Nix / NixOS

Here are the basic steps though:

• package the target in a derivation aka a recipe to package the thing you like
• test it in a nix-shell or add it straight to your configuration.nix

I know it sounds a lot like , but a few pointers:

Derivation basics: This wiki page is the one that helped me understand the basics of derivations. It explains how to package stuff without extra tooling. stdenv.mkDerivation from nixpkgs adds a bunch of stuff, but the wiki linked doesn't explain it (yet?). You might find more information elsewhere.

There's documentation for stdenv.mkDerivation and I apologize in advance for putting this evil upon you, but right now I don't have any other useful bookmarks. I learned it the hard way, but if you can contribute to the https://nixlang.wiki with what you learned, you could make it easier for the next person.

As for nix-shell, once you've written your default.nix, you can wrap it in a shell.nix and execute nix-shell in the same directory.

default.nix

{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:
pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation {
  pname = "chameleon";
  version = "0.0.1"; # Update this to the real version of the package
  buildInputs = with pkgs; [ gnumake ]; # Add more necessary inputs here

  # While testing, your default.nix can reside in the checked out git repo
  src = ./.;
  # You can of course also start out like this straight away, up to you
  # Once testing is done, you can point this to a git repo pulled by nix
  # src = pkgs.fetchFromGitHub {
  #   owner = "GideonWolfe";
  #   repo = "Chameleon";
  #   rev = "SOME GIT REVISION";
  #   hash = "";  # Start with an empty string and let nix complain with the real one, the use it
  #  };

  # There's a chance an install phase isn't necessary, but this is a skeleton
  # The contents are run in bash
  installPhase = ''
   runHook preInstall
   
   # Do non-standard installation stuff
   # See https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#ssec-install-phase
   # for what is done by default

   runHook postInstall
  '';
}

shell.nix

{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:
let
  my-package = (import ./default.nix) { pkgs = pkgs; };
in
pkgs.mkShell {
  inputsFrom = [ my-package ];
}

Then you can run nix-shell and see if your expected binary is in PATH. Once that is confirmed, you can add your package to your configuration.nix

{ config, pkgs, ... }:

{
  # The rest of your configuration.nix

  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
    # Import and call your derivation
    ((import /path/to/your/default.nix) { inherit pkgs; })
  ];
}

Hopefully that helped a little.

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