# ides
## (idempotent devshell ephemeral services)

ides provides automatic idempotent launching of ephemeral services
in your devshell,
right here, right now.


## what ?

### it's automatic

 - ides will instantly launch all your declared services,
   as soon as you enter the..

### devshell

 - works just like regular mkShell
 - full support for `shell.nix`, `flake.nix`, and `direnv`

### it's ephemeral

 - ides packages and configs are present only in the nix store,
   and once shut down all traces effectively disappear

### they're idempotent

 - ides services cah only ever run one (1) instance of any package+config combination,
   regardless of how many times the devshell is opened, or the launch command invoked

### they're services

 - ides runs on systemd user services - no impostor process manager needed


## the bottom line

your dev environment now includes your service dependencies!


## how ?

here's how:

### service configuration (caddy.nix)
```nix
{
  pkg = pkgs.caddy;
  args = "run -c %CFG% --adapter caddyfile";
  config = ''
    http://*:8080 {
    	respond "hello"
    }
  '';
}
```

we template the provided config into %CFG% so you can feed it to the service as needed

### classic nix(tm)

```nix
let
  pkgs = import <nixpkgs> {};
  ides = import (fetchGit {
    url = "https://git.atagen.co/atagen/ides";
  });
  mkShell = ides.use pkgs;
in
  mkShell {
    noCC = true;
    services.caddy = import ./caddy.nix;
  }
```

### flake enjoyers

```nix
{
  inputs = {
    ides.url = "git+https://git.atagen.co/atagen/ides";
  };
  outputs = {
    nixpkgs,
    ides,
    ...
  }: let
    pkgs = nixpkgs.legacyPackages.x86_64-linux;
    mkShell = ides.lib.use pkgs;
  in {
    devShells.x86_64-linux.default = mkShell {
      noCC = true;
      services = {
        caddy = import ./caddy.nix;
      };
    };
  };
}
```

### cli

in case you need manual control, an ides shell provides commands:

- `ides`: raise the service set manually
- `et-tu`: shut down the service set manually
- `restart`: do both of the above in succession

## why not reuse (nixpkgs/hm/...) module system ?

ides was originally conceived with this in mind, but in practice,
it is rather difficult to decouple the module systems from the
deployments they are intended to fulfill.
occasional prodding is ongoing, and some activity appears to have
begin in nixpkgs to modularise services, which would allow ides
to take full advantage of the enormous nixos ecosystem.

## acknowledgements
me
the bald gang
nixpkgs manual writers

devenv probably