Earlier this month I mentioned on Mastodon that I was replacing a Docker-based local development environment at my day job with a Nix-based one, orchestrated with overmind and a justfile. There was quite a lot of interest in particular in how overmind and just could be used to replace a container / compose-based local development. While I can’t share the details of the significantly more complex migration I did at my day job (yet!

Some folks on the internet were interested in how I had managed to ditch Docker for local development. This is a slightly overdue write up on how I typically do things now with Nix, Overmind and Just.

  • @uthrediiEnglish
    4•11 months ago

    That seems like an argument for maintaining a frozen repo of packages, not against containers.

    I am not arguing against containers, I am arguing that nix is more reproducible. Containers can be used with nix and are useful in other ways.

    an argument for maintaining a frozen repo of packages

    This is essentially what nix does. In addition it verifies that the packages are identical to the packages specified in your flake.nix file.

    You can only have a truly fully-reproducible build environment if you setup your toolchain to keep copies of every piece of external software so that you can do hermetic builds.

    This is essentially what Nix does, except Nix verifies the external software is the same with checksums. It also does hermetic builds.

    • nickwitha_k (he/him)English
      4•11 months ago

      Nix is indeed cool. I just see it as less practical than maintaining a toolchain for devs to use. Seems like reinventing the wheel, instead of airing-up the tires. I could well be absolutely wrong there - my experience is mainly enterprise software and not every process or tool there is used because it is the best one.

      • huantian
        2•11 months ago

        @nickwitha_k @uthredii I’d like to think a better analogy would be that nix is like using a 3D model of a wheel instead of a compass and a straightedge to make wheels hehe 🙃

        • nickwitha_k (he/him)
          1•11 months ago

          I quite like the sound of Nix, every time I touch on it but haven’t really dug in yet. You’re making me really want to though.

      • @uthrediiEnglish
        2•11 months ago

        I just see it as less practical than maintaining a toolchain for devs to use.

        There are definately some things preventing Nix adoption. What are the reasons you see it as less practical than the alternatives?

        What are alternative ways of maintaining a toolchain that achieves the same thing?

        • nickwitha_k (he/him)English
          2•11 months ago

          I see it as less practical mainly due to the extant tooling and age/maturity of the project.

          The ways that I’m most familiar with are use of software like Artifactory - basically a multi-repo. Using such a tool, any package or artifact can be readily retained for future use. Then, for builds, one only needs to ensure that it is used as the package source, regardless of type (PyPy, Docker image, binary, RPM, etc).

          Alternatively, one can use individual repos for any relevant package type but that’s a bit more overhead to manage.