README

   1 -*- mode: org -*-
   2
   3 Guix is Nix[0] from Guile[1]!
   4
   5 Concretely, it allows Nix package management to be done entirely in
   6 Scheme. The goal is to investigate whether Scheme, and in particular
   7 the ability to define EDSLs, would allow it to fulfill the role of the
   8 Nix language.
   9
  10 [0] http://nixos.org/nix/
  11 [1] http://gnu.org/software/guile/
  12
  13
  14 * Hacking
  15
  16 Guix currently depends on the following packages:
  17
  18   - GNU Guile 2.0.x, http://gnu.org/software/guile/
  19   - Nix, http://nixos.org/nix/
  20   - libchop, http://nongnu.org/libchop/
  21
  22 For bootstrapping purposes, it is useful to reuse packages from Nixpkgs.
  23 For this to work, you need to have a checkout of the Nixpkgs repository,
  24 with the `NIXPKGS' environment variable pointing to it.
  25
  26   - Nixpkgs, http://nixos.org/nixpkgs/
  27
  28 * How It Works
  29
  30 Guix does the high-level preparation of a /derivation/.  A derivation is
  31 the promise of a build; it is stored as a text file under
  32 =/nix/store/xxx.drv=.  The (guix derivations) module provides the
  33 `derivation' primitive, as well as higher-level wrappers such as
  34 `build-expression->derivation'.
  35
  36 Guix does remote procedure calls (RPCs) to the Nix daemon (the
  37 =nix-worker --daemon= command), which in turn performs builds and
  38 accesses to the Nix store on its behalf.  The RPCs are implemented in
  39 the (guix store) module.
  40
  41 * Contact
  42
  43 The repository is at <https://gitorious.org/guix/>.
  44
  45 Please email <ludo@gnu.org> or <nix-dev@lists.science.uu.nl>, or
  46 join #guile or #nixos on irc.freenode.net or `civodul'.