nixos-and-flakes-book/docs/nixos-with-flakes/introduction-to-flakes.md

# Introduction to Flakes

The flakes experimental feature is a major development for Nix, it introduces a policy for
managing dependencies between Nix expressions, it improves reproducibility, composability
and usability in the Nix ecosystem. Although it's still an experimental feature, flakes
have been widely used by the Nix community.[^1]

Flakes is one of the most significant changes the nix project has ever seen.[^2]

In simple terms, if you've worked with some JavaScript/Go/Rust/Python, you should be
familiar with files like `package.json`/`go.mod`/`Cargo.toml`/`pyproject.toml`. In these
programming languages, these files are used to describe the dependencies between software
packages and how to build projects.

Similarly, the package managers in these programming languages also use files like
`package-lock.json`/`go.sum`/`Cargo.lock`/`poetry.lock` to lock the versions of
dependencies, ensuring the reproducibility of projects.

Flakes borrow ideas from these package managers to enhance the reproducibility,
composability, and usability of the Nix ecosystem.

Flakes introduce `flake.nix`, similar to `package.json`, to describe the dependencies
between Nix packages and how to build projects. Additionally, it provides `flake.lock`,
akin to `package-lock.json`, to lock the versions of dependencies, ensuring project
reproducibility.

On the other hand, Flakes experimental features did not break Nix's original design at the
user level. The two new files `flake.nix`/`flake.lock` introduced by Flakes are just a
wrapper for other Nix configurations. In the following chapters, we will see that Flakes
features provide a new and more convenient way to manage the dependencies between Nix
expressions based on Nix's original design.

## A Word of Caution about Flakes <Badge type="danger" text="caution" />

The benefits of Flakes are evident, and the entire NixOS community has embraced it
wholeheartedly. Currently, more than half of the users utilize Flakes[^3], providing
assurance that Flakes will not be deprecated.

:warning: However, it's important to note that **Flakes is still an experimental
feature**. Some issues persist, and there is a possibility of introducing breaking changes
during the stabilization process. The extent of these breaking changes remains uncertain.

Overall, I strongly recommend everyone to use Flakes, especially since this book revolves
around NixOS and Flakes. However, it's crucial to be prepared for potential problems that
may arise due to forthcoming breaking changes.

## When Will Flakes Be Stabilized?

I delved into some details regarding Flakes:

- [[RFC 0136] A Plan to Stabilize Flakes and the New CLI Incrementally](https://github.com/NixOS/rfcs/pull/136):
  A plan to incrementally stabilize Flakes and the new CLI, merged.
- [CLI stabilization effort](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/7701): An issue tracking
  the progress of the New CLI stabilization effort.
- [Why Are Flakes Still Experimental? - NixOS Discourse](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/why-are-flakes-still-experimental/29317):
  A post discussing why Flakes are still considered experimental.
- [Flakes Are Such an Obviously Good Thing - Graham Christensen](https://grahamc.com/blog/flakes-are-an-obviously-good-thing/):
  An article emphasizing the advantages of Flakes while suggesting areas for improvement
  in its design and development process.
- [ teaching Nix 3 CLI and Flakes #281 - nix.dev](https://github.com/NixOS/nix.dev/issues/281):
  An issue about "Teaching Nix 3 CLI and Flakes" in nix.dev, and the conclusion is that we
  should not promote unstable features in nix.dev.
- [Draft: 1-year Roadmap - NixOS Foundation](https://nixos-foundation.notion.site/1-year-roadmap-0dc5c2ec265a477ea65c549cd5e568a9):
  A roadmap provided by the NixOS Foundation, which includes plans regarding the
  stabilization of Flakes.

After reviewing these resources, it seems that Flakes may be(or may not...) stabilized
within two years, possibly accompanied by some breaking changes.

## The New CLI and the Classic CLI

Nix introduced two experimental features, `nix-command` and `flakes`, in the year 2020.
These features bring forth a new command-line interface (referred to as the New CLI), a
standardized Nix package structure definition (known as the Flakes feature), and features
like `flake.lock`, similar to version lock files in cargo/npm. Despite being experimental
as of February 1, 2024, these features have gained widespread adoption within the Nix
community due to their significant enhancement of Nix capabilities.

The current Nix New CLI (the `nix-command` experimental feature) is tightly coupled with
the Flakes experimental feature. While there are ongoing efforts to explicitly separate
them, using Flakes essentially requires the use of the New CLI. In this book, serving as a
beginner's guide to NixOS and Flakes, it is necessary to introduce the differences between
the New CLI, which Flakes relies on, and the old CLI.

Here, we list the old Nix CLI and related concepts that are no longer needed when using
the New CLI and Flakes (`nix-command` and `flakes`). When researching, you can replace
them with the corresponding New CLI commands (except for `nix-collect-garbage`, as there
is currently no alternative for this command):

1. `nix-channel`: `nix-channel` manages software package versions through
   stable/unstable/test channels, similar to other package management tools such as
   apt/yum/pacman.
   1. In Flakes, The functionality of `nix-channel` is entirely replaced by the `inputs`
      section in `flake.nix`.
2. `nix-env`: `nix-env` is a core command-line tool for classic Nix used to manage
   software packages in the user environment.
   1. It installs packages from the data sources added by `nix-channel`, causing the
      installed package's version to be influenced by the channel. Packages installed with
      `nix-env` are not automatically recorded in Nix's declarative configuration and are
      completely independent of its control, making them challenging to reproduce on other
      machines. Therefore, it is not recommended to use this command directly.
   2. The corresponding command in the New CLI is `nix profile`. Personally, I don't
      recommend it for beginners.
3. `nix-shell`: `nix-shell` creates a temporary shell environment, which is useful for
   development and testing.
   1. New CLI: This tool is divided into three sub-commands: `nix develop`, `nix shell`,
      and `nix run`. We will discuss these three commands in detail in the
      "[Development](../development/intro.md)" chapter.
4. `nix-build`: `nix-build` builds Nix packages and places the build results in
   `/nix/store`, but it does not record them in Nix's declarative configuration.
   1. New CLI: `nix-build` is replaced by `nix build`.
5. `nix-collect-garbage`: Garbage collection command used to clean up unused Store Objects
   in `/nix/store`.
   1. There is a similar command in the New CLI, `nix store gc --debug`, but it does not
      clean the profile generations, so there is currently no alternative for this
      command.
6. And other less commonly used commands are not listed here.
   1. You can refer to the detailed command comparison list in
      [Try to explain nix commands](https://qiita.com/Sumi-Sumi/items/6de9ee7aab10bc0dbead?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en).

[^1]: [Flakes - NixOS Wiki](https://wiki.nixos.org/wiki/Flakes)
[^2]:
    [Flakes are such an obviously good thing](https://grahamc.com/blog/flakes-are-an-obviously-good-thing/)

[^3]:
    [Draft: 1 year roadmap - NixOS Foundation](https://nixos-foundation.notion.site/1-year-roadmap-0dc5c2ec265a477ea65c549cd5e568a9)