How to do compile-install only for _some_ packages?

[matthiasbeyer]

Is there a way to tell the package manager to build package A, B and C from source, but all others not?

Bonus points: How to do this if the source is locally available, say, for the linux kernel? (related to #2845 ).

[vcunat]

Nix gets binaries from the channel, if available for exactly same thing you're attempting to build. Otherwise it builds from source (all applied on package-level granularity).

You can prefetch tarballs into nix store by nix-prefetch-url file://.... If they're the same hash nix needs, it will pick them up automatically.

(Reopen if needed.)