For example, compose2nix lets you build nixos configuration for containers defined in a docker compose compose.yml. But this step happens offline. You have to first ad hoc generate the config from the compose.yml and then use that generated output in your config.
It seems obvious to me that the best user experience would be to write a flake/module that let's you just point to a compose file directly in your config. On rebuild, it would parse the compose file and build the appropriate config.
But I've not really seen that. These projects that convert from one package mamagement scheme or config file to another (xxx2nix projects) work using this preprocessing step. More examples include pip2nix and cargo2nix.
Given how common this pattern is, I suspect there is something preventing generating at rebuild time from being feasible, or at least easy. Does anyone have ideas for why this is? Thanks.
Thanks for the answer! This sounds terryfing indeed. By bootstrapping, do you mean like an initial mass build without anything in store?