Documentation: thousands of packages don't have a description

[ghost]

Problem

When installing packages, it can be quite important to know which one to select. In order to do so, knowing what the package is and where it comes from is very helpful. As of right now (2023-06-04), 22.11 has 39365 packages without a description (and often no homepage either).

The list can be generated with

nix-shell -p jq
# Generate list of packages
nix-env --json -f "<nixpkgs>" --arg config "import <nixpkgs/pkgs/top-level/packages-config.nix>" -qa --meta > packages.json
# Filter those without a description in the meta
jq 'keys[] as $k | select(.[$k].meta.description|not) | $k ' packages.json > packages_without_descriptions.lst

Proposal

Amend all packages to add a description (and possibly a homepage too). Additionally, add a check to reject new packages without a description and homepage.

Checklist

• [x] checked latest Nixpkgs manual (source) and latest NixOS manual (source)
• [x] checked open documentation issues for possible duplicates
• [x] checked open documentation pull requests for possible solutions

[figsoda]

looks like the majority of these packages are generated with a script, and adding a description for each package would be a lot of maintenance work