extern/nixos-and-flakes-book
1
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://github.com/ryan4yin/nixos-and-flakes-book.git synced 2024-12-28 09:38:56 +01:00
Code Issues Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity

introduction/index.md: Try to improve wording

Browse Source
This commit is contained in:
Christian Wesselhoeft 2023-11-04 14:52:06 -06:00 committed by GitHub
parent 2a09ce7a46
commit 48f3dac085
No known key found for this signature in database
GPG Key ID: 4AEE18F83AFDEB23
1 changed files with 5 additions and 5 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

10
docs/introduction/index.md
View File

@ -8,17 +8,17 @@ Nix is a declarative package manager that enables users to declare the desired s
NixOS, a Linux distribution built on top of the Nix package manager, can be described as "OS as Code." It employs declarative Nix configuration files to describe the entire state of the operating system.
An operating system consists of various software packages, configuration files, and text/binary data, all of which represent the current state of the system. Declarative configuration can manage only the static portion of this state. Dynamic data, such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, or MongoDB data, cannot be effectively managed through declarative configuration(It is not feasible to delete all new PostgreSQL data that is not declared in the configuration during each deployment).
Therefore, **NixOS primarily focuses on managing a portion of the system state in a declarative manner**.
Dynamic data mentioned above, along with the contents in the user's home directory, remain unaffected by NixOS when rolling back to a previous generation.
An operating system consists of various software packages, configuration files, and text/binary data, all of which represent the current state of the system. Declarative configuration can manage only the static portion of this state. Dynamic data, such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, or MongoDB data, cannot be effectively managed through declarative configuration (it is not feasible to delete all new PostgreSQL data that is not declared in the configuration during each deployment).
Therefore, **NixOS primarily focuses on managing the static portion of the system state in a declarative manner**.
Dynamic data, along with the contents in the user's home directory, remain unaffected by NixOS when rolling back to a previous generation.
Although we cannot achieve complete system reproducibility, the `/home` directory, being an important user directory, contains many necessary configuration files. A significant community project called [home-manager](https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager) is designed to manage user-level packages and configuration files within the user's home directory.
Due to Nix's features, such as being declarative and reproducible, Nix is not limited to managing desktop environments but is also extensively used for managing development environments, compilation environments, cloud virtual machines, and container image construction. [NixOps](https://github.com/NixOS/nixops) from the official Nix project and [colmena](https://github.com/zhaofengli/colmena) from the community are both operational tools based on Nix.
Due to Nix's features, such as being declarative and reproducible, Nix is not limited to managing desktop environments but is also extensively used for managing development environments, compilation environments, cloud virtual machines, and container image construction. [NixOps](https://github.com/NixOS/nixops) (an official Nix project) and [colmena](https://github.com/zhaofengli/colmena) (a community project) are both operational tools based on Nix.
## Why NixOS?
I first learned about the Nix package manager several years ago. It utilizes the Nix language to describe system configuration, and the Linux distribution built on top of it allows for rolling back the system to any previous state (though only the state declared in Nix configuration files can be rolled back). While it sounded impressive, I found it troublesome to learn a new language and write code to install packages, so I didn't pursue it at the time.
I first learned about the Nix package manager several years ago. It utilizes the Nix language to describe system configuration. NixOS, the Linux distribution built on top of it, allows for rolling back the system to any previous state (although only the state declared in Nix configuration files can be rolled back). While it sounded impressive, I found it troublesome to learn a new language and write code to install packages, so I didn't pursue it at the time.
However, I recently encountered numerous environmental issues while using EndeavourOS, and resolving them consumed a significant amount of my energy, leaving me exhausted. Upon careful consideration, I realized that the lack of version control and rollback mechanisms in EndeavourOS prevented me from restoring the system when problems arose.