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From: Alyssa Ross <hi@alyssa.is>
To: Demi Marie Obenour <demiobenour@gmail.com>,
	Spectrum OS Development <devel@spectrum-os.org>
Subject: Re: Is builtins.readFile okay?
Date: Sun, 02 Nov 2025 13:03:58 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <87seewpro1.fsf@alyssa.is> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <630be45c-86d7-4308-a262-d0bf9ef8ac8b@gmail.com>

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Demi Marie Obenour <demiobenour@gmail.com> writes:

> On 11/1/25 08:21, Alyssa Ross wrote:
>> Demi Marie Obenour <demiobenour@gmail.com> writes:
>> 
>>> Is it okay to use builtins.readFile in a Spectrum derivation?  If the
>>> input is a store path that is Import From Derivation and discouraged,
>>> but I don't know if Spectrum's sources will ever be in a store path.
>> 
>> That wouldn't be a problem.  readFile is fine in principle, although it
>> is rarely what you actually want.  There are very few cases where you
>> have a string you need at eval time but don't want to inline into a Nix
>> file, so if you're reaching for readFile I'd take a step back and think
>> about whether there's a better approach.
>> 
>> Where readFile is used in your sysupdate VM, the build configuration
>> mechanism[1] might be a better fit, if you don't want to hardcode it.
>> 
>> [1]: https://spectrum-os.org/doc/development/build-configuration.html
>
> readFile is used only to read the version number.

and update-url, which is what I was thinking more about.

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      reply	other threads:[~2025-11-02 12:04 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2025-11-01  3:23 Is builtins.readFile okay? Demi Marie Obenour
2025-11-01 12:21 ` Alyssa Ross
2025-11-01 18:13   ` Demi Marie Obenour
2025-11-02 12:03     ` Alyssa Ross [this message]

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