Development with Nix

For Linux users, we provide a complete Nix flake that sets up your entire development environment with all required dependencies in a reproducible way.

Why Use Nix?

Nix provides several advantages for development:

• Reproducible: Everyone gets exactly the same environment, eliminating "works on my machine" issues
• Complete: All system libraries, tools, and dependencies are automatically managed
• Isolated: Doesn't interfere with your system packages or other projects
• Automatic: With direnv, the environment activates when you enter the project directory

Installation

experimental-features = nix-command flakes

sudo apt install direnv

sudo pacman -S direnv

eval "$(direnv hook bash)"

eval "$(direnv hook zsh)"

direnv hook fish | source

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/deadlock-mod-manager/deadlock-mod-manager.git
cd deadlock-mod-manager

direnv allow

nix develop

What's Included?

The Nix flake automatically provides:

Development Tools

• Rust toolchain (stable latest) with rust-analyzer and clippy
• Node.js 22 with pnpm 9 and bun
• Code quality tools: biome, turbo, lefthook

System Libraries

All required libraries for Tauri development:

• GTK3 and WebKit2GTK 4.1
• GStreamer (for media playback)
• Cairo, Pango, GDK-PixBuf
• OpenSSL, bzip2

Database & Services

• PostgreSQL client tools
• Redis client tools
• Docker & Docker Compose

Build Tools

• gcc, make, pkg-config
• cargo-watch, cargo-edit
• CLI utilities: ripgrep, fd, jq

Building the Nix Package

You can build a standalone Nix package of the desktop application:

# Build the nightly package
nix build .#nightly

# The built application is available in ./result
./result/bin/deadlock-mod-manager

# Or build and run directly
nix run .#nightly

This produces a fully self-contained package with all dependencies included.

Formatting Nix Files

Format all Nix files in the project using:

nix fmt

This uses nixpkgs-fmt to ensure consistent formatting.

Environment Variables

The Nix development shell automatically sets up several environment variables:

Troubleshooting

Environment Not Loading

Solution:

• Ensure you ran direnv allow in the project directory
• Verify direnv is properly hooked in your shell config
• Try running direnv reload to force a refresh

Hash Mismatch Errors

Solution:

• The dependency hashes in package.nix may need updating
• Check the GitHub Actions CI logs for the correct hashes
• The CI automatically updates hashes when dependencies change

Nix Store Out of Space

Solution:

# Remove old generations and collect garbage
nix-collect-garbage -d

# For more aggressive cleanup
nix store gc --verbose

CI/CD Integration

The project uses GitHub Actions to:

• Automatically update dependency hashes (pnpm)
• Test the Nix build on every PR
• Verify the development shell loads correctly
• Build and cache the nightly package

See .github/workflows/nix-test.yml for the complete CI configuration.

Additional Resources

• NixOS Manual
• Nix Flakes Documentation
• direnv Documentation
• Tauri Prerequisites

Contributing to the Nix Setup

If you find issues or want to improve the Nix configuration:

1. Open an issue describing the problem or enhancement
2. Submit a PR with changes to flake.nix or package.nix
3. Ensure nix flake check passes
4. Test both development shell and package builds

The Nix configuration is actively maintained and we welcome contributions!