Alternative Package Sets

Nixpkgs replacements

Even though Nixpkgs is currently the standard package set for Nix and NixOS, it can be replaced by another with different conventions and/or functionality. An alternative package set may build upon certain aspects of Nixpkgs, but more often than not it serves a distinct purpose.

This is a list of Nixpkgs alternatives:

• Nixcrpkgs Focused on cross-compiling
• Triton - differences between Nixpkgs and Triton
• NixWRT Build Router images with nix, based on nixpkgs

Overlays

Since NixOS-17.03 Nixpkgs provides the overlay feature which can be used to extend the Nixpkgs package set.

This is an non-exhaustive list of overlays:

• Rust-nightly overlay - details in Nixpkgs manual
• Overlay for Radeon Open-Compute packages
• Overlay by Rok Garbas for a set of python packages built by pypi2nix