[zombiezen]

That's accurate (unless the config file attempts to read something from the build process, that will trigger a build).

It's a good point about debugging build problems. This is an issue I've experienced in Nix and Bazel as well. I'm not convinced that I have a great solution yet, but at least for my own debugging while using the system, I've included a `zb derivation env` command which spits out a .env file that matches the environment the builder runs under. I'd like to extend that to pop open a shell.

[pdimitar]

Surface-level feedback: get rid of the word "derivation". Surely there must be a better way to describe the underlying thing...

[imiric]

Agreed! It's such an alien term to describe something quite mundane. Language clarity is a big part of a friendly UI.

[umanwizard]

What’s wrong with it? It’s a term of art that means a specific thing in both nix and guix; it’d just be confusing if zb renamed it to something else.

[nurettin]

It is the name of a feature in Nix. This is as obfuscated as calling a rock a rock.

[skybrian]

One thing I like to see is a 'dry run' like 'make -n'. Although, maybe that's not possible in all cases.

Another possibility might be to output a something like a shell script that would do a rebuild the same way, so you can see what it did and hack it when debugging.

[photonthug]

Yes. Dry runs at least, and better yet terraform-style planning that produces an artifact that can be applied. These should really be more common with all kinds of software