Why nixpkgs website do not have links to package definitions?

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1

Hello,
I search for a package NixOS Search

However I often need more information than provided in description. Seems that the only place where for instance compilation flags are provided is package source code. Why can’t we provide a link to default.nix of a package in the repository search?
I can easily find if it is passing builds on hydra etc. but cannot find how to set basic arguments without searching the github (and also I need to make sure that I’m in the correct revision etc. how do I distinguish if the github code is for unstable 20.09 or 20.03? As a user I’d prefer not having to dive that deep)

Am I missing some serious obstacle? Or is there another, proper way to get information on the parameters?

Just to clarify I have in mind flags that are passed as “override”, for instance pkgs.opencv4.override { enableGtk2 = pkgs.gnome2.gtk2; } (from my issue where for some reason it doesn’t work: How to set up opencv4 with python bindings and a GUI )

Thanks all!

2

Can you get to it by clicking on “Source”? image

I always search in GitHub or the command line, but I think that might work

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3

Currently searching the source is your best bet. I typically keep a local copy of nixpkgs installed and do a lot of ripgrepping.

Chaning this is a big motivation for the new nix-ui though. You can watch the last NixCon to get a good idea of what it’s about. Essentially it would allow for searching these parameters directly from nix.

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4

Hahaha, I can’t believe I haven’t noticed “source” button.
I’ll take a look more at nix-ui, thanks I’m aware of a lot of useful changes coming up!

5

There was a way more prominent button before and when they changed it to be so small it took me a couple of weeks to find it again :smile: So you’re not the only one who didn’t see it!

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6

or if you want something on the web you can use hound hosted by grahamc https://search.nix.gsc.io/ or you setup your own to add other repositories you care about.

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