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Nix for Developer Tooling

2 posts · May 2020

What this trail covers

Shopify has evolved its use of Nix for developer tooling, focusing on rebuilding developer environments and managing dependencies for languages like Ruby and Node.js. The team is exploring Nix for CI/CD and has addressed pain points related to development workflows and dependency updates in a remote work environment. Efforts include upstreaming improvements and managing Nixpkgs revisions.

All Shopify trails
  1. ShipIt! Presents: How Shopify Uses Nix - ShopifyThis post details the application of Nix for managing Ruby gems and explores its potential for Node.js dependencies. It addresses challenges with Nix's optimization for build workflows over development workflows, the need for pinning Nixpkgs versions, and the impact of remote work on dependency download sizes. It also answers specific questions about Nix interop with lorri, CI/CD usage, and the Lisp dialect used.
  2. What Is Nix - ShopifyThis post serves as a foundational introduction to Nix, explaining its core concepts: the Nix Store, Derivations, Sandboxing, and the Nix Language. It details how Nix makes software dependency graphs explicit, how the Nix Store functions as an immutable graph database, and how Derivations define build instructions. The post also touches upon the cryptographic hashing used for store paths and the concept of transitive closure for dependencies. It aims to provide readers with the conceptual scaffolding to understand Nix's paradigm-shifting nature.