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https://github.com/fuwn/yae

⛩️ Powerful Yet Minimal Nix Dependency Manager
https://github.com/fuwn/yae

dependencies home-manager niv nix nixos npins

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⛩️ Powerful Yet Minimal Nix Dependency Manager

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# ⛩️ Yae



Yae is a powerful yet minimal dependency manager intended for use with Nix,

which functions similar to [niv](https://github.com/nmattia/niv/) and [`npins`](https://github.com/andir/npins/).



  Why should I consider Yae over niv or npins?



  1. No unnecessary helper Nix expressions are needed by Yae.



     niv and `npins` spit out medium-to-large sized Nix expressions that vary in

     complexity in the form of a file that you need to keep in sync with their

     mainline sources. This requires additional upgrade commands in the CLI and

     more effort to maintain. A Yae environment is a single file and can be placed

     anywhere and read just as simply.

  2. Yae has a simple and coherent source tree. niv has a total of 10000 LOC

     (lines of code), `npins` sits at almost 6000 LOC flat, and Yae stands at just

     shy of 1500 LOC when looking at all files. Yae's core source code itself sits

     at just 462 LOC, which is much, **much** smaller than that of niv and `npins`'

     core trees. This is all to say that Yae implements everything needed to functionally

     replace niv and `npins` in any workflow, and in much more efficient and concise

     codebase.

  3. Yae is simple by nature in design and usage philosophy.



     niv and `npins` are great, but are far too ~~overkill~~ overengineered for me

     and many other consumers. I say overengineered because I was able to write out

     Yae's initial implementation in just about thirty-minutes to an hour, and it

     was already complete enough for me to replace niv or `npins` in all of my production

     workflows. If you need some niche feature that niv or `npins` has, use them,

     but if not, Yae is here for you.



## Introduction



You can try out Yae without installing anything permanently on your system by running

`nix run github:Fuwn/yae`.



Check out [Tsutsumi](https://github.com/Fuwn/tsutsumi) to see an example of Yae running

in a production environment. Tsutsumi fully leverages the power of Yae to manage

and automagically update the sources of the Nix packages it provides using a simple

GitHub Actions CRON workflow.



## Usage



View the [installations instructions](#installation) below to set up Yae after

running `yae init`.



### Example Environment Setup



```sh

# Initialises a Yae environment in the current directory by creating an empty `yae.json`

# file

yae init



# Adds a Yae dependency named `zen-browser-twilight-bin` using a floating tag

# (tag always remain `twilight`, but may receive frequent hash changes)

yae add \

  --type binary \

  --version twilight \

  --unpack \

  zen-browser-twilight-bin \

  'https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop/releases/download/{version}/zen.linux-specific.tar.bz2'



# Adds a Yae dependency named `zen-browser-bin` pinned at tag `1.0.1-a.7`

yae add \

  --type git \

  --version 1.0.1-a.7 \

  --unpack \

  zen-browser-bin \

  'https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop/releases/download/{version}/zen.linux-specific.tar.bz2'



# Adds a Yae dependency named `yaak` pinned at tag `2024.10.1` with tag trimming

# for updates

yae add \

  --type git \

  --unpack=false \

  --version 2024.10.1 \

  --trim-tag-prefix v \

  yaak \

  'https://github.com/yaakapp/app/releases/download/v{version}/yaak_{version}_amd64.AppImage.tar.gz'



# Updates all dependencies, e.g., updates the hash of `zen-browser-twilight-bin`

# and bumps the version of `zen-browser-bin` to `1.0.1-a.8`, handling URL and

# hash recalculations, etc.

yae update



# Only updates `zen-browser-twilight-bin`

yae update zen-browser-twilight-bin

```



## Installation



You can either install Yae through the flake that this repository exposes or

through [Tsutsumi](https://github.com/Fuwn/tsutsumi).



[Tsutsumi](https://github.com/Fuwn/tsutsumi) provides both flake and flake-less installation

options, while this repsitory only provides installation support through flakes using the

exported `inputs.yae.packages.${pkgs.system}.yae` package.



  Click here to see a minimal Nix flake that exposes a development shell with Yae bundled.



```nix

# Enter the development shell using `nix develop --impure` (impure is used here because `nixpkgs` internally

# assigns `builtins.currentSystem` to `nixpkgs.system` for the sake of simplicity in this example)

{

  inputs.nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-unstable";



  inputs.tsutsumi = {

    url = "github:Fuwn/tsutsumi";

    inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";

  };



  outputs = { nixpkgs, tsutsumi, self }:

    let pkgs = import nixpkgs { inherit self; }; in {

      devShells.${pkgs.system}.default = pkgs.mkShell {

        buildInputs = [ tsutsumi.packages.${pkgs.system}.yae ];

      };

    };

}

```



### Integrating with Nix



To add Yae support to your Nix expression after running `yae init`, just read

from the Yae environment file. See the example below for more details.



### Examples



Check out [`examples/nixpkgs`](./examples/nixpkgs) for a pure Nix example of Yae

in action. This example is a little large since it constrains itself to **zero**

inputs and manually constructs multi-system support. In a real-world scenario,

you'd actually use something like [flake-utils](https://github.com/numtide/flake-utils)

to replace all of the boilerplate. For this reason, [`examples/nixpkgs-simple`](./examples/nixpkgs-simple)

exists, which functions identically, but uses `builtins.currentSystem` to

populate the `nixpkgs.system` attribute. (requires `--impure`)



If Nixpkgs ever goes out of date in these theorectical examples, just run

`yae update`!



#### Real-world Example



Here's an example snippet taken from Tsutsumi's [`zen-browser-bin` package](https://github.com/Fuwn/tsutsumi/blob/main/pkgs/zen-browser-bin.nix)

and [`yae.json`](https://github.com/Fuwn/tsutsumi/blob/main/yae.json#L59-L67)

showcasing Yae in action.



  Expand this!



```nix

# pkgs/zen-browser-bin.nix



# This expression produces the `zen-browser-bin` package that Tsutsumi exposes

# as a Nix package derivation.

#

# Since it is managed by Yae, it is kept 100% up to date with zero effort through

# a Github Actions CRON job workflow that executes `yae update` periodically.

{

  pkgs,

  self,

  # This line imports Yae's environment configuration to be used below.

  yae ? builtins.fromJSON (builtins.readFile "${self}/yae.json"),

}:

# Tsutsumi exposes two versions of the Zen browser, the latest stable release

# and the latest Twilight release (a bleeding edge, daily build). This library

# function is one that takes one of two Yae sources for the Zen browser, and produces

# a Nix package derivation for it.

import "${self}/lib/zen-browser-bin.nix" {

  # Here, the latest SHA256 hash and release version from Yae are passed to Tsutsumi's

  # Zen browser package function.

  #

  # If `yae update` is ran and a new release is detected, these values are

  # updated by Yae, which then triggers another workflow to build and send the

  # resulting derivation to Tsutsumi's binary cache.

  inherit (yae.zen-browser-bin) sha256 version;



  # To generate the Twilight release package, this is all that is changed.

  # inherit (yae.zen-browser-twilight-bin) sha256 version;

} { inherit pkgs; }

```



## `--help`



```text

NAME:

   yae - Nix Dependency Manager



USAGE:

   yae [global options] command [command options]



DESCRIPTION:

   Nix Dependency Manager



AUTHOR:

   Fuwn 



COMMANDS:

   init     Initialise a new Yae environment

   add      Add a source

   drop     Drop a source

   update   Update one or all sources

   help, h  Shows a list of commands or help for one command



GLOBAL OPTIONS:

   --sources value  Sources path (default: "./yae.json")

   --help, -h       show help



COPYRIGHT:

   Copyright (c) 2024-2024 Fuwn

```



## Licence



This project is licensed with the [GNU General Public License v3.0](./LICENSE.txt).