Hi Ethan,

Thank you for introducing nix. It will be interesting to compare the Microsoft windows registry with the centralized . nix configuration file.

Making Gentoo build reproducible and free of side-effects is a great feature to have. Because it makes bug solving much easier. There is a demand for it.

The functional property of nix comes at the cost of violating Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS). If you come up with an atomic solution while respecting FHS, it will be a big leap forward.

Yours,

Benda

2018/02/23 午後8:59 "Ethan Kiang" <chocopuff298@gmail.com>:

Hi!

I'm here with an update. I've went to check out more about nixOS, and how their .nix configuration ideas could be applied to Gentoo. What I found out was, one main advantage/selling point of nixOS is that it is takes a functional approach to package/system management, resulting in no side-effects (only have limited FP experience so sorry if that isn't accurate description). I think we can use some of these ideas in the creation of a configuration distribution system.

A few things to keep in mind however. Nix was built from the ground up to be functional. Gentoo prides itself in being a meta-distribution, so I think maybe it is possible to implement a functional configuration approach too as a choice. However, this might be a big undertaking, requiring perhaps major edits of portage or another pkg manager, which is maybe too ambitious for the scope of GSoC. Also, maybe there isn't demand for functional configuration on Gentoo.

Best,
Ethan