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31 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
31 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
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# Frequently Asked Questions
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## Should I enable flakes?
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You have to judge for yourself based on your needs.
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Flakes and the `nix` command suite bring multiple improvements that are relevant for both software users and package authors:
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- The new command line interface, together with flakes, makes dealing with existing packages significantly more convenient.
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- The constraints imposed on flakes strengthen reproducibility by default, and enable various performance improvements when interacting with a large Nix package repository like {term}`Nixpkgs`.
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- Flake references allow for easier handling of version upgrades for existing packages or project dependencies.
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- The flake schema helps with composing Nix projects from multiple sources in an ordered fashion.
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Other than that, and below the surface of the flake schema, Nix and the Nix language work exactly the same in both cases.
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In principle, the same level of reproducibility can be achieved with or without flakes.
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In particular, the process of adding software to {term}`Nixpkgs` or maintaining {term}`NixOS` modules and configurations is not affected by flakes at all.
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Both paradigms have their own set of unique concepts and support tooling that have to be learned, with varying ease of use, implementation quality, and support status.
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At the moment, neither the stable nor the experimental interface is clearly superior to the other in all aspects.
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While flakes reduce complexity in some regards, they introduce additional concepts and you will have to learn more about the system to fully understand how it works.
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There are downsides to relying on [experimental features](https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/command-ref/conf-file.html#conf-experimental-features) in general:
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- Interfaces and behavior of experimental features could still be changed by Nix developers.
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This may require you to adapt your code at some point in the future, which will be more effort when it has grown in complexity.
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Currently there is no agreed-upon plan or timeline for stabilising flakes.
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- The [Nix maintainer team](https://nixos.org/community/teams/nix.html) focuses on fixing bugs and regressions in stable interfaces, supporting well-understood use cases, as well as improving the internal design and overall contributor experience in order to ease future development.
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Improvements to experimental features have low priority.
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- The [Nix documentation team](https://nixos.org/community/teams/documentation.html) focuses on improving documentation and learning materials for stable features and common principles.
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Using flakes, you will have to rely more heavily on user-to-user support, third-party documentation, and the source code.
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