dart-flutter-nix

Tools for compiling Flutter and Dart projects with Nix

Examples

github:FlafyDev/guifetch - Flutter project
github:FlafyDev/listen_blue - Flutter project

Packaging a Flutter project

Tested versions: Flutter v3.0.4, v3.3.3

1. run deps2nix

deps2nix has to be built with your version of Flutter as a dependency (It can't take flutter from path as it requires flutter.unwrapped).

system: let
  pkgs = import nixpkgs {
    inherit system;
    overlays = [ dart-flutter.overlays.default ];
  }; 
in {
  devShell = pkgs.mkShell {
    packages = [
      pkgs.deps2nix
      # or explicitly match your version of Flutter
      (pkgs.deps2nix.override {
        flutter = pkgs.flutter2;
      })
    ];
  };
}

Once you have deps2nix, run it at the root of your Flutter project and wait for it to download everything.
After deps2nix is done, a file named deps2nix.lock will be created at the root of your Flutter project.

2. Making a derivation with buildFlutterApp

Now that you have the deps2nix.lock. All that's left is to make a package with buildFlutterApp:

{ buildFlutterApp }:

buildFlutterApp {
  pname = "pname";
  version = "version";

  # Opitonal: 
  # depsFile = <path> (default = src/deps2nix.lock)

  src = ./.;
}

depsFile can be set to override the default location of deps2nix.lock (the root of the Flutter project.)
Setting configurePhase, buildPhase, or installPhase will do nothing. Consider using pre and post instead.

To explicitly state which Flutter to use.

pkgs.callPackage ./package.nix {
  buildFlutterApp = pkgs.buildFlutterApp.override {
    flutter = pkgs.flutter2;
  };
}

Packaging a Dart project

The process is similar to buildFlutterApp

{ buildDartApp }:

buildDartApp {
  pname = "pname";
  version = "version";

  # Opitonal: 
  # depsFile = <path> (default = src/deps2nix.lock)
  # dartRuntimeFlags = <list of strings> (default = []) 
  # jit = <bool> (default = false)

  src = ./.;
}

DevShells for Flutter projects

You can create a devShell for Flutter projects with mkFlutterShell similar to how you would with mkShell. You can get mkFlutterShell through the default overlay (overlays.default).

let
  pkgs = import nixpkgs {
    inherit system;
    overlays = [ dart-flutter.overlays.default ];
  };
in
{
  devShell = pkgs.mkFlutterShell {
    # Enable if you want to build you app for mobile.
    android = {
      enable = true; # Default: false
      buildToolsVersions = [ "29-0-2" ]; # Default: [ "30-0-3" ]
      platformsAndroidVersions = [ "32" ]; # Default: [ "31" ]
      androidStudio = false; # Default: false
      emulator = false; # Default: false
    };

    # Enable if you want to build your app for the Linux desktop.
    linux = {
      enable = true; # Default: false
    };

    # This function also acts like `mkShell`, so you can still do:
    buildInputs = with pkgs; [
      gst_all_1.gstreamer
      gst_all_1.gst-libav
      gst_all_1.gst-plugins-base
      gst_all_1.gst-plugins-good
      libunwind
      elfutils
      zstd
      orc
    ];
  };
}

Sources

These sources helped me understand how Flutter downloads stuff.

• https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/build-support/flutter/default.nix
• https://github.com/ilkecan/flutter-nix
• https://github.com/tadfisher/nix-dart