---
title: "It's not about “Flakes vs. Channels” — Samuel Dionne-Riel"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/it-s-not-about-flakes-vs-channels-samuel-dionne-riel-8btcbrsyd
source_url: https://samuel.dionne-riel.com/blog/2024/05/07/its-not-flakes-vs-channels.html
type: article
source: "Lobsters"
published: 2024-05-08T23:52:11.576Z
updated: 2024-08-22T02:12:56.459Z
tags: ["nixos"]
reading_time: 7
upvotes: 0
comments: 0
language: en
---

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# It's not about “Flakes vs. Channels” — Samuel Dionne-Riel

**[Lobsters](https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

The post discusses the different meanings of the term 'channels' in the NixOS ecosystem and clarifies that not using 'Flakes' is not the same as using 'channels'. It explains the various aspects of channels, including their organizational and conceptual definitions, the 'channel:...' syntax, Hydra channels (deprecated), the 'NIX_PATH' environment variable, and the 'nix-channel' command. It also mentions other ways to manage inputs, such as using 'fetchTarball' and 'npins'.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://samuel.dionne-riel.com/blog/2024/05/07/its-not-flakes-vs-channels.html>

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---

Tags: [#nixos](https://daily.dev/tags/nixos)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/it-s-not-about-flakes-vs-channels-samuel-dionne-riel-8btcbrsyd)