Nixtamal: Fulfilling, Pure Input Pinning for Nix

mehackernewsacc · 2026-01-28T16:55:23 1769619323

I’m genuinely not trying to be combative here — I’m just noticing that a lot of your choices seem pretty unconventional, and I’m trying to understand the reasoning behind them, because they are making it hard to interact with you and your project.

- You’re using Nix (which I am familiar with, and why I am here).

- Instead of Git, you’re using “darcs,” which I haven’t encountered before.

- Instead of Flakes, you built Nixtamal.

- For communication, you’re using an XMPP chatroom, which I’m also not familiar with. (Same with MUC — that’s new to me as well.)

Which leaves me with the one experience I'm able to have, in the one place I'm able to share it with you (here):

  % nix run "github:toastal/nixpkgs?ref=nixtamal-init#nixtamal" -- nixtamal set-up
  error: Cannot build '/nix/store/6s9ich4n35c8dna24vvz44ynxwdiyvy8-ocaml5.3.0-nixtamal-0.1.1-beta.drv'.
        Reason: builder failed with exit code 1.
        Output paths:
          /nix/store/x1qgdd1p9q3y2bsr79cgic51m5cgbc5f-ocaml5.3.0-nixtamal-0.1.1-beta
        Last 25 log lines:
        >   [OK]          Input             3   Manifest frozen Pijul of KDL.
        >   [OK]          Input             4   Manifest frozen Pijul sameshape.
        >   [OK]          Input             5   Patch is_local_path detection.
        >   [OK]          Input             6   Patch strip_file_prefix.
        >   [OK]          Input             7   Manifest input codec sameshape.
        >   [OK]          Input             8   Patch source detection.
        >   [OK]          Silo              0   Generation sameshape.
        >   [OK]          Silo              1   GC Cutoff Math/cap=2, gen=5.
        >   [OK]          Silo              2   GC Cutoff Math/cap=10, gen=2 (underflow).
        >   [OK]          Silo              3   GC Cutoff Math/cap=0 (keep all).
        >   [OK]          Silo              4   GC Cutoff Math/cap=2, gen=14 (e hex).
        >   [OK]          Silo              5   GC Cutoff Math/cap=1, gen=1.
        >   [OK]          Lockfile          0   0 inputs & 0 patches.
        >   [OK]          Lockfile          1   2 inputs & 2 patches.
        >   [OK]          Lockfile          2   Local patches in default.nix.
        >
        > Full test results in `/nix/var/nix/builds/nix-build-ocaml5.3.0-nixtamal-0.1.1-beta.drv-6016-3976314062/fetchdarcs/_build/default/test/_build/_tests/Nixtamal'.
        > Test Successful in 21.472s. 18 tests run.
        > Running phase: installPhase
        > Warning: Cache directories could not be created: Read-only file system;
        > disabling cache
        > Hint: Make sure the directory /homeless-shelter/.cache/dune/db/temp can be
        > created
        > Error: Program codesign not found in the tree or in PATH
        > Hint: codesign should be part of the macOS installation
        For full logs, run:
          nix log /nix/store/6s9ich4n35c8dna24vvz44ynxwdiyvy8-ocaml5.3.0-nixtamal-0.1.1-beta.drv

toastal · 2026-02-02T20:03:29 1770062609

A contributor sent me a fix for the Darwin build as I don’t own any machine of this architecture & cannot test. It’s merged into Nixpkgs unstable.

I have tried a lot of technologies & chose the ones I like for on their own merits without following ‘trends’ as they should be used more.

Darcs predates Git & does a lot of things better than Git (plus I want to dog food supporting it); Pijul does great things too! If Nixpkgs has fetchers + prefetchers, there should be a tool that can support users not supported by the builtins (which is only URLs, archives, Git, & Mercurial). Hopefully we can get the Fossil prefetch script merged too for support. Supporting these alternatives is a part of the premise. Flakes can never support this—& they do not seem to want to accept any fetchers despite a few attempts due to the maintenance burden.

XMPP is a reliable, lightweight, decentralized messaging platform commonly, but not exclusively, used for chat. It offers more features than IRC & runs using 10x less resources compared to something like Matrix so I can in good faith recommend self-hosting your own node. I would like to set up an IRC gateway that works at some point, & if ProcessOne adds fuller gateway support to Ejabberd for the MUC, I will enable it despite not caring for Matrix. There definitely isn’t going to be any Discord option.