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Nix User Repositories

After releasing to GitHub, GitLab, or Gitea, Kmdo can generate and publish a nix derivation to an existing Nix User Repository.

The nix section specifies how the pkgs should be created:

.kmdopkg.yaml
nix:
- #
# Name of the recipe
#
# Default: the project name.
# Templates: allowed.
name: myproject

# IDs of the archives to use.
# Empty means all IDs.
ids:
- foo
- bar

# GOAMD64 to specify which amd64 version to use if there are multiple
# versions from the build section.
#
# Default: v1.
goamd64: v1

# URL which is determined by the given Token (github, gitlab or gitea).
#
# Default depends on the client.
# Templates: allowed.
url_template: "https://github.mycompany.com/foo/bar/releases/download/{{ .Tag }}/{{ .ArtifactName }}"

# The project name and current git tag are used in the format string.
#
# Templates: allowed.
commit_msg_template: "{{ .ProjectName }}: {{ .Tag }}"

# Path for the file inside the repository.
#
# Default: pkgs/<name>/default.nix.
# Templates: allowed.
path: pkgs/foo.nix

# Your app's homepage.
#
# Templates: allowed.
# Default: inferred from global metadata.
homepage: "https://example.com/"

# Your app's description.
#
# Templates: allowed.
# Default: inferred from global metadata.
description: "Software to create fast and easy drum rolls."

# License name.
#
# Default: inferred from global metadata.
license: "mit"

# Setting this will prevent kmdo to actually try to commit the updated
# package - instead, it will be stored on the dist directory only,
# leaving the responsibility of publishing it to the user.
#
# If set to auto, the release will not be uploaded to the repository
# in case there is an indicator for prerelease in the tag e.g. v1.0.0-rc1
#
# Templates: allowed.
skip_upload: true

# Runtime dependencies of the package.
dependencies:
- zsh
- chromium
- name: bash
os: linux
- name: fish
os: darwin

# Custom install script.
#
# Default: 'mkdir -p $out/bin; cp -vr $binary $out/bin/$binary', and
# `makeWrapper` if `dependencies` were provided.
# Templates: allowed.
install: |
mkdir -p $out/bin
cp -vr ./foo $out/bin/foo

# Custom additional install instructions.
# This has the advantage of preventing you to rewrite the `install` script
# if the defaults work for you.
#
# Templates: allowed.
extra_install: |
installManPage ./manpages/foo.1.gz

# Custom post_install script.
# Could be used to do any additional work after the "install" script
#
# Templates: allowed.
post_install: |
installShellCompletion ./completions/*

# Repository to push the generated files to.
repository:
# Repository owner.
#
# Templates: allowed.
owner: caarlos0

# Repository name.
#
# Templates: allowed.
name: my-repo

# Optionally a branch can be provided.
#
# Default: default repository branch.
# Templates: allowed.
branch: main

# Optionally a token can be provided, if it differs from the token
# provided to Kmdo
#
# Templates: allowed.
token: "{{ .Env.GITHUB_PERSONAL_AUTH_TOKEN }}"


# Sets up pull request creation instead of just pushing to the given branch.
# Make sure the 'branch' property is different from base before enabling
# it.
#
# This might require a personal access token.
pull_request:
# Whether to enable it or not.
enabled: true

# Whether to open the PR as a draft or not.
draft: true

# Allows to set a body for the pull request.
# If the repository has a pull request template, it will be appended to
# this.
body: |
cc/ @foobar

# Base can also be another repository, in which case the owner and name
# above will be used as HEAD, allowing cross-repository pull requests.
base:
owner: kumose
name: my-repo
branch: main

# Clone, create the file, commit and push, to a regular Git repository.
#
# Notice that this will only have any effect if the given URL is not
# empty.
git:
# The Git URL to push.
#
# Templates: allowed.
url: 'ssh://git@myserver.com:repo.git'

# The SSH private key that should be used to commit to the Git
# repository.
# This can either be a path or the key contents.
#
# IMPORTANT: the key must not be password-protected.
#
# WARNING: do not expose your private key in the configuration file!
#
# Templates: allowed.
private_key: '{{ .Env.PRIVATE_KEY_PATH }}'

# The value to be passed to `GIT_SSH_COMMAND`.
# This is mainly used to specify the SSH private key used to pull/push
# to the Git URL.
#
# Default: 'ssh -i {{ .KeyPath }} -o StrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new -F /dev/null'.
# Templates: allowed.
ssh_command: 'ssh -i {{ .Env.KEY }} -o SomeOption=yes'

# Git author used to commit to the repository.
#
# Default: inferred from global metadata.
commit_author:
# Git author name.
#
# Templates: allowed.
name: kumosebot

# Git author email.
#
# Templates: allowed.
email: bot@kumose.cc

# Git commit signing configuration.
# Only useful if repository is of type 'git'.
signing:
# Enable commit signing.
enabled: true

# The signing key to use.
# Can be a key ID, fingerprint, email address, or path to a key file.
#
# Templates: allowed.
key: "{{ .Env.GPG_SIGNING_KEY }}"

# The GPG program to use for signing.
#
# Templates: allowed.
program: gpg2

# The signature format to use.
#
# Valid options: openpgp, x509, ssh.
# Default: openpgp.
format: openpgp

Things not supported

  • Generating packages that compile from source (using buildGoModule)
  • Generating packages when archives.format is binary

Dependencies

nix-hash

The nix-hash binary must be available in the $PATH for the publishing to work.

Setting up a NUR

To set up a Nix User Repository, follow the instructions in their repository.

Then, you'll need to:

  • publish a release with Kmdo: it should create the package at ./pkgs/{name}/default.nix or whatever path you set it up to
  • make sure ./flake.nix is correct with what you want, especially the systems bit
  • add your package to ./default.nix
  • edit your README.md removing the template stuff

That's it!

Pull Requests

Kmdo allows you to, instead of pushing directly to the main branch, push to a feature branch, and open a pull requests with the changes.

Templates

Kmdo will check for a .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md, and set it in the pull request body if it exists.

We do that to prevent extra work for maintainers of things like winget-pkgs, nixpkgs, and so on.

Cross-repository pull requests

You can also push to a fork, and open the pull request in the original branch.

Here's an example on how to set it up:

.kmdopkg.yaml
# ...
something: # can be nix, brews, etc...
- repository:
owner: john
name: repo
branch: "{{.ProjectName}}-{{.Version}}"
pull_request:
enabled: true
base:
owner: mike
name: repo
branch: main

This will:

  • Try to sync the john/repo fork with mike/repo:main (if on GitHub).
  • Create the files into john/repo, in the branch foo-1.2.3 (assuming ProjectName=foo and Version=1.2.3). 1
  • Open a pull request from john/repo into mike/repo, with the branch main as target. 2

Things that don't work

  • Opening pull requests to a forked repository (go-github does not have the required fields to do it).
  • Since this can fail for a myriad of reasons, if an error happen, it'll log it to the release output, but will not fail the pipeline.

Footnotes

  1. In GitHub's terms, this means head=john:repo:foo-1.2.3

  2. In GitHub's terms, this means base=mike:repo:main