Re:Super Colliding Nix Stores: Nix Flakes for Millions of De...
by peter_l_downs on Thursday May 25, 2023 @05:11PM
(#36076287)
This exists and searches `search.nixos.org` for a few reasons:
- you may want to search without downloading and indexing nixpkgs and the hydra results yourself
- you may want to search by the name of the binaries/programs that will be installed, which is impossible to do by looking through a local package store alone
- you may want the search to be fast
- you may want to search from the command line
`nix search` is a cruel joke which doesn't allow searching by the name/program that would be installed, only package name, and requires a flake name every time. Absolutely terrible interface.
My tool is a single-install binary that performs fast and accurate search to help you find the right package name to install a given binary. I don't understand how after years of using other package managers anyone could want a search tool that does anything other than this by default.
- you may want to search without downloading and indexing nixpkgs and the hydra results yourself
- you may want to search by the name of the binaries/programs that will be installed, which is impossible to do by looking through a local package store alone
- you may want the search to be fast
- you may want to search from the command line
`nix search` is a cruel joke which doesn't allow searching by the name/program that would be installed, only package name, and requires a flake name every time. Absolutely terrible interface.
My tool is a single-install binary that performs fast and accurate search to help you find the right package name to install a given binary. I don't understand how after years of using other package managers anyone could want a search tool that does anything other than this by default.
For more details on why this exists, check out https://github.com/peterldowns/nix-search-cli#motivation