What is the best way to trigger/notify a package update in Nixpkgs?

Help
1

I’ve noticed that the vagrant package is stuck on version 2.2.19
I don’t want to single out vagrant here because it seems to have a problem ATM (`pkgs.vagrant`: Out-of-date 2.2.19 -> 2.3.0. · Issue #186606 · NixOS/nixpkgs · GitHub).

However would like to know what I can do from a user perspective in order to trigger an update.
Is there a official process one has to follow?
Or do I just bump the version number, update the SHA, hope that it builds and then create a MR when it does?
What if it doesn’t build?

2

Normally, if there are only code-changes within the existing code-base of the package an upgrade can be as easy as changing version and hash and rebuild it. Sometimes you have to add new dependencies/adjust some wrapper or files that are copied.

In this/the vagrant-case they changed their stack and seems to introduce/switch partially to go: Status of vagrant-go · Issue #12819 · hashicorp/vagrant · GitHub

and it’s (regardless of the switch) a more complex derivation with patches (they need to be reapplied to the new code-base), gemset.nix which packages ruby-packages (with bundix? if I remember correct), and has somehow a dependency to also upgrade vagrant-libvirt in within.

I tried myself but didn’t came forward in a reasonable amount of time and the help I could obtain.

3

I thought as much after I’ve read the issue.
As I wrote above, it’s not about a single package but about the process one has to follow to trigger an update.
Another package I found was rpiboot for example:
https://search.nixos.org/packages?channel=unstable&show=rpiboot&from=0&size=50&sort=relevance&type=packages&query=rpiboot

I would like to help the maintainers without stepping on someones toes :).

4

According to this I would assume it is okay to just update a package and send the into the maintainer.

https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#reviewing-contributions-package-updates