2.2 KiB
Freeform modules
Freeform modules allow you to define values for option paths that have
not been declared explicitly. This can be used to add attribute-specific
types to what would otherwise have to be attrsOf options in order to
accept all attribute names.
This feature can be enabled by using the attribute freeformType to
define a freeform type. By doing this, all assignments without an
associated option will be merged using the freeform type and combined
into the resulting config set. Since this feature nullifies name
checking for entire option trees, it is only recommended for use in
submodules.
::: {#ex-freeform-module .example}
Freeform submodule
The following shows a submodule assigning a freeform type that allows
arbitrary attributes with str values below settings, but also
declares an option for the settings.port attribute to have it
type-checked and assign a default value. See
Example: Declaring a type-checked settings attribute
for a more complete example.
{ lib, config, ... }: {
options.settings = lib.mkOption {
type = lib.types.submodule {
freeformType = with lib.types; attrsOf str;
# We want this attribute to be checked for the correct type
options.port = lib.mkOption {
type = lib.types.port;
# Declaring the option also allows defining a default value
default = 8080;
};
};
};
}
And the following shows what such a module then allows
{
# Not a declared option, but the freeform type allows this
settings.logLevel = "debug";
# Not allowed because the the freeform type only allows strings
# settings.enable = true;
# Allowed because there is a port option declared
settings.port = 80;
# Not allowed because the port option doesn't allow strings
# settings.port = "443";
}
:::
::: {.note} Freeform attributes cannot depend on other attributes of the same set without infinite recursion:
{
# This throws infinite recursion encountered
settings.logLevel = lib.mkIf (config.settings.port == 80) "debug";
}
To prevent this, declare options for all attributes that need to depend
on others. For above example this means to declare logLevel to be an
option.
:::