Nix ecosystem: Difference between revisions

Developers of ''NixOS'' mainly work on ''Nixpkgs''. ''NixOS'' development itself is compromised of three large areas as well as some others which are smaller by volume (but no less important). The major ones include packaging, the module system, and documentation.

* Packaging is done in ''Nixpkgs'' and is not exclusive to ''NixOS'' or even Linux-based platforms. Maintainers of packages which are not exclusive to ''NixOS'' (such as tooling required to run the distribution itself) usually take care of multiple platforms although not strictly required.

* The module system is the way in which services running on ''NixOS'' are primarily configured. This area stretches from "low-level" configuration such as ''systemd'' unit files or providing custom kernel configuration up to configuration file generation for specific services. The module system is the primary way for users to configure ''NixOS'', and lives in the <code>nixos/</code> subdirector of ''Nixpkgs''.

* Documentation is largely embedded in packaging and module system data, although free-standing markdown files are also contained in the ''Nixpkgs'' repository. Documentation also includes maintaining the website, Wiki, and other aspects of the wider ecosystem. The first two categories are almost exclusively ''Nix'' language code written in text files, while the latter is a mix of ''Nix'' code, markdown files, and various other formats.

All contributions to ''Nixpkgs'', regardless of whether they affect ''NixOS'' or not, are subject to peer review before being integrated into ''Nixpkgs''. Many packages alongside documentation and supplementary materials such as ISOs or tarballs are pre built on ''Hydra'' to reduce the update time for ''NixOS'' users.

Those three categories are largest by contribution volume, however many maintainers also engage in activities surrounding the NixOS foundation, maintaining the infrastructure on which website, ''Hydra'', and other tools run on, or developing tooling required for NixOS.