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Nix packages on a non-nix distro : what to do when a package isn't working properly ? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by nobloat@lemmy.ml to c/nixos@lemmy.ml

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I hope this is the right place to ask. I am new to Nix and trying to use it for now as a universal package manager. I installled Stremio using Nix but the app doesn't work properly. I see that it's several versions out of date. The same app works fine using Flatpak. Is there a way to let the maintainer know? I'd also love some documentation that can help me update it myself. I can just use the Flatpak but I just want to have one less package manager to worry about.

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[–] jeffhykin@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

A huge time saver/helper can be searching the nix discourse. But don't be afraid to ask. You might get grumpy answers but Nix is hard so dont feel bad about it.

The expected approach is to go to the nixpkgs github and post an issue. The issue will ask you to tag the maintainers, which requires looking them up using search.nixos.org or by using the nix repl (nixpkgs.yourThing.meta.maintainers).

If you want to update it yourself, you can usually use the nix repl to find out where the relevent code is with builtins.unsafeGetAttrPos "yourThing" nixpkgs. Once you know where it is you can fork the nixpkgs github and change it. You can then use/test your fork directly with any of the normal nix commands. For nix-env i blelieve its nix-env -iA something -I url_to_your_github_fork_as_a_tar_file. There's another flag for using the local folder (instead of a url to a tarball) but I forget what it is.