Combine Falakes and Unflake as a compiling, usable starter template (for migration from flakes?)

[SpectralPixel]

Hi, I've been considering switching away from flakes and was scowering the web for alternatives when I came across this repo! I've been in the process of reworking my config @https://codeberg.org/spectralpixel/nixos-system-config, though I'm still relatively new to the whole nix world, meaning that I'm just duct-taping stuff together and parroting other people's opinions.

I picked apart the config on the main branch, tried it on my system, found that it compiles and then took up the task of merging my existing config into the template. As it turns out, the template didn't provide the pkgs attribute, and after asking in the Matrix chat I figured out it's because I'm not using Flake-parts/Falake.

Anyways, I was just wondering if y'all could consider making a template for people looking to migrate away from flakes that just works if you plop your existing configuration.nix/hardware-configuration.nix into the modules folder, or maybe with the necessary steps described in a module? (It's not that I don't understand how the config works, I feel like it would lower the barrier to entry for dendritic though.)

I'd appreciate it if y'all considered it, and I'm willing to do a pull request once I figure out what the hell I'm doing, haha (gimme a few weeks!)

[vic]

Hey! Thanks for considering a PR, I agree, it would be great to have more complete examples. The purpose of this repo is to show that it is possible not to use flakes/flake-parts but I also see value on these example be starter-templates. So, here are some considerations we could take:

• Each branch in this repo has different tooling, some use flake-parts (which most Dendritic people would feel natural to use and also most current Dendritic examples use).
• Some other branch like main, only uses lib.evalModules, so there's nothing providing pkgs nor any other flake-parts idioms like perSystem, inputs' etc. Now we must take care NOT to be implementing flake-parts again, because after-all it IS possible to use flake-parts without flakes (we have a branch doing exactly that)
• Given that implementing flake-parts is NOT in scope of this repo, and also that other alternatives exist, like frojo and falake.
• We should try each example to be truly minimalistic without having we re-invent the wheel. For example, the main branch could have a module like:

{ inputs, ... }:
{
  _module.args.pkgs = import inputs.nixpkgs { system = "x86_64-linux"; };
}

and this pkgs would be available for all modules. However do take in consideration that even if this works, it would be far from ideal, since it is quite common for a single repository to provide configurations on many systems (eg, MAC and other linux platforms). So this could be a good start but still be somewhat hardcoded to a single system.

Just to make things clear, let's not re-implement flake-parts idioms here. This repo should be concerned in not-flakes. I'd prefer to have clarification at README telling people what to expect from the examples.

What do you think ?

[SpectralPixel]

Sounds good, I think there is value in having a flake-independent starter config, since (from my VERY limited nix experience so far) flakes are riddled with caveats and unwieldy syntax.

I guess I mistook this repo for a starter config, so I guess I'll poke around other places to help myself get settled into the nix ecosystem before I can even consider myself skilled enough to try helping out in here...

I still feel like I have no clue of what I'm doing.

Thanks for considering my suggestion, though! :)