Should nixos-rebuild switch --upgrade update all channels?

[davidak]

Issue description

I expected it would update all channels and struggled with problems due to other channels are not updated.

The docs are clear that it only updates the nixos channel. https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/#sec-upgrading

https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/nixos/modules/installer/tools/nixos-rebuild.sh#L197

I had to use nix-channel --update in addition to rebuild the system.

So i suggest to change this to actually update all channels.

In 2015, this change was already proposed by @aszlig, but @edolstra had concerns that users might not want to update all channels. What do you think now? #7349 (comment)

Maybe in that case such users can use nix-channel --update nixos; nixos-rebuild switch and a user that just want to update everything runs nixos-rebuild switch --upgrade?

Steps to reproduce

1. have packages from unstable davidak/nixos-config@a1241ef
2. nixos-rebuild switch --upgrade
3. wonder why packages from unstable are not updated

Technical details

• system: "x86_64-linux"
• host os: Linux 4.14.59, NixOS, 18.03.133017.0e55dde2eaa (Impala)
• multi-user?: no
• sandbox: yes
• version: nix-env (Nix) 2.0.4
• channels(root): "nixos-18.03.133023.18401b99f3f, nixos-hardware, nixos-unstable-18.09pre147850.2428f5dda13"
• nixpkgs: /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos/nixpkgs

[nixy]

It seems like the upgrade code has functionality for auto-upgrading other channels, but only if a .update-on-nixos-rebuild file exists in the channel.

It might be better to add a nixos option or nix-channel flag (--add --update-on-rebuild) to make it easier to add and manage that file for channels instead of changing the default behavior.

[davidak]

The behaviour i expect is even documented in the unofficial nixos.wiki:

Since it would be a breaking change, just change it for the next release?

[stale]

Thank you for your contributions.

This has been automatically marked as stale because it has had no activity for 180 days.

If this is still important to you, we ask that you leave a comment below. Your comment can be as simple as "still important to me". This lets people see that at least one person still cares about this. Someone will have to do this at most twice a year if there is no other activity.

Here are suggestions that might help resolve this more quickly:

1. Search for maintainers and people that previously touched the related code and @ mention them in a comment.
2. Ask on the NixOS Discourse.
3. Ask on the #nixos channel on irc.freenode.net.

[Lqp1]

Hello,

I was a bit surprised with this too.
I use mainly stable channel, but use also 1 package from unstable channel (for syncthing) on my home box. I enabled auto updates and noticed this particulier package was never upgraded, and finally had a version bellow the stable one (because I explicitely asked for unstable).

Maybe this should be futher documented or we should have an option in auto update feature to refresh all channels?

Or did anyone find a workaround for this?

Thanks

[stale]

I marked this as stale due to inactivity. → More info