This Week in Ekala #5

Welcome to This Week in Ekala #5! Here's what happened this week.

Highlights

• PostgreSQL gained pg_config, a PGXS extension builder, and a dedicated postgresPackages namespace
• Build phases no longer need to manually call pre/post hooks — setup.sh handles them as first-class actions
• ekapkgs added 20+ home-manager modules and popular desktop packages like Chromium, Electron, and VS Code
• The ekapkgs CLI got chunk compression, cache metrics, and new service/dev-shell scaffolding commands

corepkgs

3 best-practice sweep PRs and a downstream-fixes PR landed, normalizing package definitions across the tree.

• postgresql: expose pg_config and add PGXS extension builder
  Ported relocatable pg_config and a PGXS extension builder from nixpkgs, unblocking buildPgrxExtension and all PGXS-based PostgreSQL extensions. Contributed by @ic4-y.
• postgresPackages: init
  Created a dedicated postgresPackages namespace and overlay for PostgreSQL extensions.
• stdenv: support extensions attr
  Added an extensions attribute to mkDerivation, allowing optional compile-time variants (e.g. gtk, odbc) to be communicated without clobbering the package name.
• Promote pre+post hooks to separately defined actions
  Made pre/post hooks first-class citizens in setup.sh so build phases no longer need to invoke them manually, simplifying every builder in the tree.
• Java v8 and utilities / python: use mkManyVariants
  Added Java v8, fetchMavenArtifact, and JRE certificate generation, and migrated Python to mkManyVariants enabling python.extendVariants.
• CMake entries rewrite
  Continued the transition from cmakeFlags to the structured cmakeEntries API across LLVM, protobuf, and dozens of other packages.

ekapkgs

23 database and data-infrastructure packages were added (Kafka, Cassandra, Neo4j, SurrealDB, and more), 3 C/C++/Zig packages landed, and a best-practices sweep fixed up existing package definitions. Contributed by @ic4-y.

• More home modules
  Added 20+ home-manager modules including programs (emacs, fish, zsh, tmux, kitty, ghostty, mpv, zathura) and services (dunst, mako, mpd, gammastep, cliphist, udiskie, darkman).
• Add popular packages
  Brought in Chromium, Firefox build support (buildMozillaMach), Electron, VS Code, Bitwarden Desktop, Dolphin Emulator, Deluge, and many more popular desktop and GUI applications.

ekapkgs-cli

2 incremental PRs improved home/system commands and added cache usage inspection.

• Service improvements
  Added ekapkgs env, ekapkgs try, and ekapkgs status commands along with service template scaffolding and agent skills for dev-shell and home-service creation.
• Cache improvements
  Introduced zstd compression for larger chunks and inlined sub-1KB chunks into B-tree pages, reducing storage overhead and improving cache read performance.

ekapkgs-update

• Add review command
  Added an ekapkgs-update review command for reviewing PRs, defaulting to ekala-project/ekapkgs but supporting any repository.