`nix profile` has bad UX

[bobvanderlinden]

There are quite a few UX problems with nix profile. I'd like to document them to give some context:

• nix profile pins nixpkgs per package #7964
• nix profiles are hard to reproduce #7965
• nix profile: match entries using flake uri #10064
• nix profile stores a 'resolved' source attribute #10077
• nix allows duplicate binaries even for different packages under certain conditions #9801
• More concise nix profile list #10098
• Show package priority in nix profile list #9802
• nix profile upgrade should warn the user if the flake is pinned #8704
• nix profile remove '.*' doesn't remove path installabes #7487
• nix profile cannot intuitively upgrade all packages #10162
• nix profile counter-intuitively uses regexp to match packages #7962
• "nix profile" allows installing duplicate packages #5587
• 'nix profile' has terrible experience upgrading packages #7530
• nix profiles upgrade and remove have counter-intuitive argument #7960
• nix profile subcommands rely on index identifier #7961
• nix profile: Allow referring to elements by human-readable name #8678

I thought I'd gather them here in a single overarching issue, instead of listing the problems all here.

[bobvanderlinden]

3 of these issues can be resolved if we could refer to installed packages by name instead of by index:

• nix profile entries need stable identifiers #7967

[thufschmitt]

Thanks a lot for listing all these. I think that will be incredibly useful for #7701

[alper]

I just got here and with all the documentation around it I still haven't been able to figure out what nix profile does and why I need it or how to use it.

Given how confusing a lot of the documentation is… maybe a full revamp is in order.

Update: I got it. nix profile is great, the documentation in CLI and on web are good and it's the simplest way really to install global packages.

[nixos-discourse]

This issue has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/flakes-as-a-unified-format-for-profiles/29476/1

[iFreilicht]

#6481 was abandoned in favor of #8631; you may want to update the todo list :)

[nixos-discourse]

This issue has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nix-flakes-is-an-experiment-that-did-too-much-at-once/32707/12