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Add "nix edit" command
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This is a little convenience command that opens the Nix expression of
the specified package. For example,

  nix edit nixpkgs.perlPackages.Moose

opens <nixpkgs/pkgs/top-level/perl-packages.nix> in $EDITOR (at the
right line number for some editors).

This requires the package to have a meta.position attribute.
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edolstra committed May 8, 2017
1 parent 7689181 commit 03ae5e6
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75 changes: 75 additions & 0 deletions src/nix/edit.cc
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#include "command.hh"
#include "shared.hh"
#include "eval.hh"
#include "attr-path.hh"

#include <unistd.h>

using namespace nix;

struct CmdEdit : InstallablesCommand
{
std::string name() override
{
return "edit";
}

std::string description() override
{
return "open the Nix expression of a Nix package in $EDITOR";
}

Examples examples() override
{
return {
Example{
"To open the Nix expression of the GNU Hello package:",
"nix edit nixpkgs.hello"
},
};
}

void run(ref<Store> store) override
{
auto state = getEvalState();

for (auto & i : installables) {
auto v = i->toValue(*state);

Value * v2;
try {
auto dummyArgs = state->allocBindings(0);
v2 = findAlongAttrPath(*state, "meta.position", *dummyArgs, *v);
} catch (Error &) {
throw Error("package ‘%s’ has no source location information", i->what());
}

auto pos = state->forceString(*v2);
debug("position is %s", pos);

auto colon = pos.rfind(':');
if (colon == std::string::npos)
throw Error("cannot parse meta.position attribute ‘%s’", pos);

std::string filename(pos, 0, colon);
int lineno = std::stoi(std::string(pos, colon + 1));

auto editor = getEnv("EDITOR", "cat");

Strings args{editor};

if (editor.find("emacs") != std::string::npos ||
editor.find("nano") != std::string::npos ||
editor.find("vim") != std::string::npos)
args.push_back(fmt("+%d", lineno));

args.push_back(filename);

execvp(editor.c_str(), stringsToCharPtrs(args).data());

throw SysError("cannot run editor ‘%s’", editor);
}
}
};

static RegisterCommand r1(make_ref<CmdEdit>());

5 comments on commit 03ae5e6

@copumpkin
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Won't most users find that the editor points at a read-only file in the store? Otherwise seems like a cool feature.

@matthewbauer
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Looks good! I'm glad these more user-facing commands are getting into nix.

I actually already have a similar script if anyone's interested: https://github.com/matthewbauer/nix-utils/blob/master/nix-edit

Another one inspired by Homebrew that might be useful is "nix log". It pulls open the "git log" results for an attribute: https://github.com/matthewbauer/nix-utils/blob/master/nix-log

@edolstra
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@copumpkin Yes, in that case it's more of a "nix view". Still useful though.

@matthewbauer Yeah, I've been using a similar nix-edit shell function for years. Regarding git log, that's pretty nice, but it does require a git tree (so it wouldn't work with channels). Maybe channels could include the URL of the repo, which nix could then use...

@copumpkin
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@copumpkin copumpkin commented on 03ae5e6 May 9, 2017

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With the URL of the repo, we could also make a more interactive prompt:

  1. nix edit foo
  2. "Your config doesn't have a configured clone right now. Would you like to clone one now, or give us a path to an existing clone that's safe to adjust the working directory on?"
  3. Automatically clone, create a temporary branch, open $EDITOR

etc.

Probably excessive but making that workflow super smooth would probably get us a ton more contributions.

@bjornfor
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Regarding git log, that's pretty nice, but it does require a git tree (so it wouldn't work with channels).

Maybe nix-channel eventually can learn about fetching directly from git repos?

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