Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

I'll consider flakes usable for packaging software when they support passing options. The respective issue [0] has been closed unfortunately. Perhaps I am misunderstanding what flakes are meant to be (a more formalized standard way to define nix packages and apps), but a lot packages in nixpkgs have a plethora of parameters that as of now can not really be mapped to a functionality in nix flakes.

[0] https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/2861




Depending on your specific needs, the channelsConfig (modify arguments passed to Nixpkgs) and overlay tooling in flake-utils-plus may be adequate: https://github.com/gytis-ivaskevicius/flake-utils-plus/tree/...

You can take a package from a flake input and call it with other args in your overlays, for example


It's nice that there is a workaround, but passing build options is not something that should require a library. There should be a well documented standard way to do it.


Agreed. For most early adopters of flakes, flake-utils-plus is the de facto standard solution.

It would be good to see something like it built into Nix or Nixpkgs and blessed in the official docs, as the flakes feature approaches completion.


Flake-utils, flake-utils-plus, https://flake.parts/, https://github.com/divnix/std/ and others :D




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: