config generation for nvim on windows.

[tincotema]

Hi,

so here is my problem:
On all my personal systems i run nixos wiht nixvim as my main (and only) editor.
At work i HAVE to work on Windows 10 due to some enterprice software that only works in windows.
I would realy like to be able to still use Nvim on that windows machine, but i would like to avoid the work of having to maintain two configs.

thus the questions is:
is there a elegant (and preverable easy) way of extracting the compleat config, with plugins from the nixvim config to install it on a windows machine?

[SergioRibera]

Nix is not available for windows yet, you could use NixOS-WSL to have your configuration, also nix can export your config to a docker container using nixos-generators and maybe it will be more interesting.

I don't know how you have your configuration, but personally what this guy did in his config is genius, he gave me the idea of being able to build each application in the apps folder as a docker image and run it wherever you want.

Unfortunately I am only proposing ideas, but this is what I want to do in my config precisely because of a similar problem.

[GaetanLepage]

I don't have a lot more to add on top of @SergioRibera's answer.
If installing and using WSL is feasible on your windows system, then I think that it is the best option. (You can use NixOS-WSL for that).
If you have to use the windows version of neovim, then most of what nixvim does (plugin and dependency installation) makes no sense (except the generation of the init.lua of course).

[SergioRibera]

Right, I forgot to add the link to NixOS-WSL, thank you very much

[Nibodhika]

Hi, I started using nixvim recently and have a similar situation. In case anyone finds this post in the future here's how I went about it. Foreword: This is NOT ideal, and will be a pain in the ass to maintain, BUT it allows you to keep nixvim as your main thing on your main machine and provides a way to make it work on Windows.

Step 1: Choose a package manager

Since windows doesn't have nix available we need to use a different package manager to get our plugins, I went with lazy, just because it was what I was using until switching to nixvim. But similar approach should work with any other package manager.

Step 2: Setup lazy.nvim

I followed the steps here: https://lazy.folke.io/installation which essentially ends up with a very basic init.lua that only includes a file a file for lazy which in turn includes all files in a plugin folder. Now we can write our main plugin definition. For the time being create a plugin (I called mine all.lua) and have it be:

return {
}

You should have a working nvim now.

Step 3: Copy init.lua from your machine

Copy the init.lua nixvim generated in your machine to some place inside the config folder, e.g. nvim/lua/config/nixvim.lua and include it in your init.lua file after lazy. So your init.lua file should look something like like:

require("config.lazy")
require("config.nixvim")

Step 4: Install plugins

This is the boring part, open nvim, it will complain about a plugin not being installed, add it to the plugins/all.lua file, don't need to configure it, that will be done by the nixvim.lua file, this just ensures it's installed. Rince and repeat until the config stops complaining, e.g. this is a sample of my all.lua file:

return {
	{ "nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons" },
	{ "nvim-mini/mini.icons" },
	{ "nvim-mini/mini.base16" },
...
        -- some stuff has dependencies:
	{ "kevinhwang91/nvim-ufo", dependencies = 'kevinhwang91/promise-async' },
	{ "nvim-neotest/neotest",
		dependencies = {
			"nvim-neotest/nvim-nio",
			"nvim-lua/plenary.nvim",
			"antoinemadec/FixCursorHold.nvim",
			"nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter"
		}
	},
...
}

Step 5: LSG

Haven't gotten to this yet, but LSGs will be a PitA to solve, probably the best idea here is to have a dedicated file for Mason so you can install the required stuff, and again leave the configuration to nixvim.

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Hope this helps someone.