For this video, I used Parallels to run MacOS to use a fresh environment. I didn't install NixOS exactly as that is a Linux distro (one of these days I can go over that). This was an install of nix-darwin and some other bits and pieces. If I were installing NixOS, there wouldn't be a guest OS under it.

@@zmre okay, so you're using Nix as a package manager / macOS system configuration tool? That's definitely an aspect of what I plan on using it for, but my primary search right now has been to get it running in a VM like Tart, VMWare, or maybe Parallels. Off topic, but wondering if you've seen this... I just ran out of time on the Parallels trial and didn't end up buying it because when I set the Parallels security settings to any of the "Require password to:" settings (like change VM state or settings) it would accept my Touch ID, but then immediately ask me to type my password as well. Every time, every option, on and off. Have you seen that bug/behavior? This was on Sequoia with the latest version of Parallels and their support couldn't help me. If you haven't experienced that, I may retry with a fresh macOS install.

@@SwordAndShotgun I have nixos running in parallels but haven’t had a need to fire it up since upgrading to sequoia. I haven’t seen that bug but also only use parallels periodically. Parallels is amazing at running windows and is nice for spinning up a fresh macOS too but for running Linux in a VM on Mac, I’d probably just use qemu maybe via utm. I run docker via Colima which is running qemu anyway so for me it would probably make sense that way. Your mileage may vary…

@@sharukhrahman7925 the macOS frameworks are the one place nix on Mac loses some reproducibility. In Xcode itself you can target old devices. In nix, I’m not sure. I haven’t attempted it. I know in some cases it will download and build a specific framework but in others it just references the system. Here’s a list of impure frameworks: github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/os-specific/darwin/apple-sdk/impure-deps.nix Sorry I’m not sure if there’s a way to do what you want.

@@zmre ok, i think ill just learn nixos first then ill get some idea to use it with macos or windows.. thanks for the reply! 🖖🖖

@@sharukhrahman7925 I've thought about this a bit more and I got a couple of things wrong. Yes, you can use Nix to use older MacOS SDKs. I know I could make this work manually -- I'm not sure what tools are available to make it easier. But in terms of xcode tools like "xcodebuild" -- as far as I know, you can't, but maybe someone who does more MacOS/iOS programming will know better than me.

@@zmre oh ok got it.. thanks for sharing!!

extraSpecialArgs: it's a list of things to pass into any home manager modules. It's mentioned in the documentation and is a good way to thread variables through to modules that you break out. Neovim setup: I really need to post that. Regarding sourcing vs. embedding in nix docs: that's just personal preference. I generally inline short configs and reference bigger config files, but it's just a question of organization. As for brew: I mostly use brew for Casks. Mac-only applications won't be in Nix, sadly. If you were so inclined, you could probably make a nix package or overlay for anything you can find in homebrew and then not use it at all. The reason not to do this is if you're lazy and don't want to handle updates manually but want someone else to stay on top of releases. I've change my personal config to use github:zhaofengli-wip/nix-homebrew now, which lets me pin homebrew repo states so I can restore my system more fully when desired.

Glad it was helpful!

I hear you. I have a long list of such requests. Looks like both of those are in brew. I've improved my control of brew of late using github:zhaofengli-wip/nix-homebrew which basically pins a point in time for the brew repo along with a system snapshot so you can have rollbacks. Still imperfect and not as good as something building natively, but it makes me feel better about the things I install this way.

I'm going to try to do more in the coming months including NixOS, neovim, and probably something on the apps I use to make the Mac more usable for me (from the keyboard).

Sounds like something failed for you on the install step. Try again from the beginning?

@@zmre oh i need to git add the new files, missed this part

@@zmre hello i've seen your nix-config repo and found raycast and other mac apps preferences/options there, where do you get the docs of these?

@@nasang7478 not sure exactly what you’re looking for. On the nix/terminal side, I use man pages mostly. For Mac apps like Raycast, usually the website for the app. No single source.

So "allowUnfree" is a concept that comes from nixpkgs (which home-manager uses so it impacts both). So you want to change the config for nixpkgs. In a flake, you do this when doing the nixpkgs import. In my example, we have this line: "pkgs = import nixpkgs { system = "aarch64-darwin"; };" You'd want to add something like: "pkgs = import nixpkgs { system = "aarch64-darwin"; config = { allowUnfree = true; }; };" And that will set it up to work within your flake. Now if you also want it working system-wide in case you use "nix-env" or whatever (not my preferred way), then you can also add it to "nix.extraOptions" I think. I probably wouldn't bother with that second part myself though.

@@zmre that's cool, perfectly work, u just save my life twice @zmre !

I use the activateSettings -u trick, which works for most things. You can build it into your config (example here: medium.com/@zmre/nix-darwin-quick-tip-activate-your-preferences-f69942a93236). Make sure System Preferences is closed when you run that. If it isn't working for the key repeat settings, you might have to logout/login. I haven't changed my key repeat since adding the activateSettings stuff so I'm not sure if it needs some kind of bigger kick. Doubt there's a running app you can kill for that (not Finder specific).

^gets answered as I progress thru the video. But still deeply interested in your insights / preferences concerning such. 😊😊😊

I appreciate the nice feedback. We use nix for reproducible local dev environments and I wholeheartedly recommend it for that especially if you're working across repos and languages. It makes things way more predictable and stable. But we don't use nix to build docker containers (we build from scratch) or to manage machines so I can't speak much to that. But best practices around making flakes for dev projects is something I could do a video on as it's a bit of a dark art that could use more sunshine. If you're looking for me elsewhere, I show up in videos more often in my day job (kzbin.info/door/t14QWc1tkHyO3irAiQo_dg), I write long form on Medium (medium.com/@zmre) and occasionally I engage on mastodon @[email protected].

Hmm. I have not. Does it build fine? If you say “build” instead of “switch”?

And this is using the flake from this video?

@@zmre nix build --show-trace also causes the same shutdown reboot to occur

what's strange is i have access to alacritty and ripgrep so the initial install must have worked. I just can't get it to build again anymore after that initial time.

@@joshuabatty I can’t imagine what would cause that. A build doesn’t trigger any system commands. I’d update dependencies before trying again and also get really minimal in case you’re trying to build something in particular that’s somehow triggering a shutdown. I’d also open up the console app and try to see if there’s something in the logs that gives a clue. I’ve never heard of something like this. Maybe also run a ram test?

Glad it helped!

Wish I could disagree.

Wow, thanks for the amazing compliment. I'll try to make some more videos (maybe less lengthy next time) to help with some other common issues. I tend to show up more in my company's channel and haven't created a lot of other content, but I do enjoy sharing what I've learned with others. Glad it's helpful to you.

What is your company’s channel?

@@zmre Thank you so much for this video, nix is (as popularly mentioned) incredibly unapproachable, but you made it so much easier with this video.

@@barefeg KZbin.com/@ironcorelabs

You don't really get to snapshot system state and rollback with homebrew so if something breaks on upgrade you're probably going to have to deal with it RIGHT THEN instead of when it's convenient. For me, personally, I also keep my config working across Mac and Linux so it's nice when a tool that is cross platform can come from nix. But for proper mac apps (generally homebrew casks) that aren't cross platform, it probably isn't worth the bother to make a derivation.

@@zmre Oh yeah, good point. If it's not available in the nix package repo due to being macOS-only, there's not much point in doing that. Thanks!

I would also love to know a better way to do this. For some use cases (not your system flake probably, but a dev shell or a tool) you could actually specify each package in nixpkgs as a separate input. That would give you a lot of control. But for your system, take a look at the nvd command. gitlab.com/khumba/nvd So then you can build your flake using "darwin-switch build" instead of "switch" and then do something like "nvd diff /nix/var/nix/profiles/system ~/.config/nixpkgs/result" with the result path adjusted to where your flake lives. That will tell you about changes before you activate them. You can alternately do "nix store diff-closures /nix/var/nix/profiles/system ./path-to/result" instead of using nvd, though I think nvd is prettier.

@@zmre nvd did the job nicely. Was specially nice to be able to run in comparing previous system profiles. Thanks!

I used parallels. But you don’t get GPU in there so some unexpected things break. Worked well enough for my purposes though.

I should show how I go about that somewhere. Hmmmm….