Spencer Balogh
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hyperparabolic.bsky.social
Spencer Balogh
@hyperparabolic.bsky.social
Software, Nix, Security, Identity

Cycling, Music, Tabletop games

blog.decent.id

Chicago
Probably a better call. I didn’t dig into the internal options.
November 8, 2025 at 8:49 PM
You could make an assertion or warning around system.nixos.release or system.nixos.codeName
November 8, 2025 at 7:24 PM
It takes very little configuration to have a good time with it. Man page generated auto-completions will slow down your system evaluation, but they're high quality and worth it imo. Sourcing .env files is the only place I really ran into execution issues out of the box. Otherwise shebangs handle it.
November 8, 2025 at 5:34 AM
Getting a lot closer to zero maintenance servers. I just keep my desktops in check and they mostly just take care of themselves now. It's pretty nice.
July 30, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Not trying to be combative either, just talking about projects I think are cool from another perspective <3
July 19, 2025 at 6:01 PM
It's definitely nonsense for something you use daily, but I should be using it for some desktop apps that I revisit with `nix run` though. I definitely don't use d-spy weekly, but it would be a QoL improvement for it to just show up in my app runner for while hacking on IPC stuff.
July 19, 2025 at 6:01 PM
It’s definitely not stored locally on my VPN box, but I can grab it from my nix-serve cache there.

Also I really wouldn’t want to replicate my editor config in every dev shell, and sometimes I have to write code that isn’t packaged for nixos.
July 19, 2025 at 5:27 PM
I find it pretty useful. It’s like the point between an installed package and ‘nix run’. I use it for a lot of dev tooling. I get to keep server images smaller and have LSP / formatter / lint tools if I need to make small changes while SSH’d somewhere. Also, downloads matter less with a local cache.
July 19, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Sounds like lazy-apps. git.sr.ht/~rycee/lazy-...
~rycee/lazy-apps - Between nix install and nix run - sourcehut git
git.sr.ht
July 19, 2025 at 1:15 AM
I don't trust the guy.
May 17, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Writing it directly to the config would put those plaintext secrets into the nix store, which is against the entire reason they exist.
May 5, 2025 at 1:28 AM
You could write a little wrapper script for the binary that sets environment variables or populates a config template from the secrets file. `systemd.exec` and its `EnvironmentFile` option is a no code way to do this if environment variables work.
May 5, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Huh. I'd be surprised if openasar didn't consume the same discord config as the default client. Weird that it isn't working. Glad you were able to fix it and there's a patch for whoever else is in the same boat.
May 4, 2025 at 6:54 PM
There are a couple easier ways to prevent that. `{ "SKIP_HOST_UPDATE": true }` in `~/.config.discord/settings.json` is the easiest.

The other is overlays, they're a little tricky to get your head wrapped around but easier to maintain than a nixpkgs fork. nixos.wiki/wiki/Overlays
Overlays - NixOS Wiki
nixos.wiki
May 4, 2025 at 4:57 PM
I follow and occasionally post on the discourse, and follow some specific projects. Not sure what else might be out there.

I guess the answer is probably conferences, but I haven't made it to one yet.
March 10, 2025 at 5:26 PM
This is solved with systemd and isn't anything nixos specific. I think you should be able to add a `Condition` that the hardware device is present to the units, and then the service should just be silently skipped if it's not present (assuming no other services depend on it).
March 10, 2025 at 3:47 PM
That's kind of personal preference. I don't personally. I don't want my development processes to be done as the root user, and I use `nixos-rebuild ... --use-remote-sudo` so that only the creation of gens / bootloader changes are done as root. You might have a reason to want a root owned config.
February 13, 2025 at 12:03 AM
Check your config into git and do it. Between version control and generations it's so difficult to actually brick a nixos install. You just roll back if you brick it. That, and running `nixos-install` from install media can repair a nixos install that can't boot in place. Best distro to brick imo.
February 12, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Neat. Got a gist to post? It's been a long time since I've needed that patch, but I really appreciated it the last time I needed it.
January 31, 2025 at 3:00 AM
I don't know exactly why I felt compelled to make this. Excuse the shit editing.
January 11, 2025 at 8:26 AM