Background

Nix may be the most useful tool that I use. I consider it as valuable as Git or Emacs. My friend, David (@dmjio), first introduced me to Nix when we worked together at a Haskell startup in NYC. Before this, I had been managing my system configuration using software that I wrote -- first in Bash, then in Python, then in Golang.

It took me awhile to understand Nix. I left the NYC startup, joined Google, and relocated to London. Here I met another Nix-enlightened monk, Vincent (@tazjin), who patiently taught me enough Nix to become self-reliant and productive.

Many resources exist to learn Nix; the Nix community on IRC continues to help me and others effectively use Nix. I'm creating this series to write the tutorials that I would have found useful when I started learning Nix. If you are just beginning your Nix journey, I hope these tutorials help you.

Goals

I aim to make each tutorial in the "Let's Learn Nix" series:

• Actionable: Readers will be writing code.
• Digestible: Readers should be able to finish each tutorial in fifteen minutes.
• Reproducible: Readers should expect the output of their code to match what these tutorials claim they should see.

About the author

My name is William (@wpcarro). My three favorite tools are Git, Emacs, and Nix. I am an American expat currently working at Google in London. While during the day I primarily write Java, Python, and TypeScript, I prefer functional programming. I use Nix to deploy software and manage the multiple machines across which I work.

Let's Begin

Before we get started, Nix is a programming language. To familiarize yourself with the syntax, semantics, and idioms, consider reading this brief Nix One Pager. I recommend keeping it around as a reference.

When I was first learning Nix, I wanted to use it to manage my dotfiles. Our first tutorial will help you get started: Let's Learn Nix: Dotfiles