Literate Nix

[enderger]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. Currently, I am working on creating a dotfiles repo and find it a little annoying that there is no way to make a literate Nix expression without external tools.

Describe the solution you'd like I would like to see a literate variant of Nix in the same vein as Literate Haskell. Preferably, it would incorporate a way to mark syntax blocks as other languages (to allow for proper syntax highlighting in config strings), the ability to use these documents without tangling, and official weaving and tangling tooling.

Describe alternatives you've considered I am currently considering using the Literate tool with build automation like Makefiles, however it proves cumbersome to have to write build automation for each config file.

Additional context Literate Haskell - https://wiki.haskell.org/Literate_programming Vim Example - https://wiki.haskell.org/Literate_programming/Vim

[7c6f434c]

Describe alternatives you've considered I am currently considering using the Literate tool with build automation like Makefiles, however it proves cumbersome to have to write build automation for each config file.

I wonder if it makes more sense to make some wrappers instead, that take the same flags as corresponding Nix commands, but tangle/weave the entire subtree then run the corresponding Nix program with the same flags.

[enderger]

I wonder if it makes more sense to make some wrappers instead, that take the same flags as corresponding Nix commands, but tangle/weave the entire subtree then run the corresponding Nix program with the same flags.

Unfortunately, it falls apart whenever you need to just import an expression into another.

[matthewbauer]

I've been able to write literate Nix with org-mode. With org-mode, you can tangle multiple files from one source file so I think the overhead is a lot less.

import-from-derivation provides a lot of usefulness for this too. For instance, you can use this Nix file as a default.nix to tangle your .org file automatically:

{ pkgs ? import (builtins.fetchTarball "channel:nixos-unstable") {} }:

import (pkgs.runCommand "README" {
  buildInputs = [ pkgs.emacs ];
} ''
  mkdir $out
  cp ${./README.org} $out/README.org
  cd $out
  emacs --batch --quick -l ob-tangle --eval "(org-babel-tangle-file \"README.org\")" > /dev/null
  # tangling README.org needs to produce a default.nix
'') { inherit pkgs; }

[enderger]

I've been able to write literate Nix with org-mode. With org-mode, you can tangle multiple files from one source file so I think the overhead is a lot less.

import-from-derivation provides a lot of usefulness for this too. For instance, you can use this Nix file as a default.nix to tangle your .org file automatically:

{ pkgs ? import (builtins.fetchTarball "channel:nixos-unstable") {} }:

import (pkgs.runCommand "README" {
  buildInputs = [ pkgs.emacs ];
} ''
  mkdir $out
  cp ${./README.org} $out/README.org
  cd $out
  emacs --batch --quick -l ob-tangle --eval "(org-babel-tangle-file \"README.org\")" > /dev/null
  # tangling README.org needs to produce a default.nix
'') { inherit pkgs; }

That should also work! Thanks.

[stale[bot]]

I marked this as stale due to inactivity. → More info