Nix (Package Manager)
Nix is a powerful package manager for Linux and other Unix systems that makes package management reliable and reproducible. It provides atomic upgrades and rollbacks, side-by-side installation of multiple versions of a package, multi-user package management and easy setup of build environments.
My use case
I have been using homebrew as a package manager on my mac, and by extention a subset of the same packages can be installed on linux too. This allows me to setup scripts to auto-install all my required tools and softwares on a new device. However dependency-pinning and management on it has been bad, and accidental upgrades are disrupting my workflow.
I have been looking at nix for a while now and it seems to be a good fit for my use case. I will be using nix to manage my packages and tools on my mac and linux machines, alongside (atleast for now) homebrew since a few packages are still only on homebrew (yabai the Tiling WM that I make use of for example).
Installation
I came across this new custom implementation of the Nix Installer from Determinate Systems which offers a safe uninstall path and better out-of-the-box experience. Plus the installer is built on rust instead of bash.
Follow the instructions from their Zero to Nix Guide it is also a handy guide and entry point into nix.
Start by running the installer:
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install
No need to run it as root, it will self-escalate on execution.
Check if the installation was successful:
nix --version
Uninstall
Just run:
/nix/nix-installer uninstall
Setup nix-env
Run this only once after installation:
nix-env --install