New Nix CLI without Flakes

As asked under Improving Flakes discussion, I am opening a new thread to discuss a single issue.

Current stable nix-* interface is often not immediately apparent nor very discoverable. The new CLI makes Nix quite approachable by a) Simplifying and unifying most nix-* commands under “nix *” paradigm and b) Bring most nix-* options under single man page.

I have very much enjoyed using new CLI on unstable Nix and understand that except for flakes subcommand, it is more or less useful.

Is it possible to narrow down scope of 2.4 to include this and get it out of the door, while keeping the unstable flag on other features, so community and documentation can start migrating? As a side benefit, it makes Nix easier to grasp for newcomers, possibly boosting the contributor numbers in medium to long term.

I don’t think this will happen anytime soon. Essentially they (eelco and others) want to be able to change the cli on a dime if it improve the experience.

Also, I find that some of the nix-* commands don’t have a great analogues. I use nix-shell -A to debug failing builds all the time.

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