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# Day 2 – BioNix workshop
During Day 1 we focused on learning the basics of the Nix configuration
language, this session will focus on putting that into practice by building and
executing small reproducible examples. You therefore will need Nix installed, a
terminal for interacting with it, and this git repository.
## Installing and configuring Nix
Nix can be installed by following the instructions at
https://nixos.org/download.html. For WEHI Mac uses, Nix is available in the
Software Centre for install.
Nix is also available on Milton after a `module load nix`, however it is
recommended to use a local install if available for the workshop as the Milton
module is configured to submit jobs to the Slurm queue, so waiting times may be
variable depending on the load. It is worth trying some of the exercises on
Milton after completion though, to see how easily things can be shifted to
execution on the cluster without extensive changes.
This workshop also uses a couple of extensions that need to be enabled. Ensure
you have the following line in `~/.config/nix/nix.conf`:
experimental-features = nix-command flakes
## The Nix command
The `nix` command is used for interacting with the Nix build system and
requesting builds or querying the dependency graphs. To see help run
nix --help
which will display a manpage detailing the subcommands that are available. For
the most part, you will be using `nix build` to request the output for
something, and you can see the man page for the subcommand with
nix build --help
Another important command is `nix store gc`, which requests the nix store to
clean up all unnecessary files. Nix provides it's isolation by ensuring all
inputs and outputs are in the *Nix store* located at `/nix/store`. The store can
grow to large sizes, especially if some of the outputs are large like with
sequencing. Unnecessary paths are kept as a cache, it speeds up rerunning of
builds that may depend on things that have already been computed. Running
garbage collection removes paths in the store that are not referenced either by
a currently used output or by a currently running build, and there are some
configuration options for automatically triggering GC when needed (see
`min-free` and `max-free` of the `nix.conf` manpage).
The `search` command is useful as it allows searching a flake's output for
keywords. One particularly useful example is when using Nix as a package
manager, then the `nixpkgs` repository can easily be searched for software. As
an example, `nix search nixpkgs genome` will output all available software with
`genome` in the description. The software can then be accessed by dropping into
a shell, e.g.,:
nix shell nixpkgs#{SPAdes,quast}
which will provide a shell containing both SPAdes and quast.
## Working through the exercises
To work through the exercises, change into the directory and read the comment at
the top of `default.nix`. The exercise can be built with
nix build
in the directory. The solution is provided in `solution.nix` and can be built
with
nix build .#solution
however you should try to solve the problem yourself before looking at the
solution.
## Flakes and hermetic sealing
These exercises use an extension to Nix called *flakes*, which allow for
hermetically sealing all the input requirements such as *nixpkgs* and *BioNix*.
How this works is beyond the scope of this workshop, however you can take a look
at one of the `flake.nix` to see how inputs are defined followed by outputs (our
workshop exercises) based on the inputs. The `flake.lock` is automatically
created by Nix and pins the versions of all the inputs precisely.
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