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What about packspec (pkg.json)?

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Marc Jakobi edited this page Jun 4, 2024 · 23 revisions

Some Neovim users / plugin authors campaign against luarocks adoption, because they believe it will be made redudundant by packspec/pkg.json.

Tip

Don't worry, you can still find their plugins on luarocks, thanks to the NURR.

To address some of those concerns:

I see packspec (or whatever "wild west half-baked dependencies declaration format") as merely a high-leverage, low-effort way to start formally connecting the existing web of vim/nvim dependencies. It doesn't preclude a luarocks approach at all, it simply formalizes what already exists--assuming it gets any traction.

If Nvim plugins can successfully use luarocks then pkg.json is redundant. pkg.json is only useful for ecosystems that don’t have centralized package management.

  • Luarocks will likely never be bundled with Neovim.

    • Instead, we will soon be bundling it with rocks.nvim.
    • You will only need to bootstrap a temporary installation, which currently works well on most UNIX-like systems.

  • Packspec's main strength is its decentralized, "infectious" approach:

LuaRocks is a "centralized" approach that requires active participation from many plugins. In contrast, pkg.json is a decentralized, "infectious" approach that is useful at the "leaf nodes": it only requires the consumer to provide a pkg.json, the upstream dependencies don't need to be "compliant" or participate in any way.

  • This ends at transitive dependencies. If

    • plugin X depends on library Y and library Y has any dependencies
    • library Y does not contain a pkg.json

    a packspec-compliant plugin manager will pull library A without its dependencies. There's a reason decentralized package management hasn't ever been a thing (save for nix flakes, which are experimental and have their own problems).

  • Concerns about an initial lack of luarocks adoption can be (and have been) addressed by the fact that package maintainers and plugin authors don't need to be the same people.

  • Luarocks has the ability to build and package plugins. This is out of scope for pkg.json and will require out-of-spec fields. With this, we can precompile binary rocks so you don't have to.

  • Luarocks is a full-fledged package manager that supports the coexistence of different versions of the same dependency.

  • Luarocks is the status quo for Lua packages outside of the Neovim ecosystem.

  • Packspec is in Alpha and incomplete.

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