Without flakes

Nothing here needs the flake machinery.

default.nix hands back exactly what the multiverse.<system> flake output does:

# the same value, twice
multiverse.multiverse.x86_64-linux
import nixpkgs-multiverse { system = "x86_64-linux"; }

Every function in the Nix API: at, version, versionsOf, daysBehind, fast, readLock works.

Pinning the repository

With npins:

$ npins add github fzakaria nixpkgs-multiverse

let
  sources = import ./npins;
  mv = import sources.nixpkgs-multiverse { };
in
mv.version "python3" "3.8.9"

niv is the same shape: niv add fzakaria/nixpkgs-multiverse, then import (import ./nix/sources.nix).nixpkgs-multiverse { }. With no pinning tool at all:

import (builtins.fetchTarball {
  url = "https://github.com/fzakaria/nixpkgs-multiverse/archive/<commit>.tar.gz";
  sha256 = "fill me in";
}) { }

Updating the multiverse does not change any of your pins.

From the command line

nix run github:fzakaria/nixpkgs-multiverse#<selector> has no non-flake spelling. Instead you can execute the following from the repository with -A:

$ nix-build -A 'versions.python3."3.8.9"' && ./result/bin/python3 --version
Python 3.8.9

$ nix-build -A latest.ripgrep --no-out-link
/nix/store/…-ripgrep-14.1.1

Against a pinned source rather than a checkout:

$ nix-build -E 'import (import ./npins).nixpkgs-multiverse { }' -A latest.hello

The nix-shell is also supported:

# shell.nix
let
  sources = import ./npins;
  mv = import sources.nixpkgs-multiverse { };
in
mv.tip.mkShell {
  packages = [
    (mv.version "python3" "3.8.9")
    (mv.version "nodejs" "14.17.0")
  ];
}

The CLI

The mvs CLI is within packages.nix:

$ nix-build packages.nix -A mvs
$ ./result/bin/mvs query versions python3

What flakes buy you

Two things, both about the CLI rather than the API:

nix run github:fzakaria/nixpkgs-multiverse#<selector> with nothing checked out and nothing pinned. Every example in these docs that starts that way is a convenience, not a dependency.
flakeAt, which hands back a revision shaped like the nixpkgs flake — the attrset carrying lib.nixosSystem. It exists on the non-flake road too and returns the same value, but what it is for is building a system at the flake level.

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