[erlang-questions] Erlang package manager

[Tuncer Ayaz]

On Mon, Dec 22, 2014 at 9:32 PM, Tuncer Ayaz wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 22, 2014 at 7:18 PM, Judson Lester wrote:
> > I'm not the only one, but I'd like to raise another voice for Nix.
> > The world has far too many package managers specific to either a
> > virtual machine or an OS distribution, and it's kind of a
> > nightmare.
> >
> > My understanding is that Nix Package Manager (as opposed to the
> > closely related NixOS) fulfills all or almost all the requirements
> > that people are talking about here, as well as allowing
> > unprivileged users to install software, establishing different
> > installation contexts on the same host (i.e. different versions of
> > dependencies for different applications), and completely
> > reproducible installs.
> >
> > But most attractive: it wouldn't be "the Erlang Package Manager" -
> > it'd be "the Erlang application of Nix," which has at least three
> > benefits: Erlang benefits from improvements to Nix, the Erlang
> > community has a stronger basis for input on Nix, and anyone who's
> > used Nix before but not Erlang has the barrier to trying Erlang
> > lowered slightly.
>
> Yes, Nix solves a lot of common issues in elegant ways, and if we go
> that route, I'd support it.

I should add, though, that Nix as it is may not necessarily be an
exact fit for Erlang's requirements, but it sure has a better design
than other package managers. That means, we'd have to figure out how
Nix can fulfill the requirements, and, if any, what modifications we'd
need.