README

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