Build in nixos

[seam345]

TLDR:
Not really an issue (feel free to close for any reason) more documenting where I am with getting this to build in NixOs
but the following command should drop you into a shell where you can run cargo mutest

nix-shell -I nixpkgs=https://github.com/seam345/nixpkgs/archive/refs/heads/sean/mutest-rs.tar.gz -p mutest-rs cargo

Ramble version ( a jumble of thought that I will hopefully refine)

A few months ago I got it building and trying to pick it back up, more publicly this time so people can try it or possibly use it as a jumping off point.

I managed to update the nixpkgs commit to nixos/unstable @ 2026-07-03

Things todo

• Get back up to date
• Enable testing during build
• Work out if i can build with a local default.nix file,
  • make CI job to build for nix Add nix build to CI #10
• Confirm compilation works on other architecture and cross compilation
  • Friend got it built on macos

Get back up to date

I pinned it to 2025-11-28 (51530a0), originally it was pulling master but building today (2026-07-03) it breaks so i need to see whats changed :D
managed to move to latest commit, in case sean/mutest-rs fails to build here is the older version, as I've no idea why it was failing before as i only updated the sha and commit

nix-shell -I nixpkgs=https://github.com/seam345/nixpkgs/archive/99b477b7b2b4.tar.gz -p mutest-rs cargo

Work out if i can build with a local default.nix file

#10

Actually submitting to nixpkgs

Firstly I have zero experience with getting it into nixpkgs but my plan was to wait till there is a release tag :)

As a flake

I have zero flake experience and don't really use them on my machine so wont be tackling it, Hopefully by having wrote the current nix derivation it will be fairly easy for someone to flake it

[seam345]

in response to #9

Are there any remaining outstanding changes that would make Nix compatibility easier?

Honestly I've forgotten most of what i did, I should re-learn and see what tradeoffs I made

Annoyingly you might have a better idea whats going on, like why I needed the patch I add and this TODO I made (that is mostly lost on me now) but might make sense to you

TBH they are both minor I'm able to just bump the hash and it work so it's great! ATM I'm finding people to run it and I need to find a project I can use it on to make sure it really works

When I have a bit more time maybe this weekend I'll try get it building with a default.nix in the repo (assuming your happy to have an extra build file in the repo) then we can build it in CI to confirm it builds on any pushed commit.
As mentioned idk how it will be received in the nixpkgs repo, but the only blocker might be lack of versions (I say having not asked or tried) but figured I'd get people using it on nix first to help it's chances of getting in when I try