Guides and Recipes overview

[fricklerhandwerk]

This tracking issue is to keep an overview of guides for most common use cases.

• [ ] Dependency management with npins (with Home Manager)
• [ ] Automatic environments with direnv (with Home Manager)
• [ ] Package scaffolding (with nix-init)
• [ ] Building a bootable NixOS ISO image
• [ ] Running pre-built binaries on NixOS
• [ ] https://github.com/NixOS/nix.dev/issues/463
• [ ] https://github.com/NixOS/nix.dev/issues/490
• [ ] Managing secrets (no optimal solution)
• [ ] https://github.com/NixOS/nix.dev/issues/731
• [ ] https://github.com/NixOS/nix.dev/issues/907 (no optimal solution)

Guides should complement the tutorials, and should be quite short. They can even duplicate important topics to have a condensed form for quick lookup. Related: https://github.com/NixOS/nix.dev/issues/910

A good example is the guide on sharing dependencies with shell.nix. It starts with a very small sample to show the pattern (which requires some proficiency with the Nix language to grasp quickly), and expands on the details below the fold.

[nixos-discourse]

This issue has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/2024-02-22-documentation-team-meeting-notes-110/40145/1

[malteneuss]

Would the following topics make sense as well here?

• remote builders. I cleaned up https://wiki.nixos.org/wiki/Distributed_build but it would benefit from another round of compressing the content and become official.
• Cross-compiling NixosConfigurations. Give some guidance which style of https://discourse.nixos.org/t/recommended-style-to-cross-compile-flake-nixossystems/45305/2 is recommended when. Maybe even offer an alternative explanation to the NixOS manual.
• NixOS tests as part of a flake; a small addition to the existing guide at https://nix.dev/tutorials/nixos/integration-testing-using-virtual-machines.html

[fricklerhandwerk]

@malteneuss absolutely!

I currently have the distributed build scenario at the top of my mind, recently updated the Nix manual on the topic, and would gladly review contributions.

Updating the cross compilation article with something that actually works would also be great.