{ "uuid": [ { "value": "6ccfb609-6371-462c-b91c-4aa22d23d248" } ], "langcode": [ { "value": "en" } ], "type": [ { "target_id": "daily_email", "target_type": "node_type", "target_uuid": "8bde1f2f-eef9-4f2d-ae9c-96921f8193d7" } ], "revision_timestamp": [ { "value": "2025-05-11T09:00:04+00:00" } ], "revision_uid": [ { "target_type": "user", "target_uuid": "b8966985-d4b2-42a7-a319-2e94ccfbb849" } ], "revision_log": [], "status": [ { "value": true } ], "uid": [ { "target_type": "user", "target_uuid": "b8966985-d4b2-42a7-a319-2e94ccfbb849" } ], "title": [ { "value": "The Nix language" } ], "created": [ { "value": "2024-11-26T00:00:00+00:00" } ], "changed": [ { "value": "2025-05-11T09:00:04+00:00" } ], "promote": [ { "value": false } ], "sticky": [ { "value": false } ], "default_langcode": [ { "value": true } ], "revision_translation_affected": [ { "value": true } ], "path": [ { "alias": "\/daily\/2024\/11\/26\/the-nix-language", "langcode": "en" } ], "body": [ { "value": "\n

Yesterday, I wrote about Nix the package manager<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

To use it, you need to write code in the Nix language in .nix files.<\/p>\n\n

To see an example, you can see my dotfiles on GitHub<\/a> as well as lots of other people's that they've published.<\/p>\n\n

It's a functional language so some of the concepts were new to me, but I picked it up fairly quickly and learned some of the paradigms and conventions.<\/p>\n\n

This is the code that installs Nginx on my server:<\/p>\n\n

services.nginx = {\n  enable = true;\n  serverNamesHashBucketSize = 256;\n};\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n

These are some of the packages I have installed on my laptop:<\/p>\n\n

environment.systemPackages = with pkgs: {\n  devenv\n  dog\n  git\n  go\n  jq\n  php\n  phpPackages.composer\n  pv\n  tldr\n}\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n

And this is how to configure processes in a devenv configuration<\/a>, which is built with Nix:<\/p>\n\n

processes = {\n  tailwind.exec = ''\n    cd ${drupal.theme.path}\n    watchexec --exts css,twig tailwindcss --config assets\/tailwind.config.ts \\\n      --output dist\/tailwind.css\n  '';\n};\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n

Once you have written the configuration, you can run it and install what you've specified, and it will do it the same way every time.<\/p>\n\n

For a crash course in the Nix language, take a look at https:\/\/zero-to-nix.com\/concepts\/nix-language<\/a> or one of the many open-sourced configurations on GitHub.<\/p>\n\n ", "format": "full_html", "processed": "\n

Yesterday, I wrote about Nix the package manager<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

To use it, you need to write code in the Nix language in .nix files.<\/p>\n\n

To see an example, you can see my dotfiles on GitHub<\/a> as well as lots of other people's that they've published.<\/p>\n\n

It's a functional language so some of the concepts were new to me, but I picked it up fairly quickly and learned some of the paradigms and conventions.<\/p>\n\n

This is the code that installs Nginx on my server:<\/p>\n\n

services.nginx = {\n  enable = true;\n  serverNamesHashBucketSize = 256;\n};\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n

These are some of the packages I have installed on my laptop:<\/p>\n\n

environment.systemPackages = with pkgs: {\n  devenv\n  dog\n  git\n  go\n  jq\n  php\n  phpPackages.composer\n  pv\n  tldr\n}\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n

And this is how to configure processes in a devenv configuration<\/a>, which is built with Nix:<\/p>\n\n

processes = {\n  tailwind.exec = ''\n    cd ${drupal.theme.path}\n    watchexec --exts css,twig tailwindcss --config assets\/tailwind.config.ts \\\n      --output dist\/tailwind.css\n  '';\n};\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n

Once you have written the configuration, you can run it and install what you've specified, and it will do it the same way every time.<\/p>\n\n

For a crash course in the Nix language, take a look at https:\/\/zero-to-nix.com\/concepts\/nix-language<\/a> or one of the many open-sourced configurations on GitHub.<\/p>\n\n ", "summary": null } ] }