NixOS reports progress on replacing its old wiki
The May newsletter describes ongoing documentation migration and points readers to community replacements. The old server's removal separates retiring a service from updating the knowledge it held.
Turning off a documentation server does not finish updating its content. The May 19, 2017 NixOS Weekly reports ongoing work to update and migrate the old wiki, then directs readers to replacement resources. Its linked server-removal patch shows the operational side of retirement. Together, the sources describe a documentation transition already in progress, rather than the beginning of a new migration on the newsletter's publication date.
The distinction matters for anyone trying to recover a working configuration from older instructions. A redirect can send a reader to a current entry point. It cannot establish that an old example has been reviewed or that its replacement exists. The newsletter's contribution is to identify where readers and contributors can continue that work after the old service has gone.
My interest in Nix is grounded in declarative configuration. Documentation has particular importance in that model because an example may become part of a machine's desired state. An accessible page needs to communicate which configuration it describes, rather than relying on its continued availability as evidence that its instructions remain current.
Editing had already stopped
The server patch is dated May 3. It removes a MediaWiki subservice whose configuration already disables editing for anonymous and registered users. The old site notice says the wiki is outdated and directs contributors to the Nixpkgs "Move the wiki!" milestone.
That existing notice establishes that migration work predates this server removal. The old service had become a read-only source with an explicit instruction to move documentation. The May newsletter likewise characterizes the effort as ongoing. Describing May 19 as the first day of migration would erase the state visible in both sources.
The patch removes MediaWiki-related configuration and redirects /wiki traffic to the wiki information page. It also removes the obsolete wiki.nixos.org virtual host and its older redirects. The result is a different route for readers, with the legacy application no longer configured as the place serving those pages.
The PostgreSQL service is removed too. The patch's description says MediaWiki was its last user. This makes the operational benefit concrete without inventing a numerical saving. Retiring the application lets the configuration stop declaring the database service that remained solely for it.
Replacement resources have different contribution routes
The newsletter names the Community Cookbook and the nixos-users wiki as current options. It explicitly says that anyone with a GitHub account can edit the latter. That is actionable information for somebody who discovers an omission or wants to contribute a corrected example.
These links do not establish that the replacements contain every old page. The newsletter describes migration and updating as work, which leaves room for incomplete coverage. A reader looking for an old procedure may still need to identify where the relevant material belongs and whether somebody has already checked it.
That is a useful distinction between moving bytes and maintaining instructions. Copying a page can preserve a historical explanation while also preserving obsolete assumptions. Updating the content requires understanding the operation being described. The newsletter puts both verbs together because a documentation transition needs both activities.
I prefer this explicit account of the available destinations to an assertion that all knowledge has simply moved. It gives readers a contribution route while acknowledging the continuing work. The server configuration proves the service change, but the quality and coverage of replacement instructions remain separate questions.
The surrounding issue emphasizes practical discovery
The same edition introduces a tooling section. Its entries include a script that creates garbage-collection roots for dependencies of a shell.nix, a cached package-query tool and Zsh completions. The newsletter describes these as potentially useful tools, rather than presenting every linked repository as a standard part of Nix.
That editorial distinction is relevant to the wiki transition. Community material often helps users bridge a specific gap before a general solution becomes documented elsewhere. A digest can make such work discoverable, while a cookbook or wiki can give a procedure a more durable home with room for correction.
The issue also links material about Nix channels and reproducible environments, Maven packaging and using NixOS for Time Machine backups. Those are examples of the kinds of practical knowledge that need a clear destination. Their presence does not mean the wiki migration has absorbed them, only that the newsletter points readers toward work they may need.
A retirement needs an entry point
The new redirect retains an obvious starting point for requests under the former wiki path. That preserves a route from an old link to guidance about documentation without continuing to run the old application. It also avoids treating a legacy database and application configuration as permanent requirements merely because the URL is familiar.
The May report leaves the documentation task with the community resources it names and the migration work it links. Contributors can use the published route for edits instead of trying to revive editing on the retired service. Readers can distinguish that current contribution path from the historical pages whose content still needs review.