+# Deprecated
+
+Now that [flakes](https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Flakes) are more or less ready for
+general use, this is mostly of historical interest.
+
+
+# Pinch
+
+PIN CHannels - a simple drop-in replacement for `nix-channel --update`.
+
+Example usage, being invoked on the example "channels" file included here:
+
+ $ python3 pinch.py pin channels
+ $ python3 pinch.py update channels
+
+
+The first "pin" command will add these fields to the file:
+
+ [nixos]
+ channel_url = https://channels.nixos.org/nixos-20.03
+ git_repo = https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs.git
+ git_ref = nixos-20.03
+ +release_name = nixos-20.03beta1155.29eddfc36d7
+ +tarball_url = https://releases.nixos.org/nixos/20.03/nixos-20.03beta1155.29eddfc36d7/nixexprs.tar.xz
+ +tarball_sha256 = 9c1d182af2af64e5e8799e256a4a6dc1fed324ba06cb5f76c938dc63b64f0959
+ +git_revision = 29eddfc36d720dcc4822581175217543b387b1e8
+
+ [nixos-hardware]
+ git_repo = https://github.com/NixOS/nixos-hardware.git
+ git_ref = master
+ +release_name = nixos-hardware.git-1585241157-edb7199b5c4
+ +git_revision = edb7199b5c4f1db34a7253d4cabf6cf690521a92
+
+The second "update" command applies these changes to your nix channels, like `nix-channel --update` does.
+
+### Feature comparison
+
+| Feature | nix-channel | [require.nix][] | [niv][] | [flakes][] | pinch |
+| ---------------------------- | :---------: | :-------------: | :-----: | :--------: | :---: |
+| Same version across machines | - | yes | yes | yes | yes |
+| Verifies hashes | - | ? | yes | yes | yes |
+| Fetch from git | - | ? | yes | yes | yes |
+| Fetch from git with ssh key | - | ? | yes | yes? | yes |
+| command_not_found_handle | yes | ? | - | yes | yes |
+| Verifies tarball == git repo | - | - | - | - | yes |
+| Rejects force pushes | - | - | - | - | yes |
+| Ready to use today | yes | - | yes | yes | yes |
+
+[require.nix]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHOLjsyXPtM
+[niv]: https://github.com/nmattia/niv
+[flakes]: https://github.com/nixos/rfcs/pull/49