conversions were done using https://github.com/pennae/nix-doc-munge
using (probably) rev f34e145 running
nix-doc-munge nixos/**/*.nix
nix-doc-munge --import nixos/**/*.nix
the tool ensures that only changes that could affect the generated
manual *but don't* are committed, other changes require manual review
and are discarded.
Upstream XMonad was using our xmonad patch file for their flake build to
support our nixos module. This would of course break the build upstream
if the version we patched and their master branch diverged. We
[discussed] that it'd make sense to upstream the environment var code.
In the process it seemed sensible to rename the NIX_GHC variable as
well, since it isn't really Nix-specific – it's just a way to set the
GHC binary to execute. This change has been [implemented] upstream in an
unreleased version of xmonad now – meaning we'll be able to drop the
xmonad patch soon!
This also clarifies the situation in nixpkgs a bit: NIX_GHC is easy to
confuse with the environment variable used in the ghcWithPackages
wrapper where it is used to set an alternative prefix for a GHC-wrapper
for applications trying to discover it via e.g. ghc-paths. It is an
implementation detail in this context, as it is in the case of the
xmonad module. Since they are different implementations doing different
things, different names also make sense.
[discussed]: 36d5761b3e
[implemented]: 23f36d7e23
the conversion procedure is simple:
- find all things that look like options, ie calls to either `mkOption`
or `lib.mkOption` that take an attrset. remember the attrset as the
option
- for all options, find a `description` attribute who's value is not a
call to `mdDoc` or `lib.mdDoc`
- textually convert the entire value of the attribute to MD with a few
simple regexes (the set from mdize-module.sh)
- if the change produced a change in the manual output, discard
- if the change kept the manual unchanged, add some text to the
description to make sure we've actually found an option. if the
manual changes this time, keep the converted description
this procedure converts 80% of nixos options to markdown. around 2000
options remain to be inspected, but most of those fail the "does not
change the manual output check": currently the MD conversion process
does not faithfully convert docbook tags like <code> and <package>, so
any option using such tags will not be converted at all.
Update the example config to show a working example for xmonad 0.17.0, which
added an argument to the `launch` function and adjusted the location of the
recompiled binary.
Commit 9a5b5d9fe858f33f7f5ce0870be2b8a38516a1d4 added Haskell
dependencies (GHC and packages) to the xmonad binary's environment even
if xmonad had been preconfigured (via the "config" option). The intent
was to enable one-off recompiling using a local config file (e.g.
~/.config/xmonad/xmonad.hs), so the user can get quick feedback while
developing their config.
While this works, it may not be a common use-case, and it requires some
careful crafting in xmonad.hs itself. On top of that, it significantly
increases the size of the closure.
Given all that, commit b69d9d3c23 removed
GHC and packages from the binary's environment.
But there are still those among us who want to be able to recompile from
a preconfigured xmonad, so let's provide a way to opt-into configured
recompilation.
When 'services.xserver.windowManager.xmonad.config' is not null, the
restart feature won't work by default and is not desirable unless
specific care is made, as explained by the documentation.
I think it's reasonable to not include the haskell dependencies in the
environment by default. That reduces the size of my system by 2GB.
Without this patch merging options like
services.xserver.windowManager.xmonad.extraPackages
results in the evaluation error:
error: value is a list while a set was expected, at nixpkgs/lib/options.nix:77:23
With this patch we get the desired merging behaviour that just concatenates the
resulting package lists.
(cherry picked from commit 6e99f9fdecb1f28308c8e0aed0fc851737354864)
Co-Authored-By: Silvan Mosberger <contact@infinisil.com>
