Add daily email for 2025-01-19

Minimum viable development environment

source/_daily_emails/2025-01-19.md

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+---
+title: Minimum viable development environment
+date: 2025-01-19
+permalink: daily/2025/01/19/minimum-viable-development-environment
+tags:
+  - software-development
+  - linux
+  - nix
+  - php
+  - drupal
+cta: ~
+snippet: |
+  I've been searching for the leanest and most minimal development environment, and I think I've found it.
+---
+
+What is the leanest and most minimal local environment for software development?
+
+I think if you use Linux, the most minimal approach is to install the packages you need, such as PHP and MySQL directly in your operating system.
+
+There's no overhead or complexity added by tools like containers so things will run as quick and efficiently as possible.
+
+This is great if you only work on one project and you can easily keep your installation in sync with production.
+
+But what if you work on multiple projects or with a team of Developers?
+
+You need a way for everyone to have the same software and package versions, and to be able to configure them for each project.
+
+These are the reasons why tools like Vagrant, Docker and Podman became popular, as they made it possible for environments to be easily repeatable and customisable.
+
+## What about Nix?
+
+Another tool that can be used to install software is Nix - a package manager with over 100,000 software packages.
+
+I can use it to install the required software for each project and share the files with any team members so they have the same configuration.
+
+This is the `flake.nix` file that I've been testing with a Drupal codebase:
+
+```nix
+{
+  inputs.nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
+
+  outputs =
+    { nixpkgs, ... }:
+    let
+      system = "x86_64-linux";
+      pkgs = nixpkgs.legacyPackages.${system};
+    in
+    {
+      devShells.${system}.default = pkgs.mkShell {
+        buildInputs = with pkgs; [
+          mariadb
+          php82
+          php82Packages.composer
+        ];
+      };
+    };
+}
+```
+
+This installs PHP 8.2, Composer and MariaDB, and nothing else.
+
+It also generates a `flake.lock` file so everyone gets exactly the same package versions.
+
+The downside is that, if everyone isn't using NixOS which handles services, I need to configure the database server for each project, running commands like `mysql_install_db` and `mysqld` before creating the database and user to put in the `settings.php` file.
+
+It's not complicated but [devenv is a great option][0] if you want something more fully featured and opinionated that does more out of the box.
+
+Once the database server is running and Drupal is installed, I can run `drush runserver` to run the website - no need for Apache, Caddy or Nginx.
+
+If you want to see another example, see the [flake.nix file for this website][1].
+
+[0]: {{site.url}}/daily/2024/11/11/could-nix-and-devenv-replace-docker-compose
+[1]: https://code.oliverdavies.uk/opdavies/oliverdavies.uk/src/commit/4350852406e9556b63a1df448f225abbd7883651/flake.nix