfig file snippet -[dev/guix/guix] -checkout = - git clone https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git guix - cd guix/ - git config sendemail.to guix-patches@gnu.org -``` - -This way when I clone this repo again the email sending is already -pre-configured. - -This works well enough, but the solution is too imperative, and my -`checkout` phases tend to become brittle over time if not enough care is -taken. - -### GNU Stow - -For my home profile and personal configuration I already have a few -dozens of symlinks that I manage manually. This has worked so far, but -the solution is sometimes fragile and [not declarative at -all](https://git.sr.ht/~euandreh/dotfiles/tree/316939aa215181b1d22b69e94241eef757add98d/bash/symlinks.sh#L14-75). -I wonder if something like [GNU -Stow](https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/) can help me simplify this. - -Conclusion ----------- - -I\'m really satisfied with NixOS, and I intend to keep using it. If what -I\'ve said interests you, maybe try tinkering with the [Nix package -manager](https://nixos.org/nix/) (not the whole NixOS) on your current -distribution (it can live alongside any other package manager). - -If you have experience with declarative Emacs package managements, GNU -Stow or any similar tool, etc., [I\'d like some -tips](mailto:eu@euandre.org). If you don\'t have any experience at all, -[I\'d still love to hear from you](mailto:eu@euandre.org). - -[^1]: \"Last week\" as of the start of this writing, so around the end - of May 2019. - -[^2]: I was using a 32GB RAM, i7 and 250GB SSD Samsung laptop. The - switch was back to a 8GB RAM, i5 and 500GB HDD Dell laptop. The - biggest difference I noticed was on faster memory, both RAM - availability and the disk speed, but I had 250GB less local storage - space. - -[^3]: The declarative configuration aspect is something that I now - completely take for granted, and wouldn\'t consider using something - which isn\'t declarative. A good metric to show this is me realising - that I can\'t pinpoint the moment when I decided to switch to NixOS. - It\'s like I had a distant past when this wasn\'t true. |