Title: How to hack on Nix and try your changes

	Title: How to hack on Nix and try your changes
	Author: Solène
	Date: 19 August 2022
	Tags: nix development nixos
	Description: This article explains how to make changes to the nix
	program and how to use it locally

	# Introduction

	Not obvious development process is hard to document. I wanted to make
	changes to the nix program, but I didn't know how to try them.

	Fortunately, a coworker explained to me the process, and here it is!

	The nix project GitHub page

	# Get the sources and compile

	First, you need to get the sources of the project, and compile it in
	some way to run it from the project directory:

	```shell
	git clone https://github.com/NixOS/nix/
	cd nix
	nix-shell
	./bootstrap.sh
	./configure --prefix=$PWD
	make
	```

	# Run the nix daemon

	In order to try nix, we need to stop nix-daemon.service, but also stop
	nix-daemon.socket to prevent it to restart the nix-daemon.

	```shell
	systemctl stop nix-daemon.socket
	systemctl stop nix-daemon.service
	```

	Now, when you want your nix-daemon to work, just run this command from
	the project directory:

	```shell
	sudo bin/nix --extra-experimental-features nix-command daemon
	```

	Note this command doesn't fork on background.

	If you need some settings in the nix.conf file, you have to create
	etc/nix/nix.conf relative to the project directory.

	# Restart the nix-daemon

	Once you are done with the development, exit your running daemon and
	restart the service and socket.

	```shell
	systemctl start nix-daemon.socket
	systemctl start nix-daemon.service
	```