how to posts

18 hard-won lessons from the Determinate Systems crew

All posts

Best practices for Nix at work
Best practices for Nix at work
how to
March 24, 20259 min read
Some juicy tidbits from Determinate Systems' first ever webinar
Luc Perkins
Supercharging Nix deployments with FlakeHub Cache
Supercharging Nix deployments with FlakeHub Cache
how to
January 24, 20253 min read
FlakeHub Cache transforms Nix deployments by eliminating local builds and evaluation. See how to deploy Home Manager configs instantly on both macOS and Linux.
Martin Wimpress
Parallel Nix evaluation
Parallel Nix evaluation
how to
June 27, 20247 min read
Speeding up Nix evaluation on multi-core CPUs
Eelco Dolstra
Nix as a WebAssembly build tool
Nix as a WebAssembly build tool
how to
June 13, 20245 min read
Making Wasm's potential portability a reality
Luc Perkins
Creating and modifying flakes using the FlakeHub CLI
Creating and modifying flakes using the FlakeHub CLI
how to
September 20, 20234 min read
The FlakeHub CLI, fh, now enables you to generate new flakes from scratch or modify existing flakes in place, providing major ergonomic benefits for working with flakes.
Luc Perkins
Instrumenting Axum projects
Instrumenting Axum projects
how to
July 20, 202315 min read
Fitting the pieces together for pleasant errors and logs in Axum.
Ana Hobden
Declarative GNOME configuration with NixOS
Declarative GNOME configuration with NixOS
how to
June 1, 202310 min read
When I first started using Linux in 2006, I remember dreaming of a Linux Console. It wasn't so far fetched, the PlayStation 3 had just been released with OtherOS support which allowed users to install Linux (or BSD). Still, it seemed that a Linux-first console seemed like it would only ever be a dream.
Ana Hobden
Packaging Open Policy Agent policies with Nix
Packaging Open Policy Agent policies with Nix
how to
May 22, 20238 min read
How I used Nix to turn Open Policy Agent policies into standalone CLI tools
Luc Perkins
Extending NixOS configurations
Extending NixOS configurations
how to
March 31, 20234 min read
NixOS modules and configurations offer us a tantalizing way to express and share systems. My friends and I can publish our own flakes containing nixosModules or/and nixosConfigurations outputs which can be imported, reused, and remixed.
Ana Hobden
Moving stuff around with Nix
Moving stuff around with Nix
how to
March 22, 20236 min read
Don't just copy: copy declaratively.
Luc Perkins
Nix on the Steam Deck
Nix on the Steam Deck
how to
December 21, 202213 min read
When I first started using Linux in 2006, I remember dreaming of a Linux Console. It wasn't so far fetched, the PlayStation 3 had just been released with OtherOS support which allowed users to install Linux (or BSD). Still, it seemed that a Linux-first console seemed like it would only ever be a dream.
Ana Hobden
Deploying Nix-built containers to Kubernetes
Deploying Nix-built containers to Kubernetes
how to
November 21, 20224 min read
While it's great to fall in love with Nix and want to use it to build and configure just about everything, let's face it: few of us are in a position to do so, especially in the workplace. "Hey team, let's Nixify our entire stack!" is unlikely to endear you to your coworkers at daily standup.
Luc Perkins
Streamline your GitHub Actions dependencies using Nix
Streamline your GitHub Actions dependencies using Nix
how to
October 31, 20229 min read
Make your CI pipeline both strictly declarative and reproducible across environments by replacing third-party Actions with Nix shell environments.
Luc Perkins
Make your QEMU 10 times faster with this one weird trick
Make your QEMU 10 times faster with this one weird trick
how to
October 13, 202211 min read
NixOS uses virtual machines based on QEMU extensively for running its test suite. In order to avoid generating a disk image for every test, the test driver usually boots using a Plan 9 File Protocol (9p) share (server implemented by QEMU) for the Nix store, which contains all the programs...
Linus Heckemann
Using Nix to run software with no installation steps
Using Nix to run software with no installation steps
how to
October 7, 20228 min read
All you need is the Nix CLI and a flake URL to run executables using Nix. There's nothing else quite like it in our industry.
Luc Perkins
Effortless dev environments with Nix and direnv
Effortless dev environments with Nix and direnv
how to
September 23, 20227 min read
Like many of you, I work on a lot of different projects. Even when a project is less serious—hey, I should check out this new JS framework!—I strive to reduce the friction involved with setting up the project's dev environment to the absolute bare minimum possible.
Luc Perkins
Building a highly optimized home environment with Nix
Building a highly optimized home environment with Nix
how to
September 15, 20227 min read
How I used Home Manager and a personal project called Nome to declutter and optimize my home environment using Nix.
Luc Perkins
How to Use Hydra as your Deployment Source of Truth
How to Use Hydra as your Deployment Source of Truth
how to
October 14, 20218 min read
Hydra is a fantastic tool for building small and large software collections. It is also a great tool for orchestrating releases.
Graham Christensen