what to do with packages that are also in nixpkgs?

[bbjubjub2494]

Context

The script attacked indicates that the following packages in are also in nixpkgs:

• besu
• blst
• eigenlayer
• erigon
• foundry
• geth (false negative since it's called go-ethereum)
• heimdall false positive due to a namesake
• lighthouse
• mev-boost
• reth

list_nixpkgs_packages.py

Description

Are there benefits to having these derivations duplicated here? If not we would be better served by replacing them with aliases to nixpkgs-unstable (along with an automated flake update flow)

Before submitting

• I have verified that my idea is a change request and not a bug report

[aldoborrero]

Originally, the idea was to have faster updates here compared to the mambo jambo of updating them on nixpkgs. That said, I don't think it's that relevant these days.

[selfuryon]

I still think we need to have them in this repo otherwise it's strange to have "ethereum" in the name without some major packages :) And we should be faster to update, yes (need to fix our updates)

[bbjubjub2494]

We should definitely highlight those packages that are already in Nixpkgs, but I feel like the process of half-copypasting and then rebuilding them on nix-community is wasted effort that would be better spent on packaging the more fancy and bleeding edge stuff that isn't in Nixpkgs. I get the impression that Nixpkgs has gotten better with merging times as well, so hopefully we can go help over there and get the best possible result this way...

[thalin]

I think that there's value to having modules for these packages here even if the packages themselves are in nixpkgs. It seems to me modules for most of these packages either don't tend to be as extensive or often exist at all in nixpkgs. For example, besu doesn't seem to have any options at all even though the package itself is in nixpkgs.

In summary: package the stuff that's not already upstream, make awesome modules for as much as possible.

I would love to see this be easy to use - something like the eth-docker project is, but for NixOS. This should be the place people go to get the easiest, fastest, most well-supported ethereum setup as well as being able to customize it as much as their situation calls for (something I think eth-docker doesn't do very well).