dream2nix VS npt

(I'm on the flox team) we'd love to support that and it's something we've talked about! We already support auto-generation for some languages like Rust because they have a lockfile (e.g. Cargo.lock), but it's a bit trickier for a requirements.txt. We hope at some point to contribute to/integrate with upstream efforts like dream2nix which have auto-generation as their goal

How about dream2nix? I like to use the nix way, but there are many third nix ways

I'm not 100% sure, but looking at the docs [here](https://nix-community.github.io/dream2nix/subsystems/node.html#granular-pure-default) and the implementation [here](https://github.com/nix-community/dream2nix/tree/main/src/subsystems/nodejs/builders/granular-nodejs) it seems as it builds dependencies separately and symlinks (see `install-deps.py` those into a `node_modules` tree. I don't know much about Yarn's PNP (was doing more backend/devex last few years), but it sounds vaguely similar in that each package should be built once as a separate derivation and then symlinked to a big `node_modules`-as-a-symlink-tree derivation?

How are you building your NodeJS project with Nix right now? Recently I spot a new abstraction, it looks good but I havn't tried it yet: https://github.com/nix-community/dream2nix

dream2nix is a great package, that makes a nix-derivation out of node project with the minimal flake

The DavHau/dream2nix project aims to be a generic solution for this issue by splitting the problem into specific stages, each of which can be configured individually (e.g., changing the level of purity)

You can also just install flakes doing nix profile install . I wrote a tool to make it a bit easier, npt but it's completely optional. Once you install the packages with nix profile. Then in your repos you can use a flake with a devShell and run nix develop. Check https://flake.parts to write your flakes.

I've been working in something similar https://github.com/woile/npt but it's in much earlier stages.

Me too! That's why I wrote the small wrapper on nix to install imperatively, the npt, which gets the job done, though an official alternative would be better. I understand nix side, but it's hard to break old habits, and not only that, it would be ideal if I can install nix at my parents, and let them use a simple tool with nix underneath. This means for me, focusing only on nix.

I've just (literally a few hours ago) started a tool trying to follow those principles.

https://github.com/woile/npt

I still don't know if it's worth, I have to experiment a bit more with it