nix-search-cli

This exists and searches `search.nixos.org` for a few reasons: - you may want to search without downloading and indexing nixpkgs and the hydra results yourself - you may want to search by the name of the binaries/programs that will be installed, which is impossible to do by looking through a local package store alone - you may want the search to be fast - you may want to search from the command line `nix search` is a cruel joke which doesn't allow searching by the name/program that would be installed, only package name, and requires a flake name every time. Absolutely terrible interface. My tool is a single-install binary that performs fast and accurate search to help you find the right package name to install a given binary. I don't understand how after years of using other package managers anyone could want a search tool that does anyth

I think the best part about Nix is that it makes it super easy to get software into your development environment. This layered store is a pretty cool setup to make that efficient for Replit. Not sure how if Nix/Replit has the program you’re looking for? Or what package name to use to actually get the program you want? Check out my cli search tool: https://github.com/peterldowns/nix-search-cli Edit: I can’t help myself from ranting, it’s insane that I had to write this tool. Speaks to the lack of user focus in the Nix community. Even the blog post here doesn’t mention how to actually find packages to install! What good is a package manager that makes finding packages difficult? Who should be expected to tolerate such a thing?

The nix package search website is OK, but it doesn't let you filter by the names of installed binaries. A lot of the time, you have a question like "what nixpkgs attribute do i install in order to get the `python3` command". I recently wrote a command line tool that allows you to do this. It uses the same elasticsearch index as the search website, but allows more powerful filtering. If anyone is thinking of getting into nix, please consider trying it out! https://github.com/peterldowns/nix-search-cli