Workshop - Nixify Bitcoin-related codebases

[storopoli]

Description

What is this workshop about? Provide as many details as possible.

This workshop will teach users how to incorporate Nix into their codebase. It is especially geared towards Bitcoin developers since running tests and checks against bitcoin core and other dependencies or interaction tooling, e.g. esplora and electrs, is not trivial; both in CI and locally.

What would an attendee learn from this workshop?

• What are Nix derivations
• What are Nix flakes
• How to add a flake to your codebase
• How to package bitcoin software with Nix derivations, we'll provide examples with bitcoin core, esplora and electrs
• How to run CI with Nix both locally and in GitHub Actions

Is there anything attendees should read up on before they attend this talk?

There's a Nix PR (that might be already merged by then) in BDK, Nix.md, that shows the rationale and motives behind having a Nix-based CI. It might be a good read for attendees.

Alongside the BDK's Nix PR, there is also an interesting (but opinionated) learning resource: Zero to Nix. It's useful for attendees interested in learning and having hands-on before the workshop, with a good guide covering most of the nix ecosystem and explanation pages of Nix concepts.

Is there anything attendees should set up before the workshop?

Please install Nix, we suggest using the Determinate Systems' Nix installer that already adds flakes and nix-command extra functionality required for the workshop. It is a very convenient and robust curl to bash one liner (of course, be aware of these "automated internet scripts", don't trust, verify!).

Relevant Links

• Nix: https://nixos.org
• nixpkgs Reference Manual: https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable
• Nix Flake Templates: https://github.com/NixOS/templates
• Official documentation for getting things done with Nix: https://nix.dev
• Zero to Nix Guide: https://zero-to-nix.com

About the Speakers

Not in a specific relevant order:

• Jose Storopoli (@storopoli): PhD in computational stats, recovering ex-academic, Nix and Rust enthusiast, contributor to rust-bitcoin and BDK, works at @PortalDefi on Bitcoin-backed atomic swaps.
• Leonardo Lima (@oleonardolima): Sofware Engineer, Rust & Nix enthusiast, contributor at BDK & Fedimint, supported by Vinteum.

Social Links

Github:

• https://github.com/storopoli
• https://github.com/oleonardolima

Nostr:

• https://primal.net/p/npub1ez8efu9rjxu64g0lalty2ffmr2tgkzjz92rkafyfyz5463wr8ars8zls5t

Website:

• https://storopoli.io

Workshop Details

Proposed time-table:

• 00:00-00:10 - Why Nix and what it brings differently from other solutions such as Docker containers or VMs
• 00:10-00:20 - Nix language basics, mostly focused on how declarative and lazy-evaluated languages works
• 00:20-00:45 - Anatomy of a Nix derivation
• 00:45-01:10 - Anatomy of a Flake: possible inputs and outputs
• 01:10-01:20 - How to run Nix locally and in CI
• 01:20-01:50 - Hands-on: build your own Flake
• 01:50-02:00 - Wrap-up

Length of workshop

2 hours.

Preferred Day/Time Slot

No preference.

[iglesiasbrandon]

Hey @storopoli, this sounds like a great workshop! Thank you for submitting it; we are going to start accepting issues very soon so keep an eye out!