envrc VS nix

Compare envrc vs nix and see what are their differences.

envrc

Emacs support for direnv which operates buffer-locally (by purcell)
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envrc nix
18 373
332 10,943
- 2.9%
7.9 10.0
22 days ago 6 days ago
Emacs Lisp C++
- GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 only
The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.

envrc

Posts with mentions or reviews of envrc. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2023-12-09.
  • Emacs Advent Calendar 9: devdocs, code-cells, dREPL, etc.
    17 projects | /r/emacs | 9 Dec 2023
    buffer-env: A pure-Elisp version of the direnv utility. Useful to make Emacs aware of Python virtualenvs (which, judging by the questions posted here, is unfortunately still a complication for a lot of people). Similar to (and inspired by) envrc, but doesn't require the direnv program.
  • Nix Survival Mode: macOS upgrades won't break Nix anymore
    12 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 25 Oct 2023
    Yes, most Nix users employ https://direnv.net or the equivalent for your IDE of choice. Emacs for instance has https://github.com/purcell/envrc which set per-buffer variables.
  • Beginner question: how do I set up virtual environments in my Python buffer?
    3 projects | /r/emacs | 22 Apr 2023
    Also take a look at the envrc package. I think it handles multiple projects better.
  • How do YOU use your PKMS?
    5 projects | /r/PKMS | 21 Apr 2023
    I further make my software projects so that when I click a link I go into an environment pre-loaded with their dependencies so dropping in/out of projects is always frictionless. I do this with the reproducibility guarantees of nix, along with glue like nix-direnv and envrc-mode to direnv.
  • Minimal approach for python devel environment with flake
    4 projects | /r/NixOS | 4 Feb 2023
    In conjunction with installing direnv on your favorite text editor, it's a very hassle free experience. Everything happens automatically. If you use Emacs, i higly recommend envrc.el
  • Nix and envrc
    3 projects | /r/emacs | 3 Feb 2023
    Direnv is installed using the nix-direnv installation instructions under "Via configuration.nix in NixOS". I read some recommendations that envrc.el is a better alternative then direnv.el, and after some testing I have to agree. (envrc-global-mode) is enabled in my config. This works perfectly with a normal emacs instance.
  • Emacs + emacs-direnv + Nix + vterm does not just work
    1 project | /r/emacs | 27 Dec 2022
    I don't use flake.nix, only shell.nix, though check if the envrc package works any better for you. https://github.com/purcell/envrc
  • Wrapping gcc with libraries
    2 projects | /r/NixOS | 4 Dec 2022
    As an alternative to emacs-direnv, I’d recommend the “envrc” package.
  • Eglot appreciation post
    3 projects | /r/emacs | 8 Jun 2022
    btw, my main issue regarding tramp was the fact that I didn't have my environment generated by direnv, via the https://github.com/purcell/envrc package. I use direnv almost exclusively to activate my nix-shell, so I can access the exact software dependencies required by that directory of a project.
  • Is it possible to let overlay Emacs use locally configured Agda libraries inside nix-shell?
    1 project | /r/NixOS | 19 May 2022
    I'm not familiar with these tools too but I highly recommend to look at https://github.com/purcell/envrc. If you are not familiar with direnv I suggest to try it with nix-shell/flakes before.

nix

Posts with mentions or reviews of nix. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-04-28.
  • OSWorld: Benchmarking Multimodal Agents for Open-Ended Tasks in Real Computers
    2 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 28 Apr 2024
  • Eelco Dolstra's leadership is corrosive to the Nix project
    6 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 22 Apr 2024
    > https://github.com/NixOS/nix/pull/9911#issuecomment-19252073...
  • I use NixOS for my home-server, and you should too!
    1 project | dev.to | 22 Apr 2024
    As we covered in my last post, NixOS is a amazing Linux distribution for creating stable and declared environments. Now while this is amazing for a desktop setup, it is also perfect for a home-server or home-lab.
  • Tvix – A New Implementation of Nix
    8 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 16 Apr 2024
    (Nix itself is slowly chugging along with Windows via MinGW - https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nix-on-windows/1113/108 and https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/1320 , for example.)
  • Colima k8s nix setup
    4 projects | dev.to | 16 Apr 2024
    Nix is a cross-platform package manager. It uses the nix programming language. Nix and NixOs are often used in the same context, but while the first is a package manager, the latter is a linux distribution based on nix.
  • NixOs - Your portable dev enviroment
    1 project | dev.to | 8 Apr 2024
    Today I want to talk to you about Nixos. What is it? Nixos is a declarative and reproducible OS, partly taking the words used on their own page. What does that mean?
  • Nix – A One Pager
    6 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 6 Apr 2024
    Software developers often want to customize:

    1. their home environments: for packages (some reach for brew on MacOS) and configurations (dotfiles, and some reach for stow).

    2. their development shells: for build dependencies (compilers, SDKs, libraries), tools (LSP, linters, formatters, debuggers), and services (runtime, database). Some reach for devcontainers here.

    3. or even their operating systems: for development, for CI, for deployment, or for personal use.

    Nix provision all of the above in the same language, with Nixpkgs, NixOS, home-manager, and devShells such as https://devenv.sh/. What's more, Nix is (https://nixos.org/):

    - reproducible: what works on your dev machine also works in CI in prod,

    - declarative: you version control and review your configurations and infrastructure as code, at a reasonable level of abstraction,

    - reliable: all changes are atomic with easy roll back.

  • Tools for Linux Distro Hoppers
    7 projects | dev.to | 27 Mar 2024
    Hopping from one distro to another with a different package manager might require some time to adapt. Using a package manager that can be installed on most distro is one way to help you get to work faster. Flatpak is one of them; other alternative are Snap, Nix or Homebrew. Flatpak is a good starter, and if you have a bunch of free time, I suggest trying Nix.
  • Ask HN: Could Nix make crypto mining more efficient?
    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 1 Mar 2024
    - it reduces bloat, because you can generate an environment or OS image with only the software needed to run a specific program or service

    My guess is that a big efficiency gain would come from the second point, because you don't waste CPU on code that you don't use.

    Does this make sense? Has anyone explored this?

    [0]: https://nixos.org

  • Go + Hypermedia - A Learning Journey (Part 1)
    6 projects | dev.to | 23 Feb 2024
    1) Setting up the development environment - I currently use devcontainers for most things, but may also dig into nix -> isolated, portable, repeatable development environment 2) Exploring Echo - understand routing, requests, response, etc. 3) Incorporate Templ - integration with Echo, template composition, etc. 4) Integrating TailwindCSS - config for use with Echo/Templ, development cycle, deployment, etc. 5) Add in HTMX - endpoints, template structure, concepts, etc. 6) hyperscript for interactivity - client side interactivity

What are some alternatives?

When comparing envrc and nix you can also consider the following projects:

emacs-direnv - direnv integration for emacs

asdf - Extendable version manager with support for Ruby, Node.js, Elixir, Erlang & more

dotemacs

distrobox - Use any linux distribution inside your terminal. Enable both backward and forward compatibility with software and freedom to use whatever distribution you’re more comfortable with. Mirror available at: https://gitlab.com/89luca89/distrobox

direnv - unclutter your .profile

void-packages - The Void source packages collection

lsp-bridge - A blazingly fast LSP client for Emacs

flatpak - Linux application sandboxing and distribution framework

buffer-env - Buffer-local process environments for Emacs

homebrew-emacs-plus - Emacs Plus formulae for the Homebrew package manager

stack - The Haskell Tool Stack

guix - Read-only mirror of GNU Guix — pull requests are ignored, see https://guix.gnu.org/en/manual/en/guix.html#Submitting-Patches instead