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diff --git a/README.org b/README.org new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d5929f --- /dev/null +++ b/README.org @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +* Introduction + +~venv-manager~ is a set of nix modules that defines basic configurations for +~nix-shell~, aiming to make it easier to declaratively manage virtual +environments for different development frameworks. + +[[https://nixos.org/][NixOS]] indeed has, among others, two great advantages : +- the ability to declaratively create virtual environments in =shell.nix= files + that may then be activated with =nix-shell= ; +- the ability to enable many services in a single statement thanks to a huge + database of crowdsourced service configurations. + +But creating a new virtual environment may end up being non trivial and +cumbersome, because =nix-shell= doesn't have a similar database of crowdsourced +configurations. +Consider the example of OCaml virtual environments. Simply using the =shell.nix= file +#+BEGIN_SRC nix + { pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }: + { + buildInputs = with pkgs; [ ocaml ocamlPackages.lwt ]; + } +#+END_SRC +will not be enough as the =ocaml= binary needs to be made aware of the existence +of the =lwt= library. After looking up how to do so, the user may then add the +corresponding configuration to =shell.nix= (see [[file:modules/ocaml.nix]] for the +solution). But creating another similar environment will require to either +rewrite the same code or to find the previous file and copy it. + +=venv-manager= aims to fill that gap by using the modularity of Nix to provide +common configurations for virtual environments that may be enabled in a whim. +Now creating the same OCaml environment only requires the following declaration +#+BEGIN_SRC nix + { + ocaml = { + enable = true; + packages = ocamlPackages: [ ocamlPackages.lwt ]; + }; + } +#+END_SRC + +* Setup + +To use =venv-manager=, clone this repository in =~/.config/venv-manager=. A new +virtual environment configuration can then be created by copying the +=shell-template.nix= (use an alias for that !) and filling in the =settings= +attribute set. |