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update appimages with nix wording

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This commit is contained in:
Brian Picciano 2021-09-22 22:04:16 -06:00
parent 9655dc6677
commit 624a38af2b
1 changed files with 18 additions and 19 deletions
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static/src/_posts/2021-09-22-building-appimages-with-nix.md
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@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ fulfill the following requirements:
* The builder itself should be deterministic; no matter where it runs it should
produce the same binary given the same input parameters.
Lacking such a build system we're not able to distribute the program in a way
Lacking such a build system we're not able to distribute cryptic-net in a way
which "just works"; it would require some kind of configuration, or some kind of
runtime environment to be set up, both of which would be a pain for users. And
lacking a definite build system makes it difficult to move forward on any other
@ -136,11 +136,11 @@ the `pkgs.buildEnv` used to create the AppDir (see AppDir section below).
## Process Manager
An important piece of the puzzle for getting our nebula project into an AppImage
was a process manager. We need something which can run multiple service
processes simultaneously, restart processes which exit unexpectedly, gracefully
handle shutting down all those processes, and coalesce the logs of all processes
into a single stream.
An important piece of the puzzle for getting cryptic-net into an AppImage was a
process manager. We need something which can run multiple service processes
simultaneously, restart processes which exit unexpectedly, gracefully handle
shutting down all those processes, and coalesce the logs of all processes into a
single stream.
There are quite a few process managers out there which could fit the bill, but
finding any which could be statically compiled ended up not being an easy task.
@ -179,11 +179,11 @@ places in the AppDir at `<AppDir-path>/etc/some/conf`.
[These docs](https://docs.appimage.org/packaging-guide/manual.html#ref-manual)
were very helpful for me in figuring out how to construct the AppDir. I then
used the `pkgs.buildEnv` utility to create an AppDir derivation containing
everything the nebula project needs to run:
everything cryptic-net needs to run:
```
appDir = pkgs.buildEnv {
name = "my-AppDir";
name = "cryptic-net-AppDir";
paths = [
# real directory containing non-built files, e.g. the pmux config
@ -229,7 +229,7 @@ generates the AppImage from a created AppDir:
appimagetool,
}:
pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation {
name = "program-name-AppImage";
name = "cryptic-net-AppImage";
src = appDir;
buildInputs = [ appimagetool ];
@ -241,24 +241,23 @@ generates the AppImage from a created AppDir:
chmod +w buildAppDir -R
mkdir $out
# program-name needs to match the desktop file in the AppDir
appimagetool program-name "$out/program-name-bin"
appimagetool cryptic-net "$out/cryptic-net-bin"
'';
}
```
Running that derivation deterministically spits out a binary at
`result/program-name-bin` which can be executed and run immediately, on any
system using the same CPU architecture.
`result/cryptic-net-bin` which can be executed and run immediately, on any
system using the `x86_46` CPU architecture.
## Fin
I'm extremely hyped to now have the ability to generate binaries for our nebula
project that people can _just run_, without them worrying about which
sub-services that binary is running under-the-hood. From a usability perspective
it's way nicer than having to tell people to "install docker" or "install nix",
and from a dev perspective we have a really solid foundation on which to build a
quite complex application.
I'm extremely hyped to now have the ability to generate binaries for cryptic-net
that people can _just run_, without them worrying about which sub-services that
binary is running under-the-hood. From a usability perspective it's way nicer
than having to tell people to "install docker" or "install nix", and from a dev
perspective we have a really solid foundation on which to build a quite complex
application.
[lastnix]: {% post_url 2021-04-22-composing-processes-into-a-static-binary-with-nix %}
[nix-bundle]: https://github.com/matthewbauer/nix-bundle