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   - [[http://gnu.org/software/guile/][GNU Guile 2.0.x]]
  19   - [[http://nixos.org/nix/][Nix]]
  20   - [[http://gnupg.org/][GNU libgcrypt]], or [[http://nongnu.org/libchop/][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 the `--with-nixpkgs' option allows you to let `configure' know where the
  25 Nixpkgs checkout is.
  26
  27   - [[http://nixos.org/nixpkgs/][Nixpkgs]]
  28
  29 When building Guix from a checkout, the following packages are also
  30 required:
  31
  32   - [[http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/][GNU Autoconf]]
  33   - [[http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/][GNU Automake]]
  34   - [[http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/][GNU Gettext]]
  35
  36 The "autoreconf -vi" command can be used to generate the build system
  37 infrastructure; it reports an error if an inappropriate version of the
  38 above packages is being used.
  39
  40 * How It Works
  41
  42 Guix does the high-level preparation of a /derivation/.  A derivation is
  43 the promise of a build; it is stored as a text file under
  44 =/nix/store/xxx.drv=.  The (guix derivations) module provides the
  45 `derivation' primitive, as well as higher-level wrappers such as
  46 `build-expression->derivation'.
  47
  48 Guix does remote procedure calls (RPCs) to the Nix daemon (the
  49 =nix-worker --daemon= command), which in turn performs builds and
  50 accesses to the Nix store on its behalf.  The RPCs are implemented in
  51 the (guix store) module.
  52
  53 * Contact
  54
  55 The repository is at <https://gitorious.org/guix/>.
  56
  57 Please email <ludo@gnu.org> or <nix-dev@lists.science.uu.nl>, or
  58 join #guile or #nixos on irc.freenode.net or `civodul'.