nixos/config: add defaultPackages option

readd perl (used in shell scripts), rsync (needed for NixOps) and strace (common debugging tool)

they where previously removed in https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/91213

Co-authored-by: Timo Kaufmann <timokau@zoho.com>
Co-authored-by: 8573 <8573@users.noreply.github.com>

1 files changed, 5 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2009.xml b/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2009.xml
index ce78bda8505..3b5cb470df0 100644
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2009.xml
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2009.xml
@@ -1016,7 +1016,11 @@ services.transmission.settings.rpc-bind-address = "0.0.0.0";
     <para>
      Nginx module <literal>nginxModules.fastcgi-cache-purge</literal> renamed to official name <literal>nginxModules.cache-purge</literal>.
      Nginx module <literal>nginxModules.ngx_aws_auth</literal> renamed to official name <literal>nginxModules.aws-auth</literal>.
-      The packages <package>perl</package>, <package>rsync</package> and <package>strace</package> were removed from <option>systemPackages</option>. If you need them, install them again with <code><xref linkend="opt-environment.systemPackages"/> = with pkgs; [ perl rsync strace ];</code> in your <filename>configuration.nix</filename>.
+    </para>
+   </listitem>
+   <listitem>
+    <para>
+      The option <option>defaultPackages</option> was added. It installs the packages <package>perl</package>, <package>rsync</package> and <package>strace</package> for now. They were added unconditionally to <option>systemPackages</option> before, but are not strictly necessary for a minimal NixOS install. You can set it to an empty list to have a more minimal system. Be aware that some functionality might still have an impure dependency on those packages, so things might break.
     </para>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>