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nixpkgs/doc/preface.chapter.md

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DOC: Overview of Nixpkgs/channels/Hydra/tests (close #11263) What I missed when I began using Nix and NixOS was a clear overview of how packages, channels, Hydra, the master branch and updates to channels relate to each other. I've noticed I am not the only one, given the amount of times these questions pop up. For now I propose to include this in the Nixpkgs manual, since this seems to be the best fit. However, I think it would be good to include this in either a new manual, i.e., a user manual, or an 'official' tutorial.
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---
nixpkgs manual: various improvements in introduction - rename to preface to be inline with NixOS manual - refer to other manuals - use https - change example channel to 19.09
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title: Preface
DOC: Overview of Nixpkgs/channels/Hydra/tests (close #11263) What I missed when I began using Nix and NixOS was a clear overview of how packages, channels, Hydra, the master branch and updates to channels relate to each other. I've noticed I am not the only one, given the amount of times these questions pop up. For now I propose to include this in the Nixpkgs manual, since this seems to be the best fit. However, I think it would be good to include this in either a new manual, i.e., a user manual, or an 'official' tutorial.
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author: Frederik Rietdijk
date: 2015-11-25
---
nixpkgs manual: various improvements in introduction - rename to preface to be inline with NixOS manual - refer to other manuals - use https - change example channel to 19.09
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# Preface
DOC: Overview of Nixpkgs/channels/Hydra/tests (close #11263) What I missed when I began using Nix and NixOS was a clear overview of how packages, channels, Hydra, the master branch and updates to channels relate to each other. I've noticed I am not the only one, given the amount of times these questions pop up. For now I propose to include this in the Nixpkgs manual, since this seems to be the best fit. However, I think it would be good to include this in either a new manual, i.e., a user manual, or an 'official' tutorial.
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The Nix Packages collection (Nixpkgs) is a set of thousands of packages for the
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[Nix package manager](https://nixos.org/nix/), released under a
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[permissive MIT/X11 license](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/COPYING).
Packages are available for several platforms, and can be used with the Nix
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package manager on most GNU/Linux distributions as well as [NixOS](https://nixos.org/nixos).
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This manual primarily describes how to write packages for the Nix Packages collection
(Nixpkgs). Thus it’s mainly for packagers and developers who want to add packages to
DOC: Overview of Nixpkgs/channels/Hydra/tests (close #11263) What I missed when I began using Nix and NixOS was a clear overview of how packages, channels, Hydra, the master branch and updates to channels relate to each other. I've noticed I am not the only one, given the amount of times these questions pop up. For now I propose to include this in the Nixpkgs manual, since this seems to be the best fit. However, I think it would be good to include this in either a new manual, i.e., a user manual, or an 'official' tutorial.
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Nixpkgs. If you like to learn more about the Nix package manager and the Nix
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expression language, then you are kindly referred to the [Nix manual](https://nixos.org/nix/manual/).
The NixOS distribution is documented in the [NixOS manual](https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/).
DOC: Overview of Nixpkgs/channels/Hydra/tests (close #11263) What I missed when I began using Nix and NixOS was a clear overview of how packages, channels, Hydra, the master branch and updates to channels relate to each other. I've noticed I am not the only one, given the amount of times these questions pop up. For now I propose to include this in the Nixpkgs manual, since this seems to be the best fit. However, I think it would be good to include this in either a new manual, i.e., a user manual, or an 'official' tutorial.
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## Overview of Nixpkgs
Nix expressions describe how to build packages from source and are collected in
the [nixpkgs repository](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs). Also included in the
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collection are Nix expressions for
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[NixOS modules](https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/index.html#sec-writing-modules).
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With these expressions the Nix package manager can build binary packages.
DOC: Overview of Nixpkgs/channels/Hydra/tests (close #11263) What I missed when I began using Nix and NixOS was a clear overview of how packages, channels, Hydra, the master branch and updates to channels relate to each other. I've noticed I am not the only one, given the amount of times these questions pop up. For now I propose to include this in the Nixpkgs manual, since this seems to be the best fit. However, I think it would be good to include this in either a new manual, i.e., a user manual, or an 'official' tutorial.
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Packages, including the Nix packages collection, are distributed through
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[channels](https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#sec-channels). The collection is
DOC: Overview of Nixpkgs/channels/Hydra/tests (close #11263) What I missed when I began using Nix and NixOS was a clear overview of how packages, channels, Hydra, the master branch and updates to channels relate to each other. I've noticed I am not the only one, given the amount of times these questions pop up. For now I propose to include this in the Nixpkgs manual, since this seems to be the best fit. However, I think it would be good to include this in either a new manual, i.e., a user manual, or an 'official' tutorial.
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distributed for users of Nix on non-NixOS distributions through the channel
`nixpkgs`. Users of NixOS generally use one of the `nixos-*` channels, e.g.
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`nixos-19.09`, which includes all packages and modules for the stable NixOS
19.09. Stable NixOS releases are generally only given
DOC: Overview of Nixpkgs/channels/Hydra/tests (close #11263) What I missed when I began using Nix and NixOS was a clear overview of how packages, channels, Hydra, the master branch and updates to channels relate to each other. I've noticed I am not the only one, given the amount of times these questions pop up. For now I propose to include this in the Nixpkgs manual, since this seems to be the best fit. However, I think it would be good to include this in either a new manual, i.e., a user manual, or an 'official' tutorial.
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security updates. More up to date packages and modules are available via the
`nixos-unstable` channel.
Both `nixos-unstable` and `nixpkgs` follow the `master` branch of the Nixpkgs
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repository, although both do lag the `master` branch by generally
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[a couple of days](https://howoldis.herokuapp.com/). Updates to a channel are
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distributed as soon as all tests for that channel pass, e.g.
nixpkgs manual: various improvements in introduction - rename to preface to be inline with NixOS manual - refer to other manuals - use https - change example channel to 19.09
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[this table](https://hydra.nixos.org/job/nixpkgs/trunk/unstable#tabs-constituents)
DOC: Overview of Nixpkgs/channels/Hydra/tests (close #11263) What I missed when I began using Nix and NixOS was a clear overview of how packages, channels, Hydra, the master branch and updates to channels relate to each other. I've noticed I am not the only one, given the amount of times these questions pop up. For now I propose to include this in the Nixpkgs manual, since this seems to be the best fit. However, I think it would be good to include this in either a new manual, i.e., a user manual, or an 'official' tutorial.
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shows the status of tests for the `nixpkgs` channel.
The tests are conducted by a cluster called [Hydra](http://nixos.org/hydra/),
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which also builds binary packages from the Nix expressions in Nixpkgs for
`x86_64-linux`, `i686-linux` and `x86_64-darwin`.
The binaries are made available via a [binary cache](https://cache.nixos.org).
DOC: Overview of Nixpkgs/channels/Hydra/tests (close #11263) What I missed when I began using Nix and NixOS was a clear overview of how packages, channels, Hydra, the master branch and updates to channels relate to each other. I've noticed I am not the only one, given the amount of times these questions pop up. For now I propose to include this in the Nixpkgs manual, since this seems to be the best fit. However, I think it would be good to include this in either a new manual, i.e., a user manual, or an 'official' tutorial.
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The current Nix expressions of the channels are available in the
Remove references to the nixpkgs-channels repo Channel branches are now provided in the nixpkgs repo. Issue #71176.
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[`nixpkgs`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs) repository in branches
that correspond to the channel names (e.g. `nixos-19.09-small`).
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