Your first review
Anyone can review an update PR of nixpkgs. You do not need to be a maintainer or a committer. A review from you helps a committer decide faster.
What you need
- A GitHub account, to write the review.
- To build it on your computer (optional): Nix (install Nix), git, and nixpkgs-review.
1. Pick a pull request
Start with a small one: low risk and CI passed. The Updates page lists them first. On the page of a PR, the box “What you can do” has the same steps with the commands for that PR.
2. Read what changed upstream
Open the link to the new release or the compare link in the PR text. Look for breaking changes, removed features and new dependencies.
3. Read the diff
Open “Files changed” on GitHub. A normal update changes the version and the hashes. If it changes more (a patch, a new input, a license), read those lines with care.
4. Build it and run it (optional, but it helps most)
nixpkgs-review builds the PR and the packages that depend on it. Replace 123456 with the number of the PR. Then run the program from the result, for example with --version.
nixpkgs-review pr 123456
5. Approve it on GitHub
On “Files changed” click “Review changes”, choose “Approve” and write what you checked (for example: read the changelog, built it, ran it). If you find a problem, choose “Comment” and describe it. You need a GitHub account.
What a reviewer checks
- The version and the commit text follow the rules (attr: old -> new).
- The package maintainers are notified.
- The license still matches the upstream license.
- The upstream changes are checked (changelog or compare link).
- Each patch and version pin has a comment. A removed patch is not needed now.
- The package builds.
- The packages that depend on it build (nixpkgs-review).
- The binaries run.
This is the list of the checklist in pkgs/README.md.
What happens next
A maintainer of the package can ask the merge bot to merge the PR. If nobody does, a committer merges it. An approval from a maintainer of the package counts most. You do not merge anything yourself.