nixpkgs
, even without flakes, has a lot of packages.
this might make it somewhat daunting for users to find what they need.
now, fortunately nix packages follow a fairly regular structure, placing e.g. .desktop
files in a package’s $out/share/applications
.
this makes me wonder: if such a desktop file knows what mime types it applies to, might it not make sense to index the nixpkgs offering by these?
ideally, given an arbitrary file or scheme, this might make it easier for users to find software packages they could use these with.
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Sounds like a great idea. This is surely worth an issue on GitHub - NixOS/nixos-search: Search NixOS packages and options to discuss how to approach it in terms of UI. Technically it should be an addition with benign scope, since there are already facilities to search for executables in $out/bin
.
3 Likes