Nix: Compile Vim with Ruby

Question

I am using the Nix package manager on OS X. Let's say for the sake of argument I have a config.nix file that uses a pattern like so, allowing me to install the vimEnv no problem.

# ~/.nixpkgs/config.nix

{ pkgs }: {

  # Looking around I have seen overrides something along these lines...

  # nixpkgs.config.packageOverrides = pkgs: rec {
  #   vim = pkgs.vim_configurable.override {
  #     ruby = true;
  #    };
  #  };

  packageOverrides = super: let pkgs = super.pkgs; in with pkgs; rec {

    myEnv = pkgs.buildEnv {
      name = "myEnv";
      paths = [
        # ...snip
        vim
        # ...snip
      ];
    };

  };
}

I know that there are elaborate options available for maintaining a .vimrc and vim plugins using Nix and by overriding vim_configurable options and so forth (for example), and it would be nice to find the time to do that at some point. However, all I want to do for now is to install via Nix a version of Vim which is compiled with Ruby support.

What would be the easiest or most concise way for me to achieve this in my config.nix?

Answer 1

And, after some hacking, here is the simplest solution I have found:

# ~/.nixpkgs/config.nix

{ pkgs }: {

  packageOverrides = super: let pkgs = super.pkgs; in with pkgs; rec {

    myVim = pkgs.vim_configurable.override {
      config.vim = {
        ruby = true;
      };
      ruby = ruby;
    };

    myEnv = pkgs.buildEnv {
      name = "myEnv";
      paths = [
        myVim
      ];
    };

  };
}

And install it with nix-env -i myEnv.