Add Nix flake

[yoav-lavi]

Describe the solution you'd like

Would be useful (IMO) to add a Nix flake (see for example https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/blob/master/flake.nix [the nixpkgs configuration for Nushell is here and home-manager is here]) so Nix users (using flakes) can easily point to a "nightly" version of Nushell.

This would allow users to configure an input and overlay to use the GitHub main version of Nushell.

This would also allow Nix users to contribute more easily.

(with helix:)

   # inputs ...
    helix = {
      url = "github:helix-editor/helix";
    };
    # ...

   # ...
    overlays = [
      (self: super: {
        inherit (helix.packages.aarch64-darwin) helix helix-unwrapped;
      })
    ];
    # ...

[fdncred]

We'd probably accept a PR for this.

[bugeats]

There's one here I've been using like so:

inputs.nushell-nightly.url = "sourcehut:~mangoiv/nu-shell.nix"

However I really think nu should own its own destiny and host the flake directly. Unfortunately that probably means maintaining a proper nix build/CI.

How to make nix fans out of the maintainers?

[khionu]

Summarizing some notes from a Discord convo:

• A flake is more than a distro-specific addition, as there are plenty of non-NixOS users of Nix (a common model is to have a Macbook client + NixOS servers)
• Flakes provide optimal functionality when included with the project they represent
  • You can then import flakes by branch/tag

Also, I can volunteer to take ownership of the flake.

[amtoine]

i would like to add that, as in #41 for nufmt, there would be two files added to the root of the repo if this goes to completion:

• flake.nix: similar to Cargo.toml, written in the Nix language
• flake.lock: similar to Cargo.lock and written in JSON i believe

[amtoine]

Also, I can volunteer to take ownership of the flake.

i guess listing the contact of maintainers in the flake could be useful 👌