NixOS and the case for declarative configuration
Linux distribution updates always come with a certain risk. Will all the configured services still work after the upgrade? Or, has a daemon once again changed the format of its configuration files so that the program fails to launch? Most Linux distributions are at least smart enough to avoid overwriting user-modified config files, but a defined upgrade path, which ensures the operation of the upgraded system, usually is not available.
The Nix project [1] takes an alternative approach. A Nix system is fundamentally different from normal Linux distributions. The system state is set declaratively, instead of imperatively. In other words, the complete system is defined all at once, rather than configured through a series of independent steps that each change the system state.
Nix consists of a special package manager, a package collection, a Linux distribution, and some other specialized tools. The instructions of the Nix package manager obey functional principles: an input state is entered in the function (the package manager), and the output is a new system state. Side effects are not allowed.
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