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openwrt-feeds/README.md
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jackos1998 53720becf1 feeds: Vendor repository indexes
Keep the native APK indexes alongside the expanded package
metadata so image builds do not fetch mutable repository state.

Generate pins atomically and retry transient generation failures.
2026-08-23 23:04:26 +01:00

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# openwrt-feeds
Pinned OpenWrt package feed hashes for use with
[`astro/nix-openwrt-imagebuilder`](https://github.com/astro/nix-openwrt-imagebuilder).
Take this repo as a flake input and pass one of its `cachePaths` to that project's `cachePath`, and
image builds resolve their packages from these pins instead of from whatever the download server is
serving today:
```nix
openwrt-imagebuilder.lib.build {
inherit pkgs;
release = "snapshot";
cachePath = openwrt-feeds.cachePaths.snapshot;
target = "realtek";
variant = "rtl930x";
profile = "xikestor_sks8300-8x";
packages = [ "luci" ];
}
```
`cachePaths` has one entry per pinned release. A flake's source is copied to the store, so each is
an importable store path.
Everything under `cache/` is generated. Nothing here is hand-written.
## Why this exists
`nix-openwrt-imagebuilder` ships hashes for the OpenWrt download server, but only at the level of
each feed's *index* (`packages.adb`), not the packages inside it. When an index hash no longer
matches, two things happen:
- The build fails outright with `hash mismatch in fixed-output derivation`.
- Resolving the package list falls back to import-from-derivation, so *evaluation* needs the
network and can fail for reasons unrelated to what is being evaluated. In a flake that also
describes other systems, that turns an OpenWrt feed rebuild into an evaluation failure for
everything else in the flake.
Those indexes move constantly. Snapshot is rebuilt daily, and release feeds are no better:
`releases/<version>/packages/` is a symlink to the rolling `packages-<major>` feed shared by every
point release, so it changes whenever any package in it is rebuilt. Upstream refreshes its hashes
once a day and routinely loses that race.
Regenerating locally writes the *expanded* per-package files (`cache/<release>/packages/<arch>/`),
which `nix-openwrt-imagebuilder` imports directly. It also vendors the repository indexes and
rewrites their generated `sourceInfo.url` values to flake-local `file://` URLs. That removes the
import-from-derivation, keeps image builds from fetching mutable indexes, leaves every `.apk` as a
plain pinned `fetchurl`, and makes the pin something to move deliberately rather than something
upstream moves daily.
The generated files are large — a few MB per release, rewritten wholesale each time — which is why
they are kept in a repository of their own rather than in the history of whatever consumes them.
## Regenerating
From a checkout:
```sh
nix run .#update
```
This rewrites `cache/` for every entry in `pins` in `flake.nix`. Review and commit the result, then
update the pin in the consuming flake.
Pass a release to regenerate only that pin:
```sh
nix run .#update -- 25.12.5
```
Each release is generated in a temporary directory and replaces its existing cache only after all
metadata and repository indexes have been fetched successfully. Transiently inconsistent upstream
metadata therefore leaves the existing pin intact.
Adding a release or target means adding it to `pins` and re-running. Note that
`cache/<release>/default.nix` lists every target in the release, but only the ones generated here
exist on disk; the others are referenced lazily and are never evaluated.
## Layout
| Path | Contents |
|---|---|
| `cache/<release>/default.nix` | Per-target entry points for the release |
| `cache/<release>/indexes/` | Vendored package repository indexes used by the image build |
| `cache/<release>/targets/<target>/<variant>/` | ImageBuilder hash, `profiles.json` extract, kmod and target package feeds |
| `cache/<release>/packages/<arch>.nix` | Feed index hashes for the target's architecture |
| `cache/<release>/packages/<arch>/<feed>.nix` | Expanded per-package versions, dependencies and hashes |
## Mirroring
`git.nul.ie/dev/openwrt-feeds` is canonical; it is push-mirrored to
`github.com/devplayer0/openwrt-feeds`.