Nix/Nixos development

[RenjiSann]

I don't really know if this has its place here, but I've been using a nix flake to setup my dev environment for a while, and I thought I might share it here, and maybe integrate it to the main branch if it's coherent.

To make use of these scripts, you'll first need to install the Nix package manager (instructions)

Then, install the direnv package from your preferred distro (instructions)

Once that's done, open a shell and type

$ direnv allow

in the repository. The initial setup will take 1-2min.
After that, your environment will be instantly loaded every time you cd to this folder !

I note that for rust-analyzer to work in VS Code, I installed the direnv extension, which allows VS Code to load the .envrc.

[sylvestre]

I am not a fan of adding specific configuration for each distros :/

[RenjiSann]

I am not a fan of adding specific configuration for each distros :/

Well most of the patch only eases Nix integration (not NixOS), which aside of being a package manager, also serves as a development environment manager with flakes (so exactly that kind of use case)

Also, the patch of build-gnu.sh, while being necessary to NixOS, is not specifically breaking anything for the others.

I understand that is a kind of arbitrary addition to the repository, but I think providing a simple way to build the project for newcomers and potential contributors is in our interest, even if it is something else than nix flakes

[sylvestre]

i don't like the hardcoded versions here?
is there a better way?
or can we just land flake.nix ?

[RenjiSann]

To explain what's going on, direnv naturally supports the use flake directive. However, with the default implementation, we are doomed to re-computing the flake each time we get in/out of the directory.

This line allows to use an implementation that is made by the nix community and which caches the flake's build.

As for the version check, I guess we could remove it. I'm not very familiar with the previous versions, so I don't really know what this will imply.

[github-actions]

GNU testsuite comparison:

Skip an intermittent issue tests/timeout/timeout (fails in this run but passes in the 'main' branch)

[github-actions]

GNU testsuite comparison:

Skip an intermittent issue tests/timeout/timeout (fails in this run but passes in the 'main' branch)
Skipping an intermittent issue tests/misc/stdbuf (passes in this run but fails in the 'main' branch)

[github-actions]

GNU testsuite comparison:

Skip an intermittent issue tests/misc/stdbuf (fails in this run but passes in the 'main' branch)

[RenjiSann]

Coming back to this PR, I am not sure this is useful if barely anyone makes use of Nix for handling the project environment. However, I feel like having a streamlined, easy to setup, replicatable development environment would greatly improve contributors' lives, and maybe make it more accessible to new comers.

If Nix is not a popular enough solution, I suggest we could setup a devcontainer which may be more widespread among the community.

WDYT @sylvestre ?

[sylvestre]

ok, let's do it

[s1syph0s]

@RenjiSann I noticed that you used rustup for this flake.. This means that using the flake, I still need to run rustup toolchain install stable manually, right?

[RenjiSann]

That's right, though in a second thought, it may not be ideal 😅

Feel free to open a PR to change that :)