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jupyterhub / repo2docker

Turn repositories into Jupyter-enabled Docker images
https://repo2docker.readthedocs.io
BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised" License
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Add support for nix flakes #1300

Open jezcope opened 1 year ago

jezcope commented 1 year ago

Proposed change

"Flakes" is an upcoming feature of the nix package manager that allows you to declaratively specify the dependencies for a nix environment as "inputs" and automatically handle pinning inputs with a flake.lock file in the repository, as well as declaratively specifying the configuration of packages as in traditional nix. The environment and its dependencies are defined in flake.nix using a documented schema. Flake inputs can be updated all at once using nix flake update or individually using nix flake lock --update-input <input-name>.

I would like repo2docker to detect the presence of a flake.nix and flake.lock, and automatically build a container using the locked dependencies specified. This will make it easier to manage dependencies in a nix-based binder (currently it's necessary to manually pin dependencies to a specific git commit hash per this example).

Alternative options

It's already possible to use a flake.nix with repo2docker by using the flake-compat library in your default.nix: see https://codeberg.org/jezcope/binder-nix-flakes. However, this:

  1. Requires adding boilerplate to both default.nix and flake.nix for full reproducibility; and
  2. Adds a dependency on flake-compat

A dedicated buildpack would allow any nix flake with a devShell output to be immediately used as a binder.

Who would use this feature?

MyBinder/JupyterHub users who also use nix for reproducibility (there was interest on the Nix Data Science matrix room when I mentioned it). Flakes is described as "experimental" but has been in that state for several years in a stable condition and is increasingly used in production.

How much effort will adding it take?

Not sure about this part! Should be a case of adapting the existing NixBuildPack to install a flakes-compatible version of nix and enable the flakes feature.

Who can do this work?

Python developer familiar with repo2docker internals and nix flakes. I am currently working on adding this feature, to gain a bit more familiarity with the codebase (and because I want it!).

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