Clearer docs for usage/installation from nixos (nixpkgs.rPackages.rix??)

[BlueDrink9]

I feel like I must be missing something - how do you use this project with NixOS? The docs all seem to have a baseline assumption that R is installed, and can install rix. My understanding is that you should only ever install R and packages on NixOS like

  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
    (rWrapper.override{ packages = with rPackages; [
rix
]})]

But rix is not in nixpkgs! For a nix-based tool, that's a confusing omission to me, but I presume there is some logic behind it.

I think the docs would benefit from a clear explanation about how to get bootstrapped with rix on NixOS such that the beginner examples can actually run.

Is the intention that users should install regular R only, then manually install.package("rix")?

[b-rodrigues]

Thanks for opening this issue, there's actually a very good reason the docs are not very clear when it comes to NixOS itself: none of the authors use it 😅

We certainly could benefit from help here.

But rix is not in nixpkgs! For a nix-based tool, that's a confusing omission to me, but I presume there is some logic behind it.

This is because rix only very recently got on CRAN, and the next r tree bump for nixpkgs will happen somewhere beginning of November, because the next R release is scheduled on the 31st of October: R packages for Nix get updated around that time then. So rix will soon be available as a nix package as well!

Is the intention that users should install regular R only, then manually install.package("rix")?

Not at all, actually, in the readme, we explain how to use rix even on a system with R. See: https://github.com/ropensci/rix?tab=readme-ov-file#quick-start-for-returning-users

my advice would even be to only use nix based envs!

[BlueDrink9]

Ah, that makes a lot of sense, especially the part about CRAN. I'm not super experienced with NixOS, but at some point once it's merged into nixpkgs I'm sure I could put together some instructions for getting it working. In the meanwhile I've adapted it to use a git revision and that seems to be working ok; see https://github.com/BlueDrink9/env/blob/master/system/nix/packages/R.nix

[RichardJActon]

As a nixOS user it did take me a moment to find the thing I was looking for to make a quick start in the readme.

I think just reorganizing it a little would help. A subheading like 'rix for Nix(OS) users' under the 'Getting started for new users' heading would make more sense to me as a place to put the content of the last few lines in the collapsed section of 'quickstart for returning users'. perhaps something like this: https://github.com/RichardJActon/rix/tree/readme-tweaks?tab=readme-ov-file#rix-for-nixos-users

I don't have R installed system wide, stops me getting lazy and starting a project without a properly managed independent reproducible environment. So I've always started any of the projects I've added rix to with the nix shell with R and rix approach.

Once rix is in nixpkgs it'll be easier to have a nix shell oneliner that directly calls rix() something like:

nix-shell -p R rPackages.rix --run 'R -e "rix::rix(r_pkgs = \"dplyr\")"'

[b-rodrigues]

Thanks, once rix is in nixpkgs I'll update the readme with your suggestions.