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1 | -*- mode: org -*- |
2 | ||
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3 | [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/][GNU Guix]] (IPA: /ɡiːks/) is a purely functional package manager, and |
4 | associated free software distribution, for the [[https://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu.html][GNU system]]. In addition | |
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5 | to standard package management features, Guix supports transactional |
6 | upgrades and roll-backs, unprivileged package management, per-user | |
7 | profiles, and garbage collection. | |
b7a7f598 | 8 | |
e8d8ecde | 9 | It provides [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/][Guile]] Scheme APIs, including a high-level embedded |
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10 | domain-specific languages (EDSLs) to describe how packages are to be |
11 | built and composed. | |
b7a7f598 | 12 | |
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13 | GNU Guix can be used on top of an already-installed GNU/Linux distribution, or |
14 | it can be used standalone (we call that “Guix System”). | |
a65e3306 | 15 | |
e8d8ecde | 16 | Guix is based on the [[https://nixos.org/nix/][Nix]] package manager. |
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17 | |
18 | ||
e9f6d6dd | 19 | * Requirements |
4255d4e3 | 20 | |
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21 | If you are building Guix from source, please see the manual for build |
22 | instructions and requirements, either by running: | |
4255d4e3 | 23 | |
c75a8018 | 24 | info -f doc/guix.info "Requirements" |
4255d4e3 | 25 | |
c75a8018 | 26 | or by checking the [[https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Requirements.html][web copy of the manual]]. |
e9f6d6dd | 27 | |
8b2d9e5d | 28 | * Installation |
4255d4e3 | 29 | |
8b2d9e5d | 30 | See the manual for the installation instructions, either by running |
4255d4e3 | 31 | |
8efc35a8 | 32 | info -f doc/guix.info "Installation" |
7da7ae93 | 33 | |
c75a8018 | 34 | or by checking the [[https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Installation.html][web copy of the manual]]. |
7da7ae93 | 35 | |
b5aaa3a4 | 36 | * Building from Git |
7da7ae93 | 37 | |
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38 | For information on building Guix from a Git checkout, please see the relevant |
39 | section in the manual, either by running | |
43d8f490 | 40 | |
b5aaa3a4 | 41 | info -f doc/guix.info "Building from Git" |
8db351e3 | 42 | |
b5aaa3a4 | 43 | or by checking the [[https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Building-from-Git.html][web_copy of the manual]]. |
43d8f490 | 44 | |
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45 | * How It Works |
46 | ||
47 | Guix does the high-level preparation of a /derivation/. A derivation is | |
48 | the promise of a build; it is stored as a text file under | |
d17ef356 | 49 | =/gnu/store/xxx.drv=. The (guix derivations) module provides the |
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50 | `derivation' primitive, as well as higher-level wrappers such as |
51 | `build-expression->derivation'. | |
52 | ||
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53 | Guix does remote procedure calls (RPCs) to the build daemon (the =guix-daemon= |
54 | command), which in turn performs builds and accesses to the store on its | |
55 | behalf. The RPCs are implemented in the (guix store) module. | |
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56 | |
57 | * Contact | |
58 | ||
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59 | GNU Guix is hosted at https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/guix/. |
60 | ||
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61 | Please email <help-guix@gnu.org> for questions and <bug-guix@gnu.org> for bug |
62 | reports; email <gnu-system-discuss@gnu.org> for general issues regarding the | |
63 | GNU system. | |
a65e3306 | 64 | |
c0087d33 | 65 | Join #guix on irc.libera.chat. |
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66 | |
67 | * Guix & Nix | |
68 | ||
e8d8ecde | 69 | GNU Guix is based on [[https://nixos.org/nix/][the Nix package manager]]. It implements the same |
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70 | package deployment paradigm, and in fact it reuses some of its code. |
71 | Yet, different engineering decisions were made for Guix, as described | |
72 | below. | |
73 | ||
74 | Nix is really two things: a package build tool, implemented by a library | |
75 | and daemon, and a special-purpose programming language. GNU Guix relies | |
76 | on the former, but uses Scheme as a replacement for the latter. | |
77 | ||
78 | Using Scheme instead of a specific language allows us to get all the | |
79 | features and tooling that come with Guile (compiler, debugger, REPL, | |
80 | Unicode, libraries, etc.) And it means that we have a general-purpose | |
81 | language, on top of which we can have embedded domain-specific languages | |
82 | (EDSLs), such as the one used to define packages. This broadens what | |
83 | can be done in package recipes themselves, and what can be done around them. | |
84 | ||
85 | Technically, Guix makes remote procedure calls to the ‘nix-worker’ | |
86 | daemon to perform operations on the store. At the lowest level, Nix | |
87 | “derivations” represent promises of a build, stored in ‘.drv’ files in | |
88 | the store. Guix produces such derivations, which are then interpreted | |
89 | by the daemon to perform the build. Thus, Guix derivations can use | |
90 | derivations produced by Nix (and vice versa). | |
91 | ||
e8d8ecde | 92 | With Nix and the [[https://nixos.org/nixpkgs][Nixpkgs]] distribution, package composition happens at |
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93 | the Nix language level, but builders are usually written in Bash. |
94 | Conversely, Guix encourages the use of Scheme for both package | |
95 | composition and builders. Likewise, the core functionality of Nix is | |
96 | written in C++ and Perl; Guix relies on some of the original C++ code, | |
97 | but exposes all the API as Scheme. | |
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98 | |
99 | * Related software | |
100 | ||
e8d8ecde | 101 | - [[https://nixos.org][Nix, Nixpkgs, and NixOS]], functional package manager and associated |
d38487e9 | 102 | software distribution, are the inspiration of Guix |
e8d8ecde | 103 | - [[https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/][GNU Stow]] builds around the idea of one directory per prefix, and a |
d38487e9 | 104 | symlink tree to create user environments |
e8d8ecde | 105 | - [[https://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~arnej/store/storedoc_6.html][STORE]] shares the same idea |
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106 | - [[https://live.gnome.org/OSTree/][GNOME's OSTree]] allows bootable system images to be built from a |
107 | specified set of packages | |
e8d8ecde | 108 | - The [[https://www.gnu.org/s/gsrc/][GNU Source Release Collection]] (GSRC) is a user-land software |
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109 | distribution; unlike Guix, it relies on core tools available on the |
110 | host system |