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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Does Nix's break from FHS cause problems? (lemy.lol)

submitted 9 months ago by matcha_addict@lemy.lol to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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I know that a lot of what Nix does is working around its break from FHS, but I can imagine there are still things that seep through. Are there any unsolvable problems due to this?

I saw on this post that it is possible to use FHS on Nix. Does this solve all potential issues then?

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[–] Lojcs@lemm.ee 0 points 9 months ago (3 children)

That's what I meant. How the default is chosen is irrelevant and is not my point. (You can pick the earliest installed among the latest version for example) The point is, it can be done and isn't a technical challenge.

[–] madmaurice@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

It's not that it's hard to do. It's that it goes directly against the idea of NixOS since it breaks the separation. With NixOS I can start a shell in a different iteration of my system without switching over the whole system. If I had all my software installed into standard places, that shell might find things it's not supposed to find.

Bottom line is: Most things work on NixOS out of the box. The PATH variable is adjusted accordingly to what a program is supposed to find, which in my opinion is perfectly reasonable and enough for software to find other software. The dynamic library paths are hardcoded as absolute paths, so software can find it's libraries. There's a special dynamic loader for binaries that don't adhere to this. And if you really need an FHS compliant environment NixOS gives you the tools to create one in a sandbox.

You can either have the perks of NixOS or use an FHS compliant distro. That's your choice.

[–] Lojcs@lemm.ee 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's not that it's hard to do. It's that it goes directly against the idea of NixOS since it breaks the separation.

That's what I said:

I get that they don't want to do it lest people abuse it instead of using nix but there isn't a technical challenge that can't be overcome.

[–] madmaurice@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 9 months ago

Imho there's a difference between "people abuse it" and "it is possible for programs to use software that they shouldn't even find". Anyway I noticed just now you weren't the one to actually ask the initial question of whether it's technically possible, so I apologize for not noticing this earlier. However I think it's a meaningless endeavor to ponder whether or not it's possible when that fact is irrelevant.