Please explain it as you would to a 10-year-old, from the point after the Nix package manager is installed on a non-NixOS machine. For example, I am on a Mac, and there isn't even a ~/.config
directory.
I found the following (probably) relevant resources, and I can't put the pieces together:
Nixpkgs manual, 9.1. BEAM Languages (Erlang, Elixir & LFE)
Elixir 1.5.1 with Erlang 20.0 on NixOS 18.03?
Where do I specify the beam.packages.erlang<rel>.elixir
exactly?
Nixpkgs manual, 6.4. Modify packages via packageOverrides
Nix Pills, Chapter 14. Override Design Pattern
Is this needed for this?
In the end I installed the latest Elixir with Erlang 21 as shown below, but I'm sure that this is not how it is supposed to be done.
$ # Cloned the `nixpkgs` repo from github and started the repl
$ # in the same the directory.
$
$ nix repl
Welcome to Nix version 2.0.4. Type :? for help.
nix-repl> :l . # if in the cloned `nixpkgs` repo
Added 9182 variables.
nix-repl> pkgs.beam.packages.erlangR21.elixir
«derivation /nix/store/vcadn6d6wgk1yjlci458vy8jqv66wwdy-elixir-1.6.5.drv»
nix-repl> :q
$ nix-store --realise /nix/store/vcadn6d6wgk1yjlci458vy8jqv66wwdy-elixir-1.6.5.drv
You are on the right track; there is no need to start over.
To install the package from nix repl
you can use the :i
command.
nix-repl> :i pkgs.beam.packages.erlangR21.elixir
This will install the package into your ~/.nix-profile
where it will be in $PATH
, so you can call it. It is equivalent to running
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.beam.packages.erlangR21.elixir
nix-store -r
(or equivalently, nix-store --realise
) is considered a very low-level tool. It can only create a symlink to a package and that is rarely what you want. It doesn't even create a garbage collection root by default, so if you garbage collect, the symlink will become broken.
Although nix-env -iA
is a valid way of installing software, you may consider ~/.nix-profile
global state and avoid it for that reason. It seems to me like elixir
that is more tied to a project, rather than to your user. For example you may want to use distinct versions for some projects and it may make sense to share your development tools with others who work on a project. That is you can use nix-shell
for. Here's an example of shell.nix.
You can create a dedicated shell for use with your project, and avoid installing the runtime globally/for current user.
Example of minimal nix shell for Elixir on Erlang/OTP 20:
The contents of default.nix
file:
with import <nixpkgs> {};
stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
name = "env";
env = buildEnv { name = name; paths = buildInputs; };
buildInputs = [
beam.packages.erlangR20.elixir
inotify-tools
];
}
Then in terminal, navigate to the directory where default.nix
is saved, and invoke nix-shell
. You should drop into a shell which has iex
and mix
available.
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