Bash/Micropython alternatives

[hugosenari]

Bash/Micropython alternatives

[superherointj]

The system core should be efficient and use a very lean shell to not negatively affect closure size (of containers specially). busybox's ash is mostly free (once busybox already includes it). bash uses ~12MB in musl. If ash is used for base core containers size would be around 5MB without any extra effort.

Makes sense to go with a hybrid approach that is efficient at core level and relaxed on a higher level to please users. And optimizations (to ash) would be opt-in.

[hugosenari]

Nushell:

• JSON/YAML/TOML/... support ✔️
• Command call ergonomy ✔️
• Command definition ergonomy ✔️
• Start Speed on par with bash ✔️
• Low resources usage 🤷
• User base ❌ (compared to python)
• Stability ❌ (<v1)
• Easy bootstrapping ❌ (there are static builds, but only for x86_64)

Other advantage of nushell would be to pass structured data between command calls, but I am not sure if it's any advantage since every build step is a derivation. It also has its own notion of direnv, I was thinking explore use with nix shell.

Unrelated/Unsolicited info:
On my daily use, I prefer Fish for repl, but Nushell for shell script

[hugosenari]

Execline:

• Start Speed on par with bash ✔️
• Low resources usage ✔️
• Stability ✔️
• Easy bootstrapping ✔️
• User base ❌
• JSON/YAML/TOML/... support ❌
• Command call ergonomy ❌
• Command definition ergonomy ❌

It is supposed to be easy to parsed (I never tried), but its ergonomy hurts for anything more than single command call.

[hugosenari]

@lucperkins created an experimental Nushell stdenv

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nuenv-an-experimental-nushell-environment-for-nix/26797/2