Nix is exceptionally good at making docker containers.

stabbles 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Does Nix do one layer per dependency? Does it run into >=128 layers issues?

In Spack [1] we do one layer per package; it's appealing, but I never checked if besides the layer limit it's actually bad for performance when doing filesystem operations.

[1] https://spack.readthedocs.io/en/latest/containers.html

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Spivak 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yes but then you're committed to using Nix which doesn't work so well the moment you need some software not packaged by Nix.

Want to throw a requirements.txt in there? No no, why would you even ask that? Meanwhile docker says yeah sure just run pip install, why should I care?

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okso 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

LLMs are getting very good at packaging software using Nix.

	▲	mort96 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Then you're committing to maintaining a package for that software. Like all LLM boosters, you've ignored the fact that the largest time sink in many kinds of software is not initial development, but perpetual maintenance.
	▲	CuriouslyC 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		This. I wouldn't have touched Nix when you needed someone who was really good at Nix to keep it working, but agents make it viable to use in a number of place.

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gnull 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Packaging for nix is exceptionally easy once you learn it. And once something is packaged, it's solved for all, it's not going to randomly break.

If you care about getting it to work with minimal effort right now more thar about it being sustainable later, then sure.

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nothrabannosir 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Nix doesn't make sense if all you're going to use it for is building Docker images. It only makes sense if you're all in in the first place. Then Docker images are free.

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whateveracct 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I use software from pretty much every language with Nix. And I package it myself too when needed. Including Python often :)

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mikepurvis 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Especially if you use nix2container to take control over the layer construction and caching.