mirror of
https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager
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221 lines
9 KiB
Markdown
221 lines
9 KiB
Markdown
# Guidelines {#sec-guidelines}
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If your contribution satisfy the following rules then there is a good
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chance it will be merged without too much trouble. The rules are
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enforced by the Home Manager maintainers and to a lesser extent the Home
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Manager CI system.
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If you are uncertain how these rules affect the change you would like to
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make then feel free to start a discussion in the
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[#home-manager](https://webchat.oftc.net/?channels=home-manager) IRC
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channel, ideally before you start developing.
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## Maintain backward compatibility {#sec-guidelines-back-compat}
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Your contribution should not cause another user's existing configuration
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to break unless there is a very good reason and the change should be
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announced to the user through an
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[assertion](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/index.html#sec-assertions)
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or similar.
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Remember that Home Manager is used in many different environments and
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you should consider how your change may effect others. For example,
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- Does your change work for people that do not use NixOS? Consider
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other GNU/Linux distributions and macOS.
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- Does your change work for people whose configuration is built on one
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system and deployed on another system?
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## Keep forward compatibility in mind {#sec-guidelines-forward-compat}
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The master branch of Home Manager tracks the unstable channel of
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Nixpkgs, which may update package versions at any time. It is therefore
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important to consider how a package update may affect your code and try
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to reduce the risk of breakage.
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The most effective way to reduce this risk is to follow the advice in
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[Add only valuable options](#sec-guidelines-valuable-options).
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## Add only valuable options {#sec-guidelines-valuable-options}
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When creating a new module it is tempting to include every option
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supported by the software. This is *strongly* discouraged. Providing
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many options increases maintenance burden and risk of breakage
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considerably. This is why only the most [important software
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options](https://github.com/NixOS/rfcs/blob/master/rfcs/0042-config-option.md#valuable-options)
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should be modeled explicitly. Less important options should be
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expressible through an `extraConfig` escape hatch.
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A good rule of thumb for the first implementation of a module is to only
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add explicit options for those settings that absolutely must be set for
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the software to function correctly. It follows that a module for
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software that provides sensible default values for all settings would
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require no explicit options at all.
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If the software uses a structured configuration format like a JSON,
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YAML, INI, TOML, or even a plain list of key/value pairs then consider
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using a `settings` option as described in [Nix RFC
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42](https://github.com/NixOS/rfcs/blob/master/rfcs/0042-config-option.md).
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## Add relevant tests {#sec-guidelines-add-tests}
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If at all possible, make sure to add new tests and expand existing tests
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so that your change will keep working in the future. See
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[Tests](#sec-tests) for more information about the Home Manager test
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suite.
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All contributed code *must* pass the test suite.
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## Add relevant documentation {#sec-guidelines-module-maintainer}
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Many code changes require changing the documentation as well. The
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documentation is written in
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[Nixpkgs-flavoured Markdown](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/unstable/#sec-contributing-markup).
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All text is hosted in Home Manager's Git repository.
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The HTML version of the manual containing both the module option
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descriptions and the documentation of Home Manager can be generated and
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opened by typing the following in a shell within a clone of the Home
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Manager Git repository:
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``` shell
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$ nix-build -A docs.html
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$ xdg-open ./result/share/doc/home-manager/index.html
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```
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When you have made changes to a module, it is a good idea to check that
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the man page version of the module options looks good:
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``` shell
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$ nix-build -A docs.manPages
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$ man ./result/share/man/man5/home-configuration.nix.5.gz
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```
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## Add yourself as a module maintainer {#_add_yourself_as_a_module_maintainer}
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Every new module *must* include a named maintainer using the
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`meta.maintainers` attribute. If you are a user of a module that
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currently lacks a maintainer then please consider adopting it.
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If you are present in the nixpkgs maintainer list then you can use that
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entry. If you are not then you can add yourself to
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`modules/lib/maintainers.nix` in the Home Manager project.
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As a maintainer you are expected to respond to issues and
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pull-requests associated with your module.
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Maintainers are encouraged to join the IRC or Matrix channel and
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participate when they have opportunity.
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## Format your code {#sec-guidelines-code-style}
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Make sure your code is formatted as described in [Code
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Style](#sec-code-style). To maintain consistency throughout the project
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you are encouraged to browse through existing code and adopt its style
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also in new code.
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## Format your commit messages {#sec-guidelines-commit-message-style}
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Similar to [Format your code](#sec-guidelines-code-style) we encourage a
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consistent commit message format as described in
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[Commits](#sec-commit-style).
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## Format your news entries {#sec-guidelines-news-style}
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If your contribution includes a change that should be communicated to
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users of Home Manager then you can add a news entry. The entry must be
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formatted as described in [News](#sec-news).
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When new modules are added a news entry should be included but you do
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not need to create this entry manually. The merging maintainer will
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create the entry for you. This is to reduce the risk of merge conflicts.
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## Use conditional modules and news {#sec-guidelines-conditional-modules}
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Home Manager includes a number of modules that are only usable on some
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of the supported platforms. The most common example of platform specific
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modules are those that define systemd user services, which only works on
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Linux systems.
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If you add a module that is platform specific then make sure to include
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a condition in the `loadModule` function call. This will make the module
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accessible only on systems where the condition evaluates to `true`.
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Similarly, if you are adding a news entry then it should be shown only
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to users that may find it relevant, see [News](#sec-news) for a
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description of conditional news.
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## Mind the license {#sec-guidelines-licensing}
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The Home Manager project is covered by the MIT license and we can only
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accept contributions that fall under this license, or are licensed in a
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compatible way. When you contribute self written code and documentation
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it is assumed that you are doing so under the MIT license.
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A potential gotcha with respect to licensing are option descriptions.
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Often it is convenient to copy from the upstream software documentation.
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When this is done it is important to verify that the license of the
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upstream documentation allows redistribution under the terms of the MIT
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license.
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## Commits {#sec-commit-style}
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The commits in your pull request should be reasonably self-contained,
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that is, each commit should make sense in isolation. In particular, you
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will be asked to amend any commit that introduces syntax errors or
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similar problems even if they are fixed in a later commit.
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The commit messages should follow the [seven
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rules](https://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/#seven-rules), except for
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\"Capitalize the subject line\". We also ask you to include the affected
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code component or module in the first line. That is, a commit message
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should follow the template
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{component}: {description}
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{long description}
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where `{component}` refers to the code component (or module) your change
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affects, `{description}` is a very brief description of your change, and
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`{long description}` is an optional clarifying description. As a rare
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exception, if there is no clear component, or your change affects many
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components, then the `{component}` part is optional. See
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[example_title](#ex-commit-message) for a commit message that fulfills
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these requirements.
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## Example commit {#ex-commit-message}
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The commit
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[69f8e47e9e74c8d3d060ca22e18246b7f7d988ef](https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/commit/69f8e47e9e74c8d3d060ca22e18246b7f7d988ef)
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contains the commit message
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```
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starship: allow running in Emacs if vterm is used
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The vterm buffer is backed by libvterm and can handle Starship prompts
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without issues.
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```
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which ticks all the boxes necessary to be accepted in Home Manager.
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Finally, when adding a new module, say `programs/foo.nix`, we use the
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fixed commit format `foo: add module`. You can, of course, still include
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a long description if you wish.
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## Code Style {#sec-code-style}
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The code in Home Manager is formatted by the
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[nixfmt](https://github.com/serokell/nixfmt/) tool and the formatting is
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checked in the pull request tests. Run the `format` tool inside the
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project repository before submitting your pull request.
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Keep lines at a reasonable width, ideally 80 characters or less. This
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also applies to string literals.
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We prefer `lowerCamelCase` for variable and attribute names with the
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accepted exception of variables directly referencing packages in Nixpkgs
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which use a hyphenated style. For example, the Home Manager option
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`services.gpg-agent.enableSshSupport` references the `gpg-agent` package
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in Nixpkgs.
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