Nix 生態系統
Nix 核心生態系統是一組技術的集合，旨在以可復現的方式構建、聲明性地配置和管理軟件包、系統及其依賴項。它通過將函數式編程範式從程序領域擴展到系統領域來實現這一目標，並使用一種動態的、函數式的、惰性求值的領域特定語言（DSL），即 Nix 語言，來指定可復現的構建過程。
此外，還有許多由 Nix 社區開發的應用程式（Nix 擴展生態系統）利用並支持了這些核心技術。
Official ecosystem
| Component | Manual | Description | Use | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NixOS | NixOS Manual | A Linux distribution with all components built by Nix, and thus supporting reproducible and declarative system-wide configuration management as well as atomic upgrades and rollbacks. | Declaratively configure desktops, servers & clusters | MIT |
| Nixpkgs | Nixpkgs Manual | The largest community maintained Nix package and NixOS module repository; standard releases of NixOS are hosted here. | Share Nix packages & NixOS modules | MIT |
| Hydra | Hydra Manual | A Nix based continuous build system. | CI build farms | GPL-3.0 |
| Nix | Nix Manual | A package manager that parses Nix expressions specifying reproducible build, putting the result in a store address with a hash of the dependency tree, sidestepping dependency hell and supporting multiversion installs and rollbacks. | Reproducible builds & package management in Linux & Darwin | LGPL-2.1 |
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NixOS
A Linux distribution and configuration system built using Nixpkgs |
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Nixpkgs
A large, community-maintained repository of packages |
Hydra
A continuous build system built on Nix |
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Nix
A pure and functional build system | |
Usage of NixOS
Users install the NixOS distribution on their computers just as any other Linux distribution. They read about packages to install and configuration options in Nixpgs via https://search.nixos.org and this wiki. They use the Nix language to declaratively describe in a text file what software packages should be installed and how the system should be configured. They run 2 command line programs in a terminal to transform the system into the described system. They use the system as any other Linux system.
Development of NixOS
Developers of NixOS mainly work on Nixpkgs to describe in text files in Nix language how software packages should be build. After peer review these changes are integrated in Nixpkgs. Some of these packages are pre built on Hydra to reduce the update time for NixOS users.