5 @setfilename guix-cookbook.info
6 @documentencoding UTF-8
7 @settitle GNU Guix Cookbook
11 Copyright @copyright{} 2019 Ricardo Wurmus@*
12 Copyright @copyright{} 2019 Efraim Flashner@*
13 Copyright @copyright{} 2019 Pierre Neidhardt@*
14 Copyright @copyright{} 2020 Oleg Pykhalov@*
15 Copyright @copyright{} 2020 Matthew Brooks@*
16 Copyright @copyright{} 2020 Marcin Karpezo@*
17 Copyright @copyright{} 2020 Brice Waegeneire@*
18 Copyright @copyright{} 2020 André Batista@*
19 Copyright @copyright{} 2020 Christopher Lemmer Webber
20 Copyright @copyright{} 2021 Joshua Branson@*
22 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
23 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
24 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
25 Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A
26 copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free
27 Documentation License''.
30 @dircategory System administration
32 * Guix cookbook: (guix-cookbook). Tutorials and examples for GNU Guix.
36 @title GNU Guix Cookbook
37 @subtitle Tutorials and examples for using the GNU Guix Functional Package Manager
38 @author The GNU Guix Developers
41 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
48 @c *********************************************************************
50 @top GNU Guix Cookbook
52 This document presents tutorials and detailed examples for GNU@tie{}Guix, a
53 functional package management tool written for the GNU system. Please
54 @pxref{Top,,, guix, GNU Guix reference manual} for details about the system,
55 its API, and related concepts.
57 @c TRANSLATORS: You can replace the following paragraph with information on
58 @c how to join your own translation team and how to report issues with the
60 If you would like to translate this document in your native language, consider
62 @uref{https://translate.fedoraproject.org/projects/guix/documentation-cookbook,
66 * Scheme tutorials:: Meet your new favorite language!
67 * Packaging:: Packaging tutorials
68 * System Configuration:: Customizing the GNU System
69 * Advanced package management:: Power to the users!
70 * Environment management:: Control environment
72 * Acknowledgments:: Thanks!
73 * GNU Free Documentation License:: The license of this document.
74 * Concept Index:: Concepts.
77 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---
81 * A Scheme Crash Course:: Learn the basics of Scheme
85 * Packaging Tutorial:: Let's add a package to Guix!
89 * Auto-Login to a Specific TTY:: Automatically Login a User to a Specific TTY
90 * Customizing the Kernel:: Creating and using a custom Linux kernel on Guix System.
95 @c *********************************************************************
96 @node Scheme tutorials
97 @chapter Scheme tutorials
99 GNU@tie{}Guix is written in the general purpose programming language Scheme,
100 and many of its features can be accessed and manipulated programmatically.
101 You can use Scheme to generate package definitions, to modify them, to build
102 them, to deploy whole operating systems, etc.
104 Knowing the basics of how to program in Scheme will unlock many of the
105 advanced features Guix provides --- and you don't even need to be an
106 experienced programmer to use them!
110 @node A Scheme Crash Course
111 @section A Scheme Crash Course
113 @cindex Scheme, crash course
115 Guix uses the Guile implementation of Scheme. To start playing with the
116 language, install it with @code{guix install guile} and start a
117 @dfn{REPL}---short for @uref{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read%E2%80%93eval%E2%80%93print_loop,
118 @dfn{read-eval-print loop}}---by running @code{guile} from the command line.
120 Alternatively you can also run @code{guix environment --ad-hoc guile -- guile}
121 if you'd rather not have Guile installed in your user profile.
123 In the following examples, lines show what you would type at the REPL;
124 lines starting with ``@result{}'' show evaluation results, while lines
125 starting with ``@print{}'' show things that get printed. @xref{Using Guile
126 Interactively,,, guile, GNU Guile Reference Manual}, for more details on the
131 Scheme syntax boils down to a tree of expressions (or @emph{s-expression} in
132 Lisp lingo). An expression can be a literal such as numbers and strings, or a
133 compound which is a parenthesized list of compounds and literals. @code{#true}
134 and @code{#false} (abbreviated @code{#t} and @code{#f}) stand for the
135 Booleans ``true'' and ``false'', respectively.
137 Examples of valid expressions:
141 @result{} "Hello World!"
146 (display (string-append "Hello " "Guix" "\n"))
148 @result{} #<unspecified>
152 This last example is a function call nested in another function call. When a
153 parenthesized expression is evaluated, the first term is the function and the
154 rest are the arguments passed to the function. Every function returns the
155 last evaluated expression as its return value.
158 Anonymous functions are declared with the @code{lambda} term:
162 @result{} #<procedure 120e348 at <unknown port>:24:0 (x)>
165 The above procedure returns the square of its argument. Since everything is
166 an expression, the @code{lambda} expression returns an anonymous procedure,
167 which can in turn be applied to an argument:
170 ((lambda (x) (* x x)) 3)
175 Anything can be assigned a global name with @code{define}:
179 (define square (lambda (x) (* x x)))
185 Procedures can be defined more concisely with the following syntax:
188 (define (square x) (* x x))
192 A list structure can be created with the @code{list} procedure:
200 The @dfn{quote} disables evaluation of a parenthesized expression: the
201 first term is not called over the other terms (@pxref{Expression Syntax,
202 quote,, guile, GNU Guile Reference Manual}). Thus it effectively
203 returns a list of terms.
206 '(display (string-append "Hello " "Guix" "\n"))
207 @result{} (display (string-append "Hello " "Guix" "\n"))
214 The @dfn{quasiquote} disables evaluation of a parenthesized expression
215 until @dfn{unquote} (a comma) re-enables it. Thus it provides us with
216 fine-grained control over what is evaluated and what is not.
219 `(2 a 5 7 (2 ,a 5 ,(+ a 4)))
220 @result{} (2 a 5 7 (2 3 5 7))
223 Note that the above result is a list of mixed elements: numbers, symbols (here
224 @code{a}) and the last element is a list itself.
227 Multiple variables can be named locally with @code{let} (@pxref{Local
228 Bindings,,, guile, GNU Guile Reference Manual}):
241 @error{} In procedure module-lookup: Unbound variable: y
244 Use @code{let*} to allow later variable declarations to refer to earlier
255 @dfn{Keywords} are typically used to identify the named parameters of a
256 procedure. They are prefixed by @code{#:} (hash, colon) followed by
257 alphanumeric characters: @code{#:like-this}.
258 @xref{Keywords,,, guile, GNU Guile Reference Manual}.
261 The percentage @code{%} is typically used for read-only global variables in
262 the build stage. Note that it is merely a convention, like @code{_} in C.
263 Scheme treats @code{%} exactly the same as any other letter.
266 Modules are created with @code{define-module} (@pxref{Creating Guile
267 Modules,,, guile, GNU Guile Reference Manual}). For instance
270 (define-module (guix build-system ruby)
271 #:use-module (guix store)
276 defines the module @code{guix build-system ruby} which must be located in
277 @file{guix/build-system/ruby.scm} somewhere in the Guile load path. It
278 depends on the @code{(guix store)} module and it exports two variables,
279 @code{ruby-build} and @code{ruby-build-system}.
282 For a more detailed introduction, check out
283 @uref{http://www.troubleshooters.com/codecorn/scheme_guile/hello.htm, Scheme
284 at a Glance}, by Steve Litt.
286 One of the reference Scheme books is the seminal ``Structure and
287 Interpretation of Computer Programs'', by Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay
288 Sussman, with Julie Sussman. You'll find a
289 @uref{https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/sicp/index.html, free copy
290 online}, together with
291 @uref{https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-001-structure-and-interpretation-of-computer-programs-spring-2005/video-lectures/,
292 videos of the lectures by the authors}. The book is available in Texinfo
293 format as the @code{sicp} Guix package. Go ahead, run @code{guix install
294 sicp} and start reading with @code{info sicp} (@pxref{,,, sicp, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs}).
295 An @uref{https://sarabander.github.io/sicp/, unofficial ebook is also
298 You'll find more books, tutorials and other resources at
299 @url{https://schemers.org/}.
302 @c *********************************************************************
308 This chapter is dedicated to teaching you how to add packages to the
309 collection of packages that come with GNU Guix. This involves writing package
310 definitions in Guile Scheme, organizing them in package modules, and building
314 * Packaging Tutorial:: A tutorial on how to add packages to Guix.
317 @node Packaging Tutorial
318 @section Packaging Tutorial
320 GNU Guix stands out as the @emph{hackable} package manager, mostly because it
321 uses @uref{https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/, GNU Guile}, a powerful
322 high-level programming language, one of the
323 @uref{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheme_%28programming_language%29, Scheme}
325 @uref{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_%28programming_language%29, Lisp family}.
327 Package definitions are also written in Scheme, which empowers Guix in some
328 very unique ways, unlike most other package managers that use shell scripts or
333 Use functions, structures, macros and all of Scheme expressiveness for your
337 Inheritance makes it easy to customize a package by inheriting from it and
338 modifying only what is needed.
341 Batch processing: the whole package collection can be parsed, filtered and
342 processed. Building a headless server with all graphical interfaces stripped
343 out? It's possible. Want to rebuild everything from source using specific
344 compiler optimization flags? Pass the @code{#:make-flags "..."} argument to
345 the list of packages. It wouldn't be a stretch to think
346 @uref{https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/USE_flag, Gentoo USE flags} here, but this
347 goes even further: the changes don't have to be thought out beforehand by the
348 packager, they can be @emph{programmed} by the user!
351 The following tutorial covers all the basics around package creation with Guix.
352 It does not assume much knowledge of the Guix system nor of the Lisp language.
353 The reader is only expected to be familiar with the command line and to have some
354 basic programming knowledge.
356 @node A ``Hello World'' package
357 @subsection A ``Hello World'' package
359 The ``Defining Packages'' section of the manual introduces the basics of Guix
360 packaging (@pxref{Defining Packages,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual}). In
361 the following section, we will partly go over those basics again.
363 GNU@tie{}Hello is a dummy project that serves as an idiomatic example for
364 packaging. It uses the GNU build system (@code{./configure && make && make
365 install}). Guix already provides a package definition which is a perfect
366 example to start with. You can look up its declaration with @code{guix edit
367 hello} from the command line. Let's see how it looks:
376 (uri (string-append "mirror://gnu/hello/hello-" version
380 "0ssi1wpaf7plaswqqjwigppsg5fyh99vdlb9kzl7c9lng89ndq1i"))))
381 (build-system gnu-build-system)
382 (synopsis "Hello, GNU world: An example GNU package")
384 "GNU Hello prints the message \"Hello, world!\" and then exits. It
385 serves as an example of standard GNU coding practices. As such, it supports
386 command-line arguments, multiple languages, and so on.")
387 (home-page "https://www.gnu.org/software/hello/")
391 As you can see, most of it is rather straightforward. But let's review the
396 The project name. Using Scheme conventions, we prefer to keep it
397 lower case, without underscore and using dash-separated words.
400 This field contains a description of the source code origin. The
401 @code{origin} record contains these fields:
404 @item The method, here @code{url-fetch} to download via HTTP/FTP, but other methods
405 exist, such as @code{git-fetch} for Git repositories.
406 @item The URI, which is typically some @code{https://} location for @code{url-fetch}. Here
407 the special `mirror://gnu` refers to a set of well known locations, all of
408 which can be used by Guix to fetch the source, should some of them fail.
409 @item The @code{sha256} checksum of the requested file. This is essential to ensure
410 the source is not corrupted. Note that Guix works with base32 strings,
411 hence the call to the @code{base32} function.
416 This is where the power of abstraction provided by the Scheme language really
417 shines: in this case, the @code{gnu-build-system} abstracts away the famous
418 @code{./configure && make && make install} shell invocations. Other build
419 systems include the @code{trivial-build-system} which does not do anything and
420 requires from the packager to program all the build steps, the
421 @code{python-build-system}, the @code{emacs-build-system}, and many more
422 (@pxref{Build Systems,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual}).
425 It should be a concise summary of what the package does. For many packages a
426 tagline from the project's home page can be used as the synopsis.
429 Same as for the synopsis, it's fine to re-use the project description from the
430 homepage. Note that Guix uses Texinfo syntax.
433 Use HTTPS if available.
436 See @code{guix/licenses.scm} in the project source for a full list of
440 Time to build our first package! Nothing fancy here for now: we will stick to a
441 dummy @code{my-hello}, a copy of the above declaration.
443 As with the ritualistic ``Hello World'' taught with most programming languages,
444 this will possibly be the most ``manual'' approach. We will work out an ideal
445 setup later; for now we will go the simplest route.
447 Save the following to a file @file{my-hello.scm}.
450 (use-modules (guix packages)
452 (guix build-system gnu)
460 (uri (string-append "mirror://gnu/hello/hello-" version
464 "0ssi1wpaf7plaswqqjwigppsg5fyh99vdlb9kzl7c9lng89ndq1i"))))
465 (build-system gnu-build-system)
466 (synopsis "Hello, Guix world: An example custom Guix package")
468 "GNU Hello prints the message \"Hello, world!\" and then exits. It
469 serves as an example of standard GNU coding practices. As such, it supports
470 command-line arguments, multiple languages, and so on.")
471 (home-page "https://www.gnu.org/software/hello/")
475 We will explain the extra code in a moment.
477 Feel free to play with the different values of the various fields. If you
478 change the source, you'll need to update the checksum. Indeed, Guix refuses to
479 build anything if the given checksum does not match the computed checksum of the
480 source code. To obtain the correct checksum of the package declaration, we
481 need to download the source, compute the sha256 checksum and convert it to
484 Thankfully, Guix can automate this task for us; all we need is to provide the
487 @c TRANSLATORS: This is example shell output.
489 $ guix download mirror://gnu/hello/hello-2.10.tar.gz
491 Starting download of /tmp/guix-file.JLYgL7
492 From https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/gnu/hello/hello-2.10.tar.gz...
493 following redirection to `https://mirror.ibcp.fr/pub/gnu/hello/hello-2.10.tar.gz'...
494 …10.tar.gz 709KiB 2.5MiB/s 00:00 [##################] 100.0%
495 /gnu/store/hbdalsf5lpf01x4dcknwx6xbn6n5km6k-hello-2.10.tar.gz
496 0ssi1wpaf7plaswqqjwigppsg5fyh99vdlb9kzl7c9lng89ndq1i
499 In this specific case the output tells us which mirror was chosen.
500 If the result of the above command is not the same as in the above snippet,
501 update your @code{my-hello} declaration accordingly.
503 Note that GNU package tarballs come with an OpenPGP signature, so you
504 should definitely check the signature of this tarball with `gpg` to
505 authenticate it before going further:
507 @c TRANSLATORS: This is example shell output.
509 $ guix download mirror://gnu/hello/hello-2.10.tar.gz.sig
511 Starting download of /tmp/guix-file.03tFfb
512 From https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/gnu/hello/hello-2.10.tar.gz.sig...
513 following redirection to `https://ftp.igh.cnrs.fr/pub/gnu/hello/hello-2.10.tar.gz.sig'...
514 ….tar.gz.sig 819B 1.2MiB/s 00:00 [##################] 100.0%
515 /gnu/store/rzs8wba9ka7grrmgcpfyxvs58mly0sx6-hello-2.10.tar.gz.sig
516 0q0v86n3y38z17rl146gdakw9xc4mcscpk8dscs412j22glrv9jf
517 $ gpg --verify /gnu/store/rzs8wba9ka7grrmgcpfyxvs58mly0sx6-hello-2.10.tar.gz.sig /gnu/store/hbdalsf5lpf01x4dcknwx6xbn6n5km6k-hello-2.10.tar.gz
518 gpg: Signature made Sun 16 Nov 2014 01:08:37 PM CET
519 gpg: using RSA key A9553245FDE9B739
520 gpg: Good signature from "Sami Kerola <kerolasa@@iki.fi>" [unknown]
521 gpg: aka "Sami Kerola (http://www.iki.fi/kerolasa/) <kerolasa@@iki.fi>" [unknown]
522 gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
523 gpg: There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
524 Primary key fingerprint: 8ED3 96E3 7E38 D471 A005 30D3 A955 3245 FDE9 B739
527 You can then happily run
529 @c TRANSLATORS: Do not translate this command
531 $ guix package --install-from-file=my-hello.scm
534 You should now have @code{my-hello} in your profile!
536 @c TRANSLATORS: Do not translate this command
538 $ guix package --list-installed=my-hello
540 /gnu/store/f1db2mfm8syb8qvc357c53slbvf1g9m9-my-hello-2.10
543 We've gone as far as we could without any knowledge of Scheme. Before moving
544 on to more complex packages, now is the right time to brush up on your Scheme
545 knowledge. @pxref{A Scheme Crash Course} to get up to speed.
550 In the rest of this chapter we will rely on some basic Scheme
551 programming knowledge. Now let's detail the different possible setups
552 for working on Guix packages.
554 There are several ways to set up a Guix packaging environment.
556 We recommend you work directly on the Guix source checkout since it makes it
557 easier for everyone to contribute to the project.
559 But first, let's look at other possibilities.
562 @subsubsection Local file
564 This is what we previously did with @samp{my-hello}. With the Scheme basics we've
565 covered, we are now able to explain the leading chunks. As stated in @code{guix
569 -f, --install-from-file=FILE
570 install the package that the code within FILE
574 Thus the last expression @emph{must} return a package, which is the case in our
577 The @code{use-modules} expression tells which of the modules we need in the file.
578 Modules are a collection of values and procedures. They are commonly called
579 ``libraries'' or ``packages'' in other programming languages.
581 @node @samp{GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH}
582 @subsubsection @samp{GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH}
584 @emph{Note: Starting from Guix 0.16, the more flexible Guix @dfn{channels} are the
585 preferred way and supersede @samp{GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH}. See next section.}
587 It can be tedious to specify the file from the command line instead of simply
588 calling @code{guix package --install my-hello} as you would do with the official
591 Guix makes it possible to streamline the process by adding as many ``package
592 declaration directories'' as you want.
594 Create a directory, say @file{~./guix-packages} and add it to the @samp{GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH}
595 environment variable:
598 $ mkdir ~/guix-packages
599 $ export GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH=~/guix-packages
602 To add several directories, separate them with a colon (@code{:}).
604 Our previous @samp{my-hello} needs some adjustments though:
607 (define-module (my-hello)
608 #:use-module (guix licenses)
609 #:use-module (guix packages)
610 #:use-module (guix build-system gnu)
611 #:use-module (guix download))
613 (define-public my-hello
619 (uri (string-append "mirror://gnu/hello/hello-" version
623 "0ssi1wpaf7plaswqqjwigppsg5fyh99vdlb9kzl7c9lng89ndq1i"))))
624 (build-system gnu-build-system)
625 (synopsis "Hello, Guix world: An example custom Guix package")
627 "GNU Hello prints the message \"Hello, world!\" and then exits. It
628 serves as an example of standard GNU coding practices. As such, it supports
629 command-line arguments, multiple languages, and so on.")
630 (home-page "https://www.gnu.org/software/hello/")
634 Note that we have assigned the package value to an exported variable name with
635 @code{define-public}. This is effectively assigning the package to the @code{my-hello}
636 variable so that it can be referenced, among other as dependency of other
639 If you use @code{guix package --install-from-file=my-hello.scm} on the above file, it
640 will fail because the last expression, @code{define-public}, does not return a
641 package. If you want to use @code{define-public} in this use-case nonetheless, make
642 sure the file ends with an evaluation of @code{my-hello}:
646 (define-public my-hello
653 This last example is not very typical.
655 Now @samp{my-hello} should be part of the package collection like all other official
656 packages. You can verify this with:
659 $ guix package --show=my-hello
663 @subsubsection Guix channels
665 Guix 0.16 features channels, which is very similar to @samp{GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH} but
666 provides better integration and provenance tracking. Channels are not
667 necessarily local, they can be maintained as a public Git repository for
668 instance. Of course, several channels can be used at the same time.
670 @xref{Channels,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual} for setup details.
672 @node Direct checkout hacking
673 @subsubsection Direct checkout hacking
675 Working directly on the Guix project is recommended: it reduces the friction
676 when the time comes to submit your changes upstream to let the community benefit
679 Unlike most software distributions, the Guix repository holds in one place both
680 the tooling (including the package manager) and the package definitions. This
681 choice was made so that it would give developers the flexibility to modify the
682 API without breakage by updating all packages at the same time. This reduces
685 Check out the official @uref{https://git-scm.com/, Git} repository:
688 $ git clone https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git
691 In the rest of this article, we use @samp{$GUIX_CHECKOUT} to refer to the location of
695 Follow the instructions in the manual (@pxref{Contributing,,, guix, GNU Guix
696 Reference Manual}) to set up the repository environment.
698 Once ready, you should be able to use the package definitions from the
699 repository environment.
701 Feel free to edit package definitions found in @samp{$GUIX_CHECKOUT/gnu/packages}.
703 The @samp{$GUIX_CHECKOUT/pre-inst-env} script lets you use @samp{guix} over the package
704 collection of the repository (@pxref{Running Guix Before It Is
705 Installed,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual}).
709 Search packages, such as Ruby:
713 $ ./pre-inst-env guix package --list-available=ruby
714 ruby 1.8.7-p374 out gnu/packages/ruby.scm:119:2
715 ruby 2.1.6 out gnu/packages/ruby.scm:91:2
716 ruby 2.2.2 out gnu/packages/ruby.scm:39:2
720 Build a package, here Ruby version 2.1:
723 $ ./pre-inst-env guix build --keep-failed ruby@@2.1
724 /gnu/store/c13v73jxmj2nir2xjqaz5259zywsa9zi-ruby-2.1.6
728 Install it to your user profile:
731 $ ./pre-inst-env guix package --install ruby@@2.1
735 Check for common mistakes:
738 $ ./pre-inst-env guix lint ruby@@2.1
742 Guix strives at maintaining a high packaging standard; when contributing to the
743 Guix project, remember to
747 follow the coding style (@pxref{Coding Style,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual}),
749 and review the check list from the manual (@pxref{Submitting Patches,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual}).
752 Once you are happy with the result, you are welcome to send your contribution to
753 make it part of Guix. This process is also detailed in the manual. (@pxref{Contributing,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual})
756 It's a community effort so the more join in, the better Guix becomes!
758 @node Extended example
759 @subsection Extended example
761 The above ``Hello World'' example is as simple as it goes. Packages can be more
762 complex than that and Guix can handle more advanced scenarios. Let's look at
763 another, more sophisticated package (slightly modified from the source):
766 (define-module (gnu packages version-control)
767 #:use-module ((guix licenses) #:prefix license:)
768 #:use-module (guix utils)
769 #:use-module (guix packages)
770 #:use-module (guix git-download)
771 #:use-module (guix build-system cmake)
772 #:use-module (gnu packages ssh)
773 #:use-module (gnu packages web)
774 #:use-module (gnu packages pkg-config)
775 #:use-module (gnu packages python)
776 #:use-module (gnu packages compression)
777 #:use-module (gnu packages tls))
779 (define-public my-libgit2
780 (let ((commit "e98d0a37c93574d2c6107bf7f31140b548c6a7bf")
784 (version (git-version "0.26.6" revision commit))
788 (url "https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2/")
790 (file-name (git-file-name name version))
793 "17pjvprmdrx4h6bb1hhc98w9qi6ki7yl57f090n9kbhswxqfs7s3"))
794 (patches (search-patches "libgit2-mtime-0.patch"))
795 (modules '((guix build utils)))
797 ;; Remove bundled software.
798 (delete-file-recursively "deps")
800 (build-system cmake-build-system)
801 (outputs '("out" "debug"))
803 `(#:tests? #true ; Run the test suite (this is the default)
804 #:configure-flags '("-DUSE_SHA1DC=ON") ; SHA-1 collision detection
806 (modify-phases %standard-phases
807 (add-after 'unpack 'fix-hardcoded-paths
809 (substitute* "tests/repo/init.c"
810 (("#!/bin/sh") (string-append "#!" (which "sh"))))
811 (substitute* "tests/clar/fs.h"
812 (("/bin/cp") (which "cp"))
813 (("/bin/rm") (which "rm")))
815 ;; Run checks more verbosely.
817 (lambda _ (invoke "./libgit2_clar" "-v" "-Q")))
818 (add-after 'unpack 'make-files-writable-for-tests
819 (lambda _ (for-each make-file-writable (find-files "." ".*")))))))
821 `(("libssh2" ,libssh2)
822 ("http-parser" ,http-parser)
823 ("python" ,python-wrapper)))
825 `(("pkg-config" ,pkg-config)))
827 ;; These two libraries are in 'Requires.private' in libgit2.pc.
828 `(("openssl" ,openssl)
830 (home-page "https://libgit2.github.com/")
831 (synopsis "Library providing Git core methods")
833 "Libgit2 is a portable, pure C implementation of the Git core methods
834 provided as a re-entrant linkable library with a solid API, allowing you to
835 write native speed custom Git applications in any language with bindings.")
836 ;; GPLv2 with linking exception
837 (license license:gpl2))))
840 (In those cases were you only want to tweak a few fields from a package
841 definition, you should rely on inheritance instead of copy-pasting everything.
844 Let's discuss those fields in depth.
846 @subsubsection @code{git-fetch} method
848 Unlike the @code{url-fetch} method, @code{git-fetch} expects a @code{git-reference} which takes
849 a Git repository and a commit. The commit can be any Git reference such as
850 tags, so if the @code{version} is tagged, then it can be used directly. Sometimes
851 the tag is prefixed with a @code{v}, in which case you'd use @code{(commit (string-append
854 To ensure that the source code from the Git repository is stored in a
855 directory with a descriptive name, we use @code{(file-name (git-file-name name
858 The @code{git-version} procedure can be used to derive the
859 version when packaging programs for a specific commit, following the
860 Guix contributor guidelines (@pxref{Version Numbers,,, guix, GNU Guix
863 How does one obtain the @code{sha256} hash that's in there, you ask? By
864 invoking @command{guix hash} on a checkout of the desired commit, along
868 git clone https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2/
874 @command{guix hash -rx} computes a SHA256 hash over the whole directory,
875 excluding the @file{.git} sub-directory (@pxref{Invoking guix hash,,,
876 guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual}).
878 In the future, @command{guix download} will hopefully be able to do
879 these steps for you, just like it does for regular downloads.
881 @subsubsection Snippets
883 Snippets are quoted (i.e. non-evaluated) Scheme code that are a means of patching
884 the source. They are a Guix-y alternative to the traditional @file{.patch} files.
885 Because of the quote, the code in only evaluated when passed to the Guix daemon
886 for building. There can be as many snippets as needed.
888 Snippets might need additional Guile modules which can be imported from the
889 @code{modules} field.
891 @subsubsection Inputs
893 First, a syntactic comment: See the quasi-quote / comma syntax?
897 `(("pkg-config" ,pkg-config)))
904 (list (list "pkg-config" pkg-config)))
907 You'll mostly see the former because it's shorter.
909 There are 3 different input types. In short:
913 Required for building but not runtime -- installing a package
914 through a substitute won't install these inputs.
916 Installed in the store but not in the profile, as well as being
917 present at build time.
918 @item propagated-inputs
919 Installed in the store and in the profile, as well as
920 being present at build time.
923 @xref{Package Reference,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual} for more details.
925 The distinction between the various inputs is important: if a dependency can be
926 handled as an @emph{input} instead of a @emph{propagated input}, it should be done so, or
927 else it ``pollutes'' the user profile for no good reason.
929 For instance, a user installing a graphical program that depends on a
930 command line tool might only be interested in the graphical part, so there is no
931 need to force the command line tool into the user profile. The dependency is a
932 concern to the package, not to the user. @emph{Inputs} make it possible to handle
933 dependencies without bugging the user by adding undesired executable files (or
934 libraries) to their profile.
936 Same goes for @emph{native-inputs}: once the program is installed, build-time
937 dependencies can be safely garbage-collected.
938 It also matters when a substitute is available, in which case only the @emph{inputs}
939 and @emph{propagated inputs} will be fetched: the @emph{native inputs} are not required to
940 install a package from a substitute.
942 @subsubsection Outputs
944 Just like how a package can have multiple inputs, it can also produce multiple
947 Each output corresponds to a separate directory in the store.
949 The user can choose which output to install; this is useful to save space or
950 to avoid polluting the user profile with unwanted executables or libraries.
952 Output separation is optional. When the @code{outputs} field is left out, the
953 default and only output (the complete package) is referred to as @code{"out"}.
955 Typical separate output names include @code{debug} and @code{doc}.
957 It's advised to separate outputs only when you've shown it's worth it: if the
958 output size is significant (compare with @code{guix size}) or in case the package is
961 @subsubsection Build system arguments
963 The @code{arguments} is a keyword-value list used to configure the build process.
965 The simplest argument @code{#:tests?} can be used to disable the test suite when
966 building the package. This is mostly useful when the package does not feature
967 any test suite. It's strongly recommended to keep the test suite on if there is
970 Another common argument is @code{:make-flags}, which specifies a list of flags to
971 append when running make, as you would from the command line. For instance, the
975 #:make-flags (list (string-append "prefix=" (assoc-ref %outputs "out"))
982 $ make CC=gcc prefix=/gnu/store/...-<out>
985 This sets the C compiler to @code{gcc} and the @code{prefix} variable (the installation
986 directory in Make parlance) to @code{(assoc-ref %outputs "out")}, which is a build-stage
987 global variable pointing to the destination directory in the store (something like
988 @file{/gnu/store/...-my-libgit2-20180408}).
990 Similarly, it's possible to set the configure flags:
993 #:configure-flags '("-DUSE_SHA1DC=ON")
996 The @code{%build-inputs} variable is also generated in scope. It's an association
997 table that maps the input names to their store directories.
999 The @code{phases} keyword lists the sequential steps of the build system. Typically
1000 phases include @code{unpack}, @code{configure}, @code{build}, @code{install} and @code{check}. To know
1001 more about those phases, you need to work out the appropriate build system
1002 definition in @samp{$GUIX_CHECKOUT/guix/build/gnu-build-system.scm}:
1005 (define %standard-phases
1006 ;; Standard build phases, as a list of symbol/procedure pairs.
1007 (let-syntax ((phases (syntax-rules ()
1008 ((_ p ...) `((p . ,p) ...)))))
1009 (phases set-SOURCE-DATE-EPOCH set-paths install-locale unpack
1012 patch-source-shebangs configure patch-generated-file-shebangs
1014 patch-shebangs strip
1016 validate-documentation-location
1017 delete-info-dir-file
1018 patch-dot-desktop-files
1019 install-license-files
1020 reset-gzip-timestamps
1021 compress-documentation)))
1027 (add-to-load-path "/path/to/guix/checkout")
1028 ,use (guix build gnu-build-system)
1029 (map first %standard-phases)
1030 @result{} (set-SOURCE-DATE-EPOCH set-paths install-locale unpack bootstrap patch-usr-bin-file patch-source-shebangs configure patch-generated-file-shebangs build check install patch-shebangs strip validate-runpath validate-documentation-location delete-info-dir-file patch-dot-desktop-files install-license-files reset-gzip-timestamps compress-documentation)
1033 If you want to know more about what happens during those phases, consult the
1034 associated procedures.
1036 For instance, as of this writing the definition of @code{unpack} for the GNU build
1040 (define* (unpack #:key source #:allow-other-keys)
1041 "Unpack SOURCE in the working directory, and change directory within the
1042 source. When SOURCE is a directory, copy it in a sub-directory of the current
1044 (if (file-is-directory? source)
1049 ;; Preserve timestamps (set to the Epoch) on the copied tree so that
1050 ;; things work deterministically.
1051 (copy-recursively source "."
1052 #:keep-mtime? #true))
1054 (if (string-suffix? ".zip" source)
1055 (invoke "unzip" source)
1056 (invoke "tar" "xvf" source))
1057 (chdir (first-subdirectory "."))))
1061 Note the @code{chdir} call: it changes the working directory to where the source was
1063 Thus every phase following the @code{unpack} will use the source as a working
1064 directory, which is why we can directly work on the source files.
1065 That is to say, unless a later phase changes the working directory to something
1068 We modify the list of @code{%standard-phases} of the build system with the
1069 @code{modify-phases} macro as per the list of specified modifications, which may have
1070 the following forms:
1074 @code{(add-before @var{phase} @var{new-phase} @var{procedure})}: Run @var{procedure} named @var{new-phase} before @var{phase}.
1076 @code{(add-after @var{phase} @var{new-phase} @var{procedure})}: Same, but afterwards.
1078 @code{(replace @var{phase} @var{procedure})}.
1080 @code{(delete @var{phase})}.
1083 The @var{procedure} supports the keyword arguments @code{inputs} and @code{outputs}. Each
1084 input (whether @emph{native}, @emph{propagated} or not) and output directory is referenced
1085 by their name in those variables. Thus @code{(assoc-ref outputs "out")} is the store
1086 directory of the main output of the package. A phase procedure may look like
1090 (lambda* (#:key inputs outputs #:allow-other-keys)
1091 (let ((bash-directory (assoc-ref inputs "bash"))
1092 (output-directory (assoc-ref outputs "out"))
1093 (doc-directory (assoc-ref outputs "doc")))
1098 The procedure must return @code{#true} on success. It's brittle to rely on the return
1099 value of the last expression used to tweak the phase because there is no
1100 guarantee it would be a @code{#true}. Hence the trailing @code{#true} to ensure the right value
1101 is returned on success.
1103 @subsubsection Code staging
1105 The astute reader may have noticed the quasi-quote and comma syntax in the
1106 argument field. Indeed, the build code in the package declaration should not be
1107 evaluated on the client side, but only when passed to the Guix daemon. This
1108 mechanism of passing code around two running processes is called @uref{https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.00833, code staging}.
1110 @subsubsection Utility functions
1112 When customizing @code{phases}, we often need to write code that mimics the
1113 equivalent system invocations (@code{make}, @code{mkdir}, @code{cp}, etc.)@: commonly used during
1114 regular ``Unix-style'' installations.
1116 Some like @code{chmod} are native to Guile.
1117 @xref{,,, guile, Guile reference manual} for a complete list.
1119 Guix provides additional helper functions which prove especially handy in the
1120 context of package management.
1122 Some of those functions can be found in
1123 @samp{$GUIX_CHECKOUT/guix/guix/build/utils.scm}. Most of them mirror the behaviour
1124 of the traditional Unix system commands:
1128 Like the @samp{which} system command.
1130 Akin to the @samp{find} system command.
1132 Like @samp{mkdir -p}, which creates all parents as needed.
1134 Similar to @samp{install} when installing a file to a (possibly
1135 non-existing) directory. Guile has @code{copy-file} which works
1137 @item copy-recursively
1139 @item delete-file-recursively
1142 Run an executable. This should be used instead of @code{system*}.
1143 @item with-directory-excursion
1144 Run the body in a different working directory,
1145 then restore the previous working directory.
1147 A ``@command{sed}-like'' function.
1150 @xref{Build Utilities,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual}, for more
1151 information on these utilities.
1153 @subsubsection Module prefix
1155 The license in our last example needs a prefix: this is because of how the
1156 @code{license} module was imported in the package, as @code{#:use-module ((guix licenses)
1157 #:prefix license:)}. The Guile module import mechanism
1158 (@pxref{Using Guile Modules,,, guile, Guile reference manual})
1159 gives the user full control over namespacing: this is needed to avoid
1160 clashes between, say, the
1161 @samp{zlib} variable from @samp{licenses.scm} (a @emph{license} value) and the @samp{zlib} variable
1162 from @samp{compression.scm} (a @emph{package} value).
1164 @node Other build systems
1165 @subsection Other build systems
1167 What we've seen so far covers the majority of packages using a build system
1168 other than the @code{trivial-build-system}. The latter does not automate anything
1169 and leaves you to build everything manually. This can be more demanding and we
1170 won't cover it here for now, but thankfully it is rarely necessary to fall back
1173 For the other build systems, such as ASDF, Emacs, Perl, Ruby and many more, the
1174 process is very similar to the GNU build system except for a few specialized
1177 @xref{Build Systems,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual}, for more
1178 information on build systems, or check the source code in the
1179 @samp{$GUIX_CHECKOUT/guix/build} and
1180 @samp{$GUIX_CHECKOUT/guix/build-system} directories.
1182 @node Programmable and automated package definition
1183 @subsection Programmable and automated package definition
1185 We can't repeat it enough: having a full-fledged programming language at hand
1186 empowers us in ways that reach far beyond traditional package management.
1188 Let's illustrate this with some awesome features of Guix!
1190 @node Recursive importers
1191 @subsubsection Recursive importers
1193 You might find some build systems good enough that there is little to do at all
1194 to write a package, to the point that it becomes repetitive and tedious after a
1195 while. A @emph{raison d'être} of computers is to replace human beings at those
1196 boring tasks. So let's tell Guix to do this for us and create the package
1197 definition of an R package from CRAN (the output is trimmed for conciseness):
1200 $ guix import cran --recursive walrus
1202 (define-public r-mc2d
1206 (define-public r-jmvcore
1210 (define-public r-wrs2
1214 (define-public r-walrus
1221 (uri (cran-uri "walrus" version))
1224 "1nk2glcvy4hyksl5ipq2mz8jy4fss90hx6cq98m3w96kzjni6jjj"))))
1225 (build-system r-build-system)
1227 `(("r-ggplot2" ,r-ggplot2)
1228 ("r-jmvcore" ,r-jmvcore)
1230 ("r-wrs2" ,r-wrs2)))
1231 (home-page "https://github.com/jamovi/walrus")
1232 (synopsis "Robust Statistical Methods")
1234 "This package provides a toolbox of common robust statistical
1235 tests, including robust descriptives, robust t-tests, and robust ANOVA.
1236 It is also available as a module for 'jamovi' (see
1237 <https://www.jamovi.org> for more information). Walrus is based on the
1238 WRS2 package by Patrick Mair, which is in turn based on the scripts and
1239 work of Rand Wilcox. These analyses are described in depth in the book
1240 'Introduction to Robust Estimation & Hypothesis Testing'.")
1244 The recursive importer won't import packages for which Guix already has package
1245 definitions, except for the very first.
1247 Not all applications can be packaged this way, only those relying on a select
1248 number of supported systems. Read about the full list of importers in
1249 the guix import section of the manual
1250 (@pxref{Invoking guix import,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual}).
1252 @node Automatic update
1253 @subsubsection Automatic update
1255 Guix can be smart enough to check for updates on systems it knows. It can
1256 report outdated package definitions with
1259 $ guix refresh hello
1262 In most cases, updating a package to a newer version requires little more than
1263 changing the version number and the checksum. Guix can do that automatically as
1267 $ guix refresh hello --update
1271 @subsubsection Inheritance
1273 If you've started browsing the existing package definitions, you might have
1274 noticed that a significant number of them have a @code{inherit} field:
1277 (define-public adwaita-icon-theme
1278 (package (inherit gnome-icon-theme)
1279 (name "adwaita-icon-theme")
1283 (uri (string-append "mirror://gnome/sources/" name "/"
1284 (version-major+minor version) "/"
1285 name "-" version ".tar.xz"))
1288 "17fpahgh5dyckgz7rwqvzgnhx53cx9kr2xw0szprc6bnqy977fi8"))))
1290 `(("gtk-encode-symbolic-svg" ,gtk+ "bin")))))
1293 All unspecified fields are inherited from the parent package. This is very
1294 convenient to create alternative packages, for instance with different source,
1295 version or compilation options.
1298 @subsection Getting help
1300 Sadly, some applications can be tough to package. Sometimes they need a patch to
1301 work with the non-standard file system hierarchy enforced by the store.
1302 Sometimes the tests won't run properly. (They can be skipped but this is not
1303 recommended.) Other times the resulting package won't be reproducible.
1305 Should you be stuck, unable to figure out how to fix any sort of packaging
1306 issue, don't hesitate to ask the community for help.
1308 See the @uref{https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/contact/, Guix homepage} for information on the mailing lists, IRC, etc.
1311 @subsection Conclusion
1313 This tutorial was a showcase of the sophisticated package management that Guix
1314 boasts. At this point we have mostly restricted this introduction to the
1315 @code{gnu-build-system} which is a core abstraction layer on which more advanced
1316 abstractions are based.
1318 Where do we go from here? Next we ought to dissect the innards of the build
1319 system by removing all abstractions, using the @code{trivial-build-system}: this
1320 should give us a thorough understanding of the process before investigating some
1321 more advanced packaging techniques and edge cases.
1323 Other features worth exploring are the interactive editing and debugging
1324 capabilities of Guix provided by the Guile REPL@.
1326 Those fancy features are completely optional and can wait; now is a good time
1327 to take a well-deserved break. With what we've introduced here you should be
1328 well armed to package lots of programs. You can get started right away and
1329 hopefully we will see your contributions soon!
1332 @subsection References
1336 The @uref{https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/en/html_node/Defining-Packages.html, package reference in the manual}
1339 @uref{https://gitlab.com/pjotrp/guix-notes/blob/master/HACKING.org, Pjotr’s hacking guide to GNU Guix}
1342 @uref{https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/guix-ghm-andreas-20130823.pdf, ``GNU Guix: Package without a scheme!''}, by Andreas Enge
1345 @c *********************************************************************
1346 @node System Configuration
1347 @chapter System Configuration
1349 Guix offers a flexible language for declaratively configuring your Guix
1350 System. This flexibility can at times be overwhelming. The purpose of this
1351 chapter is to demonstrate some advanced configuration concepts.
1353 @pxref{System Configuration,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual} for a complete
1357 * Auto-Login to a Specific TTY:: Automatically Login a User to a Specific TTY
1358 * Customizing the Kernel:: Creating and using a custom Linux kernel on Guix System.
1359 * Guix System Image API:: Customizing images to target specific platforms.
1360 * Connecting to Wireguard VPN:: Connecting to a Wireguard VPN.
1361 * Customizing a Window Manager:: Handle customization of a Window manager on Guix System.
1362 * Running Guix on a Linode Server:: Running Guix on a Linode Server
1363 * Setting up a bind mount:: Setting up a bind mount in the file-systems definition.
1364 * Getting substitutes from Tor:: Configuring Guix daemon to get substitutes through Tor.
1365 * Setting up NGINX with Lua:: Configuring NGINX web-server to load Lua modules.
1368 @node Auto-Login to a Specific TTY
1369 @section Auto-Login to a Specific TTY
1371 While the Guix manual explains auto-login one user to @emph{all} TTYs (
1372 @pxref{auto-login to TTY,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual}), some
1373 might prefer a situation, in which one user is logged into one TTY with
1374 the other TTYs either configured to login different users or no one at
1375 all. Note that one can auto-login one user to any TTY, but it is
1376 usually advisable to avoid @code{tty1}, which, by default, is used to
1377 log warnings and errors.
1379 Here is how one might set up auto login for one user to one tty:
1382 (define (auto-login-to-tty config tty user)
1383 (if (string=? tty (mingetty-configuration-tty config))
1384 (mingetty-configuration
1389 (define %my-services
1390 (modify-services %base-services
1392 (mingetty-service-type config =>
1394 config "tty3" "alice"))))
1398 (services %my-services))
1401 One could also @code{compose} (@pxref{Higher-Order Functions,,, guile,
1402 The Guile Reference Manual}) @code{auto-login-to-tty} to login multiple
1403 users to multiple ttys.
1405 Finally, here is a note of caution. Setting up auto login to a TTY,
1406 means that anyone can turn on your computer and run commands as your
1408 However, if you have an encrypted root partition, and thus already need
1409 to enter a passphrase when the system boots, auto-login might be a
1413 @node Customizing the Kernel
1414 @section Customizing the Kernel
1416 Guix is, at its core, a source based distribution with substitutes
1417 (@pxref{Substitutes,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual}), and as such building
1418 packages from their source code is an expected part of regular package
1419 installations and upgrades. Given this starting point, it makes sense that
1420 efforts are made to reduce the amount of time spent compiling packages, and
1421 recent changes and upgrades to the building and distribution of substitutes
1422 continues to be a topic of discussion within Guix.
1424 The kernel, while not requiring an overabundance of RAM to build, does take a
1425 rather long time on an average machine. The official kernel configuration, as
1426 is the case with many GNU/Linux distributions, errs on the side of
1427 inclusiveness, and this is really what causes the build to take such a long
1428 time when the kernel is built from source.
1430 The Linux kernel, however, can also just be described as a regular old
1431 package, and as such can be customized just like any other package. The
1432 procedure is a little bit different, although this is primarily due to the
1433 nature of how the package definition is written.
1435 The @code{linux-libre} kernel package definition is actually a procedure which
1439 (define* (make-linux-libre version hash supported-systems
1441 ;; A function that takes an arch and a variant.
1442 ;; See kernel-config for an example.
1443 (extra-version #false)
1444 (configuration-file #false)
1445 (defconfig "defconfig")
1446 (extra-options %default-extra-linux-options)
1447 (patches (list %boot-logo-patch)))
1451 The current @code{linux-libre} package is for the 5.1.x series, and is
1455 (define-public linux-libre
1456 (make-linux-libre %linux-libre-version
1458 '("x86_64-linux" "i686-linux" "armhf-linux" "aarch64-linux")
1459 #:patches %linux-libre-5.1-patches
1460 #:configuration-file kernel-config))
1463 Any keys which are not assigned values inherit their default value from the
1464 @code{make-linux-libre} definition. When comparing the two snippets above,
1465 you may notice that the code comment in the first doesn't actually refer to
1466 the @code{#:extra-version} keyword; it is actually for
1467 @code{#:configuration-file}. Because of this, it is not actually easy to
1468 include a custom kernel configuration from the definition, but don't worry,
1469 there are other ways to work with what we do have.
1471 There are two ways to create a kernel with a custom kernel configuration. The
1472 first is to provide a standard @file{.config} file during the build process by
1473 including an actual @file{.config} file as a native input to our custom
1474 kernel. The following is a snippet from the custom @code{'configure} phase of
1475 the @code{make-linux-libre} package definition:
1478 (let ((build (assoc-ref %standard-phases 'build))
1479 (config (assoc-ref (or native-inputs inputs) "kconfig")))
1481 ;; Use a custom kernel configuration file or a default
1482 ;; configuration file.
1485 (copy-file config ".config")
1486 (chmod ".config" #o666))
1487 (invoke "make" ,defconfig)))
1490 Below is a sample kernel package. The @code{linux-libre} package is nothing
1491 special and can be inherited from and have its fields overridden like any
1495 (define-public linux-libre/E2140
1497 (inherit linux-libre)
1499 `(("kconfig" ,(local-file "E2140.config"))
1500 ,@@(alist-delete "kconfig"
1501 (package-native-inputs linux-libre))))))
1504 In the same directory as the file defining @code{linux-libre-E2140} is a file
1505 named @file{E2140.config}, which is an actual kernel configuration file. The
1506 @code{defconfig} keyword of @code{make-linux-libre} is left blank here, so the
1507 only kernel configuration in the package is the one which was included in the
1508 @code{native-inputs} field.
1510 The second way to create a custom kernel is to pass a new value to the
1511 @code{extra-options} keyword of the @code{make-linux-libre} procedure. The
1512 @code{extra-options} keyword works with another function defined right below
1516 (define %default-extra-linux-options
1517 `(;; https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2014-04/msg00039.html
1518 ("CONFIG_DEVPTS_MULTIPLE_INSTANCES" . #true)
1519 ;; Modules required for initrd:
1520 ("CONFIG_NET_9P" . m)
1521 ("CONFIG_NET_9P_VIRTIO" . m)
1522 ("CONFIG_VIRTIO_BLK" . m)
1523 ("CONFIG_VIRTIO_NET" . m)
1524 ("CONFIG_VIRTIO_PCI" . m)
1525 ("CONFIG_VIRTIO_BALLOON" . m)
1526 ("CONFIG_VIRTIO_MMIO" . m)
1527 ("CONFIG_FUSE_FS" . m)
1529 ("CONFIG_9P_FS" . m)))
1531 (define (config->string options)
1532 (string-join (map (match-lambda
1534 (string-append option "=m"))
1536 (string-append option "=y"))
1538 (string-append option "=n")))
1543 And in the custom configure script from the `make-linux-libre` package:
1546 ;; Appending works even when the option wasn't in the
1547 ;; file. The last one prevails if duplicated.
1548 (let ((port (open-file ".config" "a"))
1549 (extra-configuration ,(config->string extra-options)))
1550 (display extra-configuration port)
1553 (invoke "make" "oldconfig")
1556 So by not providing a configuration-file the @file{.config} starts blank, and
1557 then we write into it the collection of flags that we want. Here's another
1561 (define %macbook41-full-config
1562 (append %macbook41-config-options
1566 (@@@@ (gnu packages linux) %default-extra-linux-options)))
1568 (define-public linux-libre-macbook41
1569 ;; XXX: Access the internal 'make-linux-libre' procedure, which is
1570 ;; private and unexported, and is liable to change in the future.
1571 ((@@@@ (gnu packages linux) make-linux-libre) (@@@@ (gnu packages linux) %linux-libre-version)
1572 (@@@@ (gnu packages linux) %linux-libre-hash)
1574 #:extra-version "macbook41"
1575 #:patches (@@@@ (gnu packages linux) %linux-libre-5.1-patches)
1576 #:extra-options %macbook41-config-options))
1579 In the above example @code{%file-systems} is a collection of flags enabling
1580 different file system support, @code{%efi-support} enables EFI support and
1581 @code{%emulation} enables a x86_64-linux machine to act in 32-bit mode also.
1582 @code{%default-extra-linux-options} are the ones quoted above, which had to be
1583 added in since they were replaced in the @code{extra-options} keyword.
1585 This all sounds like it should be doable, but how does one even know which
1586 modules are required for a particular system? Two places that can be helpful
1587 in trying to answer this question is the
1588 @uref{https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:AMD64/Installation/Kernel, Gentoo
1590 @uref{https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/README.html?highlight=localmodconfig,
1591 documentation from the kernel itself}. From the kernel documentation, it
1592 seems that @code{make localmodconfig} is the command we want.
1594 In order to actually run @code{make localmodconfig} we first need to get and
1595 unpack the kernel source code:
1598 tar xf $(guix build linux-libre --source)
1601 Once inside the directory containing the source code run @code{touch .config}
1602 to create an initial, empty @file{.config} to start with. @code{make
1603 localmodconfig} works by seeing what you already have in @file{.config} and
1604 letting you know what you're missing. If the file is blank then you're
1605 missing everything. The next step is to run:
1608 guix environment linux-libre -- make localmodconfig
1611 and note the output. Do note that the @file{.config} file is still empty.
1612 The output generally contains two types of warnings. The first start with
1613 "WARNING" and can actually be ignored in our case. The second read:
1616 module pcspkr did not have configs CONFIG_INPUT_PCSPKR
1619 For each of these lines, copy the @code{CONFIG_XXXX_XXXX} portion into the
1620 @file{.config} in the directory, and append @code{=m}, so in the end it looks
1624 CONFIG_INPUT_PCSPKR=m
1628 After copying all the configuration options, run @code{make localmodconfig}
1629 again to make sure that you don't have any output starting with ``module''.
1630 After all of these machine specific modules there are a couple more left that
1631 are also needed. @code{CONFIG_MODULES} is necessary so that you can build and
1632 load modules separately and not have everything built into the kernel.
1633 @code{CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SD} is required for reading from hard drives. It is
1634 possible that there are other modules which you will need.
1636 This post does not aim to be a guide to configuring your own kernel however,
1637 so if you do decide to build a custom kernel you'll have to seek out other
1638 guides to create a kernel which is just right for your needs.
1640 The second way to setup the kernel configuration makes more use of Guix's
1641 features and allows you to share configuration segments between different
1642 kernels. For example, all machines using EFI to boot have a number of EFI
1643 configuration flags that they need. It is likely that all the kernels will
1644 share a list of file systems to support. By using variables it is easier to
1645 see at a glance what features are enabled and to make sure you don't have
1646 features in one kernel but missing in another.
1648 Left undiscussed however, is Guix's initrd and its customization. It is
1649 likely that you'll need to modify the initrd on a machine using a custom
1650 kernel, since certain modules which are expected to be built may not be
1651 available for inclusion into the initrd.
1653 @node Guix System Image API
1654 @section Guix System Image API
1656 Historically, Guix System is centered around an @code{operating-system}
1657 structure. This structure contains various fields ranging from the
1658 bootloader and kernel declaration to the services to install.
1660 Depending on the target machine, that can go from a standard
1661 @code{x86_64} machine to a small ARM single board computer such as the
1662 Pine64, the image constraints can vary a lot. The hardware
1663 manufacturers will impose different image formats with various partition
1666 To create images suitable for all those machines, a new abstraction is
1667 necessary: that's the goal of the @code{image} record. This record
1668 contains all the required information to be transformed into a
1669 standalone image, that can be directly booted on any target machine.
1672 (define-record-type* <image>
1675 (name image-name ;symbol
1677 (format image-format) ;symbol
1678 (target image-target
1680 (size image-size ;size in bytes as integer
1682 (operating-system image-operating-system ;<operating-system>
1684 (partitions image-partitions ;list of <partition>
1686 (compression? image-compression? ;boolean
1688 (volatile-root? image-volatile-root? ;boolean
1690 (substitutable? image-substitutable? ;boolean
1694 This record contains the operating-system to instantiate. The
1695 @code{format} field defines the image type and can be @code{efi-raw},
1696 @code{qcow2} or @code{iso9660} for instance. In the future, it could be
1697 extended to @code{docker} or other image types.
1699 A new directory in the Guix sources is dedicated to images definition. For now
1700 there are four files:
1703 @item @file{gnu/system/images/hurd.scm}
1704 @item @file{gnu/system/images/pine64.scm}
1705 @item @file{gnu/system/images/novena.scm}
1706 @item @file{gnu/system/images/pinebook-pro.scm}
1709 Let's have a look to @file{pine64.scm}. It contains the
1710 @code{pine64-barebones-os} variable which is a minimal definition of an
1711 operating-system dedicated to the @b{Pine A64 LTS} board.
1714 (define pine64-barebones-os
1716 (host-name "vignemale")
1717 (timezone "Europe/Paris")
1718 (locale "en_US.utf8")
1719 (bootloader (bootloader-configuration
1720 (bootloader u-boot-pine64-lts-bootloader)
1721 (target "/dev/vda")))
1722 (initrd-modules '())
1723 (kernel linux-libre-arm64-generic)
1724 (file-systems (cons (file-system
1725 (device (file-system-label "my-root"))
1728 %base-file-systems))
1729 (services (cons (service agetty-service-type
1730 (agetty-configuration
1731 (extra-options '("-L")) ; no carrier detect
1732 (baud-rate "115200")
1738 The @code{kernel} and @code{bootloader} fields are pointing to packages
1739 dedicated to this board.
1741 Right below, the @code{pine64-image-type} variable is also defined.
1744 (define pine64-image-type
1747 (constructor (cut image-with-os arm64-disk-image <>))))
1750 It's using a record we haven't talked about yet, the @code{image-type} record,
1754 (define-record-type* <image-type>
1755 image-type make-image-type
1757 (name image-type-name) ;symbol
1758 (constructor image-type-constructor)) ;<operating-system> -> <image>
1761 The main purpose of this record is to associate a name to a procedure
1762 transforming an @code{operating-system} to an image. To understand why
1763 it is necessary, let's have a look to the command producing an image
1764 from an @code{operating-system} configuration file:
1767 guix system image my-os.scm
1770 This command expects an @code{operating-system} configuration but how
1771 should we indicate that we want an image targeting a Pine64 board? We
1772 need to provide an extra information, the @code{image-type}, by passing
1773 the @code{--image-type} or @code{-t} flag, this way:
1776 guix system image --image-type=pine64-raw my-os.scm
1779 This @code{image-type} parameter points to the @code{pine64-image-type}
1780 defined above. Hence, the @code{operating-system} declared in
1781 @code{my-os.scm} will be applied the @code{(cut image-with-os
1782 arm64-disk-image <>)} procedure to turn it into an image.
1784 The resulting image looks like:
1788 (format 'disk-image)
1789 (target "aarch64-linux-gnu")
1790 (operating-system my-os)
1793 (inherit root-partition)
1794 (offset root-offset)))))
1797 which is the aggregation of the @code{operating-system} defined in
1798 @code{my-os.scm} to the @code{arm64-disk-image} record.
1800 But enough Scheme madness. What does this image API bring to the Guix user?
1805 mathieu@@cervin:~$ guix system --list-image-types
1806 The available image types are:
1814 - uncompressed-iso9660
1821 and by writing an @code{operating-system} file based on
1822 @code{pine64-barebones-os}, you can customize your image to your
1823 preferences in a file (@file{my-pine-os.scm}) like this:
1826 (use-modules (gnu services linux)
1827 (gnu system images pine64))
1829 (let ((base-os pine64-barebones-os))
1832 (timezone "America/Indiana/Indianapolis")
1835 (service earlyoom-service-type
1836 (earlyoom-configuration
1837 (prefer-regexp "icecat|chromium")))
1838 (operating-system-user-services base-os)))))
1844 guix system image --image-type=pine64-raw my-pine-os.scm
1850 guix system image --image-type=hurd-raw my-hurd-os.scm
1853 to get an image that can be written directly to a hard drive and booted
1856 Without changing anything to @code{my-hurd-os.scm}, calling:
1859 guix system image --image-type=hurd-qcow2 my-hurd-os.scm
1862 will instead produce a Hurd QEMU image.
1864 @node Connecting to Wireguard VPN
1865 @section Connecting to Wireguard VPN
1867 To connect to a Wireguard VPN server you need the kernel module to be
1868 loaded in memory and a package providing networking tools that support
1869 it (e.g. @code{wireguard-tools} or @code{network-manager}).
1871 Here is a configuration example for Linux-Libre < 5.6, where the module
1872 is out of tree and need to be loaded manually---following revisions of
1873 the kernel have it built-in and so don't need such configuration:
1877 (use-service-modules desktop)
1878 (use-package-modules vpn)
1882 (services (cons (simple-service 'wireguard-module
1883 kernel-module-loader-service-type
1886 (packages (cons wireguard-tools %base-packages))
1887 (kernel-loadable-modules (list wireguard-linux-compat)))
1890 After reconfiguring and restarting your system you can either use
1891 Wireguard tools or NetworkManager to connect to a VPN server.
1893 @subsection Using Wireguard tools
1895 To test your Wireguard setup it is convenient to use @command{wg-quick}.
1896 Just give it a configuration file @command{wg-quick up ./wg0.conf}; or
1897 put that file in @file{/etc/wireguard} and run @command{wg-quick up wg0}
1901 Be warned that the author described this command as a: “[…] very quick
1902 and dirty bash script […]”.
1905 @subsection Using NetworkManager
1907 Thanks to NetworkManager support for Wireguard we can connect to our VPN
1908 using @command{nmcli} command. Up to this point this guide assumes that
1909 you're using Network Manager service provided by
1910 @code{%desktop-services}. Ortherwise you need to adjust your services
1911 list to load @code{network-manager-service-type} and reconfigure your
1914 To import your VPN configuration execute nmcli import command:
1917 # nmcli connection import type wireguard file wg0.conf
1918 Connection 'wg0' (edbee261-aa5a-42db-b032-6c7757c60fde) successfully added
1921 This will create a configuration file in
1922 @file{/etc/NetworkManager/wg0.nmconnection}. Next connect to the
1926 $ nmcli connection up wg0
1927 Connection successfully activated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/6)
1930 By default NetworkManager will connect automatically on system boot. To
1931 change that behaviour you need to edit your config:
1934 # nmcli connection modify wg0 connection.autoconnect no
1937 For more specific information about NetworkManager and wireguard
1938 @uref{https://blogs.gnome.org/thaller/2019/03/15/wireguard-in-networkmanager/,see
1939 this post by thaller}.
1941 @node Customizing a Window Manager
1942 @section Customizing a Window Manager
1949 You could install StumpWM with a Guix system by adding
1950 @code{stumpwm} and optionally @code{`(,stumpwm "lib")}
1951 packages to a system configuration file, e.g.@: @file{/etc/config.scm}.
1953 An example configuration can look like this:
1957 (use-package-modules wm)
1961 (packages (append (list sbcl stumpwm `(,stumpwm "lib"))
1965 @cindex stumpwm fonts
1966 By default StumpWM uses X11 fonts, which could be small or pixelated on
1967 your system. You could fix this by installing StumpWM contrib Lisp
1968 module @code{sbcl-ttf-fonts}, adding it to Guix system packages:
1972 (use-package-modules fonts wm)
1976 (packages (append (list sbcl stumpwm `(,stumpwm "lib"))
1977 sbcl-ttf-fonts font-dejavu %base-packages)))
1980 Then you need to add the following code to a StumpWM configuration file
1981 @file{~/.stumpwm.d/init.lisp}:
1984 (require :ttf-fonts)
1985 (setf xft:*font-dirs* '("/run/current-system/profile/share/fonts/"))
1986 (setf clx-truetype:+font-cache-filename+ (concat (getenv "HOME") "/.fonts/font-cache.sexp"))
1988 (set-font (make-instance 'xft:font :family "DejaVu Sans Mono" :subfamily "Book" :size 11))
1992 @subsection Session lock
1995 Depending on your environment, locking the screen of your session might come built in
1996 or it might be something you have to set up yourself. If you use a desktop environment
1997 like GNOME or KDE, it's usually built in. If you use a plain window manager like
1998 StumpWM or EXWM, you might have to set it up yourself.
2003 If you use Xorg, you can use the utility
2004 @uref{https://www.mankier.com/1/xss-lock, xss-lock} to lock the screen of your session.
2005 xss-lock is triggered by DPMS which since Xorg 1.8 is auto-detected and enabled if
2006 ACPI is also enabled at kernel runtime.
2008 To use xss-lock, you can simple execute it and put it into the background before
2009 you start your window manager from e.g. your @file{~/.xsession}:
2016 In this example, xss-lock uses @code{slock} to do the actual locking of the screen when
2017 it determines it's appropriate, like when you suspend your device.
2019 For slock to be allowed to be a screen locker for the graphical session, it needs to
2020 be made setuid-root so it can authenticate users, and it needs a PAM service. This
2021 can be achieved by adding the following service to your @file{config.scm}:
2024 (screen-locker-service slock)
2027 If you manually lock your screen, e.g. by directly calling slock when you want to lock
2028 your screen but not suspend it, it's a good idea to notify xss-lock about this so no
2029 confusion occurs. This can be done by executing @code{xset s activate} immediately
2030 before you execute slock.
2032 @node Running Guix on a Linode Server
2033 @section Running Guix on a Linode Server
2034 @cindex linode, Linode
2036 To run Guix on a server hosted by @uref{https://www.linode.com, Linode},
2037 start with a recommended Debian server. We recommend using the default
2038 distro as a way to bootstrap Guix. Create your SSH keys.
2044 Be sure to add your SSH key for easy login to the remote server.
2045 This is trivially done via Linode's graphical interface for adding
2046 SSH keys. Go to your profile and click add SSH Key.
2047 Copy into it the output of:
2050 cat ~/.ssh/<username>_rsa.pub
2053 Power the Linode down. In the Linode's Disks/Configurations tab, resize
2054 the Debian disk to be smaller. 30 GB is recommended.
2056 In the Linode settings, "Add a disk", with the following:
2065 Set it to the remaining size
2068 On the "configuration" field that comes with the default image, press
2069 "..." and select "Edit", then on that menu add to @file{/dev/sdc} the "Guix"
2072 Now "Add a Configuration", with the following:
2078 Kernel:GRUB 2 (it's at the bottom! This step is @b{IMPORTANT!})
2081 Block device assignment:
2084 @file{/dev/sda}: Guix
2087 @file{/dev/sdb}: swap
2090 Root device: @file{/dev/sda}
2093 Turn off all the filesystem/boot helpers
2096 Now power it back up, picking the Debian configuration. Once it's
2097 booted up, ssh in your server via @code{ssh
2098 root@@@var{<your-server-IP-here>}}. (You can find your server IP address in
2099 your Linode Summary section.) Now you can run the "install guix from
2100 @pxref{Binary Installation,,, guix, GNU Guix}" steps:
2103 sudo apt-get install gpg
2104 wget https://sv.gnu.org/people/viewgpg.php?user_id=15145 -qO - | gpg --import -
2105 wget https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/plain/etc/guix-install.sh
2106 chmod +x guix-install.sh
2111 Now it's time to write out a config for the server. The key information
2112 is below. Save the resulting file as @file{guix-config.scm}.
2117 (use-service-modules networking
2119 (use-package-modules admin
2126 (host-name "my-server")
2127 (timezone "America/New_York")
2128 (locale "en_US.UTF-8")
2129 ;; This goofy code will generate the grub.cfg
2130 ;; without installing the grub bootloader on disk.
2131 (bootloader (bootloader-configuration
2134 (inherit grub-bootloader)
2135 (installer #~(const #true))))))
2136 (file-systems (cons (file-system
2140 %base-file-systems))
2143 (swap-devices (list "/dev/sdb"))
2146 (initrd-modules (cons "virtio_scsi" ; Needed to find the disk
2147 %base-initrd-modules))
2149 (users (cons (user-account
2152 ;; Adding the account to the "wheel" group
2153 ;; makes it a sudoer.
2154 (supplementary-groups '("wheel"))
2155 (home-directory "/home/janedoe"))
2156 %base-user-accounts))
2158 (packages (cons* nss-certs ;for HTTPS access
2163 (service dhcp-client-service-type)
2164 (service openssh-service-type
2165 (openssh-configuration
2166 (openssh openssh-sans-x)
2167 (password-authentication? #false)
2169 `(("janedoe" ,(local-file "janedoe_rsa.pub"))
2170 ("root" ,(local-file "janedoe_rsa.pub"))))))
2174 Replace the following fields in the above configuration:
2176 (host-name "my-server") ; replace with your server name
2177 ; if you chose a linode server outside the U.S., then
2178 ; use tzselect to find a correct timezone string
2179 (timezone "America/New_York") ; if needed replace timezone
2180 (name "janedoe") ; replace with your username
2181 ("janedoe" ,(local-file "janedoe_rsa.pub")) ; replace with your ssh key
2182 ("root" ,(local-file "janedoe_rsa.pub")) ; replace with your ssh key
2185 The last line in the above example lets you log into the server as root
2186 and set the initial root password. After you have done this, you may
2187 delete that line from your configuration and reconfigure to prevent root
2190 Save your ssh public key (eg: @file{~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub}) as
2191 @file{@var{<your-username-here>}_rsa.pub} and your
2192 @file{guix-config.scm} in the same directory. In a new terminal run
2196 sftp root@@<remote server ip address>
2197 put /home/<username>/ssh/id_rsa.pub .
2198 put /path/to/linode/guix-config.scm .
2201 In your first terminal, mount the guix drive:
2205 mount /dev/sdc /mnt/guix
2208 Due to the way we set things up above, we do not install GRUB
2209 completely. Instead we install only our grub configuration file. So we
2210 need to copy over some of the other GRUB stuff that is already there:
2213 mkdir -p /mnt/guix/boot/grub
2214 cp -r /boot/grub/* /mnt/guix/boot/grub/
2217 Now initialize the Guix installation:
2220 guix system init guix-config.scm /mnt/guix
2224 Now from the Linode console, select boot and select "Guix".
2226 Once it boots, you should be able to log in via SSH! (The server config
2227 will have changed though.) You may encounter an error like:
2230 $ ssh root@@<server ip address>
2231 @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
2232 @ WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED! @
2233 @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
2234 IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY!
2235 Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)!
2236 It is also possible that a host key has just been changed.
2237 The fingerprint for the ECDSA key sent by the remote host is
2238 SHA256:0B+wp33w57AnKQuHCvQP0+ZdKaqYrI/kyU7CfVbS7R4.
2239 Please contact your system administrator.
2240 Add correct host key in /home/joshua/.ssh/known_hosts to get rid of this message.
2241 Offending ECDSA key in /home/joshua/.ssh/known_hosts:3
2242 ECDSA host key for 198.58.98.76 has changed and you have requested strict checking.
2243 Host key verification failed.
2246 Either delete @file{~/.ssh/known_hosts} file, or delete the offending line
2247 starting with your server IP address.
2249 Be sure to set your password and root's password.
2252 ssh root@@<remote ip address>
2253 passwd ; for the root password
2254 passwd <username> ; for the user password
2257 You may not be able to run the above commands at this point. If you
2258 have issues remotely logging into your linode box via SSH, then you may
2259 still need to set your root and user password initially by clicking on
2260 the ``Launch Console'' option in your linode. Choose the ``Glish''
2261 instead of ``Weblish''. Now you should be able to ssh into the machine.
2263 Horray! At this point you can shut down the server, delete the
2264 Debian disk, and resize the Guix to the rest of the size.
2267 By the way, if you save it as a disk image right at this point, you'll
2268 have an easy time spinning up new Guix images! You may need to
2269 down-size the Guix image to 6144MB, to save it as an image. Then you
2270 can resize it again to the max size.
2272 @node Setting up a bind mount
2273 @section Setting up a bind mount
2275 To bind mount a file system, one must first set up some definitions
2276 before the @code{operating-system} section of the system definition. In
2277 this example we will bind mount a folder from a spinning disk drive to
2278 @file{/tmp}, to save wear and tear on the primary SSD, without
2279 dedicating an entire partition to be mounted as @file{/tmp}.
2281 First, the source drive that hosts the folder we wish to bind mount
2282 should be defined, so that the bind mount can depend on it.
2285 (define source-drive ;; "source-drive" can be named anything you want.
2287 (device (uuid "UUID goes here"))
2288 (mount-point "/path-to-spinning-disk-goes-here")
2289 (type "ext4"))) ;; Make sure to set this to the appropriate type for your drive.
2292 The source folder must also be defined, so that guix will know it's not
2293 a regular block device, but a folder.
2295 (define (%source-directory) "/path-to-spinning-disk-goes-here/tmp") ;; "source-directory" can be named any valid variable name.
2298 Finally, inside the @code{file-systems} definition, we must add the
2302 (file-systems (cons*
2304 ...<other drives omitted for clarity>...
2306 source-drive ;; Must match the name you gave the source drive in the earlier definition.
2309 (device (%source-directory)) ;; Make sure "source-directory" matches your earlier definition.
2310 (mount-point "/tmp")
2311 (type "none") ;; We are mounting a folder, not a partition, so this type needs to be "none"
2312 (flags '(bind-mount))
2313 (dependencies (list source-drive)) ;; Ensure "source-drive" matches what you've named the variable for the drive.
2316 ...<other drives omitted for clarity>...
2321 @node Getting substitutes from Tor
2322 @section Getting substitutes from Tor
2324 Guix daemon can use a HTTP proxy to get substitutes, here we are
2325 configuring it to get them via Tor.
2328 @emph{Not all} Guix daemon's traffic will go through Tor! Only
2329 HTTP/HTTPS will get proxied; FTP, Git protocol, SSH, etc connections
2330 will still go through the clearnet. Again, this configuration isn't
2331 foolproof some of your traffic won't get routed by Tor at all. Use it
2334 Also note that the procedure described here applies only to package
2335 substitution. When you update your guix distribution with
2336 @command{guix pull}, you still need to use @command{torsocks} if
2337 you want to route the connection to guix's git repository servers
2341 Guix's substitute server is available as a Onion service, if you want
2342 to use it to get your substitutes through Tor configure your system as
2347 (use-service-module base networking)
2353 (service tor-service-type
2355 (config-file (plain-file "tor-config"
2356 "HTTPTunnelPort 127.0.0.1:9250"))))
2357 (modify-services %base-services
2359 config => (guix-configuration
2361 ;; ci.guix.gnu.org's Onion service
2362 (substitute-urls "https://bp7o7ckwlewr4slm.onion")
2363 (http-proxy "http://localhost:9250")))))))
2366 This will keep a tor process running that provides a HTTP CONNECT tunnel
2367 which will be used by @command{guix-daemon}. The daemon can use other
2368 protocols than HTTP(S) to get remote resources, request using those
2369 protocols won't go through Tor since we are only setting a HTTP tunnel
2370 here. Note that @code{substitutes-urls} is using HTTPS and not HTTP or
2371 it won't work, that's a limitation of Tor's tunnel; you may want to use
2372 @command{privoxy} instead to avoid such limitations.
2374 If you don't want to always get substitutes through Tor but using it just
2375 some of the times, then skip the @code{guix-configuration}. When you
2376 want to get a substitute from the Tor tunnel run:
2379 sudo herd set-http-proxy guix-daemon http://localhost:9250
2380 guix build --substitute-urls=https://bp7o7ckwlewr4slm.onion …
2383 @node Setting up NGINX with Lua
2384 @section Setting up NGINX with Lua
2385 @cindex nginx, lua, openresty, resty
2387 NGINX could be extended with Lua scripts.
2389 Guix provides NGINX service with ability to load Lua module and specific
2390 Lua packages, and reply to requests by evaluating Lua scripts.
2392 The following example demonstrates system definition with configuration
2393 to evaluate @file{index.lua} Lua script on HTTP request to
2394 @uref{http://localhost/hello} endpoint:
2397 local shell = require "resty.shell"
2400 local timeout = 1000 -- ms
2401 local max_size = 4096 -- byte
2403 local ok, stdout, stderr, reason, status =
2404 shell.run([[/run/current-system/profile/bin/ls /tmp]], stdin, timeout, max_size)
2411 (use-service-modules #;… web)
2412 (use-package-modules #;… lua)
2417 (service nginx-service-type
2418 (nginx-configuration
2421 (file-append nginx-lua-module "/etc/nginx/modules/ngx_http_lua_module.so")))
2422 (lua-package-path (list lua-resty-core
2427 (lua-package-cpath (list lua-resty-signal))
2429 (list (nginx-server-configuration
2430 (server-name '("localhost"))
2434 (nginx-location-configuration
2436 (body (list #~(format #f "content_by_lua_file ~s;"
2437 #$(local-file "index.lua"))))))))))))))
2440 @c *********************************************************************
2441 @node Advanced package management
2442 @chapter Advanced package management
2444 Guix is a functional package manager that offers many features beyond
2445 what more traditional package managers can do. To the uninitiated,
2446 those features might not have obvious use cases at first. The purpose
2447 of this chapter is to demonstrate some advanced package management
2450 @pxref{Package Management,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual} for a complete
2454 * Guix Profiles in Practice:: Strategies for multiple profiles and manifests.
2457 @node Guix Profiles in Practice
2458 @section Guix Profiles in Practice
2460 Guix provides a very useful feature that may be quite foreign to newcomers:
2461 @emph{profiles}. They are a way to group package installations together and all users
2462 on the same system are free to use as many profiles as they want.
2464 Whether you're a developer or not, you may find that multiple profiles bring you
2465 great power and flexibility. While they shift the paradigm somewhat compared to
2466 @emph{traditional package managers}, they are very convenient to use once you've
2467 understood how to set them up.
2469 If you are familiar with Python's @samp{virtualenv}, you can think of a profile as a
2470 kind of universal @samp{virtualenv} that can hold any kind of software whatsoever, not
2471 just Python software. Furthermore, profiles are self-sufficient: they capture
2472 all the runtime dependencies which guarantees that all programs within a profile
2473 will always work at any point in time.
2475 Multiple profiles have many benefits:
2479 Clean semantic separation of the various packages a user needs for different contexts.
2482 Multiple profiles can be made available into the environment either on login
2483 or within a dedicated shell.
2486 Profiles can be loaded on demand. For instance, the user can use multiple
2487 shells, each of them running different profiles.
2490 Isolation: Programs from one profile will not use programs from the other, and
2491 the user can even install different versions of the same programs to the two
2492 profiles without conflict.
2495 Deduplication: Profiles share dependencies that happens to be the exact same.
2496 This makes multiple profiles storage-efficient.
2499 Reproducible: when used with declarative manifests, a profile can be fully
2500 specified by the Guix commit that was active when it was set up. This means
2501 that the exact same profile can be
2502 @uref{https://guix.gnu.org/blog/2018/multi-dimensional-transactions-and-rollbacks-oh-my/,
2503 set up anywhere and anytime}, with just the commit information. See the
2504 section on @ref{Reproducible profiles}.
2507 Easier upgrades and maintenance: Multiple profiles make it easy to keep
2508 package listings at hand and make upgrades completely frictionless.
2511 Concretely, here follows some typical profiles:
2515 The dependencies of a project you are working on.
2518 Your favourite programming language libraries.
2521 Laptop-specific programs (like @samp{powertop}) that you don't need on a desktop.
2524 @TeX{}live (this one can be really useful when you need to install just one
2525 package for this one document you've just received over email).
2531 Let's dive in the set up!
2533 @node Basic setup with manifests
2534 @subsection Basic setup with manifests
2536 A Guix profile can be set up @emph{via} a so-called @emph{manifest specification} that looks like
2540 (specifications->manifest
2542 ;; Version 1.3 of package-2.
2544 ;; The "lib" output of package-3.
2550 @pxref{Invoking guix package,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual}, for
2553 We can create a manifest specification per profile and install them this way:
2556 GUIX_EXTRA_PROFILES=$HOME/.guix-extra-profiles
2557 mkdir -p "$GUIX_EXTRA_PROFILES"/my-project # if it does not exist yet
2558 guix package --manifest=/path/to/guix-my-project-manifest.scm --profile="$GUIX_EXTRA_PROFILES"/my-project/my-project
2561 Here we set an arbitrary variable @samp{GUIX_EXTRA_PROFILES} to point to the directory
2562 where we will store our profiles in the rest of this article.
2564 Placing all your profiles in a single directory, with each profile getting its
2565 own sub-directory, is somewhat cleaner. This way, each sub-directory will
2566 contain all the symlinks for precisely one profile. Besides, ``looping over
2567 profiles'' becomes obvious from any programming language (e.g.@: a shell script) by
2568 simply looping over the sub-directories of @samp{$GUIX_EXTRA_PROFILES}.
2570 Note that it's also possible to loop over the output of
2573 guix package --list-profiles
2576 although you'll probably have to filter out @file{~/.config/guix/current}.
2578 To enable all profiles on login, add this to your @file{~/.bash_profile} (or similar):
2581 for i in $GUIX_EXTRA_PROFILES/*; do
2582 profile=$i/$(basename "$i")
2583 if [ -f "$profile"/etc/profile ]; then
2584 GUIX_PROFILE="$profile"
2585 . "$GUIX_PROFILE"/etc/profile
2591 Note to Guix System users: the above reflects how your default profile
2592 @file{~/.guix-profile} is activated from @file{/etc/profile}, that latter being loaded by
2593 @file{~/.bashrc} by default.
2595 You can obviously choose to only enable a subset of them:
2598 for i in "$GUIX_EXTRA_PROFILES"/my-project-1 "$GUIX_EXTRA_PROFILES"/my-project-2; do
2599 profile=$i/$(basename "$i")
2600 if [ -f "$profile"/etc/profile ]; then
2601 GUIX_PROFILE="$profile"
2602 . "$GUIX_PROFILE"/etc/profile
2608 When a profile is off, it's straightforward to enable it for an individual shell
2609 without "polluting" the rest of the user session:
2612 GUIX_PROFILE="path/to/my-project" ; . "$GUIX_PROFILE"/etc/profile
2615 The key to enabling a profile is to @emph{source} its @samp{etc/profile} file. This file
2616 contains shell code that exports the right environment variables necessary to
2617 activate the software contained in the profile. It is built automatically by
2618 Guix and meant to be sourced.
2619 It contains the same variables you would get if you ran:
2622 guix package --search-paths=prefix --profile=$my_profile"
2625 Once again, see (@pxref{Invoking guix package,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual})
2626 for the command line options.
2628 To upgrade a profile, simply install the manifest again:
2631 guix package -m /path/to/guix-my-project-manifest.scm -p "$GUIX_EXTRA_PROFILES"/my-project/my-project
2634 To upgrade all profiles, it's easy enough to loop over them. For instance,
2635 assuming your manifest specifications are stored in
2636 @file{~/.guix-manifests/guix-$profile-manifest.scm}, with @samp{$profile} being the name
2637 of the profile (e.g.@: "project1"), you could do the following in Bourne shell:
2640 for profile in "$GUIX_EXTRA_PROFILES"/*; do
2641 guix package --profile="$profile" --manifest="$HOME/.guix-manifests/guix-$profile-manifest.scm"
2645 Each profile has its own generations:
2648 guix package -p "$GUIX_EXTRA_PROFILES"/my-project/my-project --list-generations
2651 You can roll-back to any generation of a given profile:
2654 guix package -p "$GUIX_EXTRA_PROFILES"/my-project/my-project --switch-generations=17
2657 Finally, if you want to switch to a profile without inheriting from the
2658 current environment, you can activate it from an empty shell:
2661 env -i $(which bash) --login --noprofile --norc
2662 . my-project/etc/profile
2665 @node Required packages
2666 @subsection Required packages
2668 Activating a profile essentially boils down to exporting a bunch of
2669 environmental variables. This is the role of the @samp{etc/profile} within the
2672 @emph{Note: Only the environmental variables of the packages that consume them will
2675 For instance, @samp{MANPATH} won't be set if there is no consumer application for man
2676 pages within the profile. So if you need to transparently access man pages once
2677 the profile is loaded, you've got two options:
2681 Either export the variable manually, e.g.
2683 export MANPATH=/path/to/profile$@{MANPATH:+:@}$MANPATH
2687 Or include @samp{man-db} to the profile manifest.
2690 The same is true for @samp{INFOPATH} (you can install @samp{info-reader}),
2691 @samp{PKG_CONFIG_PATH} (install @samp{pkg-config}), etc.
2693 @node Default profile
2694 @subsection Default profile
2696 What about the default profile that Guix keeps in @file{~/.guix-profile}?
2698 You can assign it the role you want. Typically you would install the manifest
2699 of the packages you want to use all the time.
2701 Alternatively, you could keep it ``manifest-less'' for throw-away packages
2702 that you would just use for a couple of days.
2703 This way makes it convenient to run
2706 guix install package-foo
2707 guix upgrade package-bar
2710 without having to specify the path to a profile.
2712 @node The benefits of manifests
2713 @subsection The benefits of manifests
2715 Manifests are a convenient way to keep your package lists around and, say,
2716 to synchronize them across multiple machines using a version control system.
2718 A common complaint about manifests is that they can be slow to install when they
2719 contain large number of packages. This is especially cumbersome when you just
2720 want get an upgrade for one package within a big manifest.
2722 This is one more reason to use multiple profiles, which happen to be just
2723 perfect to break down manifests into multiple sets of semantically connected
2724 packages. Using multiple, small profiles provides more flexibility and
2727 Manifests come with multiple benefits. In particular, they ease maintenance:
2731 When a profile is set up from a manifest, the manifest itself is
2732 self-sufficient to keep a ``package listing'' around and reinstall the profile
2733 later or on a different system. For ad-hoc profiles, we would need to
2734 generate a manifest specification manually and maintain the package versions
2735 for the packages that don't use the default version.
2738 @code{guix package --upgrade} always tries to update the packages that have
2739 propagated inputs, even if there is nothing to do. Guix manifests remove this
2743 When partially upgrading a profile, conflicts may arise (due to diverging
2744 dependencies between the updated and the non-updated packages) and they can be
2745 annoying to resolve manually. Manifests remove this problem altogether since
2746 all packages are always upgraded at once.
2749 As mentioned above, manifests allow for reproducible profiles, while the
2750 imperative @code{guix install}, @code{guix upgrade}, etc. do not, since they produce
2751 different profiles every time even when they hold the same packages. See
2752 @uref{https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/33285, the related discussion on the matter}.
2755 Manifest specifications are usable by other @samp{guix} commands. For example, you
2756 can run @code{guix weather -m manifest.scm} to see how many substitutes are
2757 available, which can help you decide whether you want to try upgrading today
2758 or wait a while. Another example: you can run @code{guix pack -m manifest.scm} to
2759 create a pack containing all the packages in the manifest (and their
2760 transitive references).
2763 Finally, manifests have a Scheme representation, the @samp{<manifest>} record type.
2764 They can be manipulated in Scheme and passed to the various Guix @uref{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Api, APIs}.
2767 It's important to understand that while manifests can be used to declare
2768 profiles, they are not strictly equivalent: profiles have the side effect that
2769 they ``pin'' packages in the store, which prevents them from being
2770 garbage-collected (@pxref{Invoking guix gc,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual})
2771 and ensures that they will still be available at any point in
2774 Let's take an example:
2778 We have an environment for hacking on a project for which there isn't a Guix
2779 package yet. We build the environment using a manifest, and then run @code{guix
2780 environment -m manifest.scm}. So far so good.
2783 Many weeks pass and we have run a couple of @code{guix pull} in the mean time.
2784 Maybe a dependency from our manifest has been updated; or we may have run
2785 @code{guix gc} and some packages needed by our manifest have been
2789 Eventually, we set to work on that project again, so we run @code{guix environment
2790 -m manifest.scm}. But now we have to wait for Guix to build and install
2794 Ideally, we could spare the rebuild time. And indeed we can, all we need is to
2795 install the manifest to a profile and use @code{GUIX_PROFILE=/the/profile;
2796 . "$GUIX_PROFILE"/etc/profile} as explained above: this guarantees that our
2797 hacking environment will be available at all times.
2799 @emph{Security warning:} While keeping old profiles around can be convenient, keep in
2800 mind that outdated packages may not have received the latest security fixes.
2802 @node Reproducible profiles
2803 @subsection Reproducible profiles
2805 To reproduce a profile bit-for-bit, we need two pieces of information:
2811 a Guix channel specification.
2814 Indeed, manifests alone might not be enough: different Guix versions (or
2815 different channels) can produce different outputs for a given manifest.
2817 You can output the Guix channel specification with @samp{guix describe
2819 Save this to a file, say @samp{channel-specs.scm}.
2821 On another computer, you can use the channel specification file and the manifest
2822 to reproduce the exact same profile:
2825 GUIX_EXTRA_PROFILES=$HOME/.guix-extra-profiles
2826 GUIX_EXTRA=$HOME/.guix-extra
2828 mkdir "$GUIX_EXTRA"/my-project
2829 guix pull --channels=channel-specs.scm --profile "$GUIX_EXTRA/my-project/guix"
2831 mkdir -p "$GUIX_EXTRA_PROFILES/my-project"
2832 "$GUIX_EXTRA"/my-project/guix/bin/guix package --manifest=/path/to/guix-my-project-manifest.scm --profile="$GUIX_EXTRA_PROFILES"/my-project/my-project
2835 It's safe to delete the Guix channel profile you've just installed with the
2836 channel specification, the project profile does not depend on it.
2838 @c *********************************************************************
2839 @node Environment management
2840 @chapter Environment management
2842 Guix provides multiple tools to manage environment. This chapter
2843 demonstrate such utilities.
2846 * Guix environment via direnv:: Setup Guix environment with direnv
2849 @node Guix environment via direnv
2850 @section Guix environment via direnv
2852 Guix provides a @samp{direnv} package, which could extend shell after
2853 directory change. This tool could be used to prepare a pure Guix
2856 The following example provides a shell function for @file{~/.direnvrc}
2857 file, which could be used from Guix Git repository in
2858 @file{~/src/guix/.envrc} file to setup a build environment similar to
2859 described in @pxref{Building from Git,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference
2862 Create a @file{~/.direnvrc} with a Bash code:
2865 # Thanks <https://github.com/direnv/direnv/issues/73#issuecomment-152284914>
2869 local alias_dir=$PWD/.direnv/aliases
2870 mkdir -p "$alias_dir"
2871 PATH_add "$alias_dir"
2872 local target="$alias_dir/$name"
2873 if declare -f "$name" >/dev/null; then
2874 echo "#!$SHELL" > "$target"
2875 declare -f "$name" >> "$target" 2>/dev/null
2876 # Notice that we add shell variables to the function trigger.
2877 echo "$name \$*" >> "$target"
2885 export GUIX_GITHUB_TOKEN="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
2887 # Unset 'GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH'.
2888 export GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH=""
2890 # Recreate a garbage collector root.
2891 gcroots="$HOME/.config/guix/gcroots"
2893 gcroot="$gcroots/guix"
2899 # Miscellaneous packages.
2900 PACKAGES_MAINTENANCE=(
2914 # Environment packages.
2915 PACKAGES=(help2man guile-sqlite3 guile-gcrypt)
2917 # Thanks <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2016-09/msg00859.html>
2918 eval "$(guix environment --search-paths --root="$gcroot" --pure guix --ad-hoc $@{PACKAGES[@@]@} $@{PACKAGES_MAINTENANCE[@@]@} "$@@")"
2920 # Predefine configure flags.
2923 ./configure --localstatedir=/var --prefix=
2925 export_function configure
2927 # Run make and optionally build something.
2933 ./pre-inst-env guix build "$@@"
2936 export_function build
2938 # Predefine push Git command.
2941 git push --set-upstream origin
2943 export_function push
2945 clear # Clean up the screen.
2946 git-cal --author='Your Name' # Show contributions calendar.
2948 # Show commands help.
2950 build build a package or just a project if no argument provided
2951 configure run ./configure with predefined parameters
2952 push push to upstream Git repository
2957 Every project containing @file{.envrc} with a string @code{use guix}
2958 will have predefined environment variables and procedures.
2960 Run @command{direnv allow} to setup the environment for the first time.
2962 @c *********************************************************************
2963 @node Acknowledgments
2964 @chapter Acknowledgments
2966 Guix is based on the @uref{https://nixos.org/nix/, Nix package manager},
2967 which was designed and
2968 implemented by Eelco Dolstra, with contributions from other people (see
2969 the @file{nix/AUTHORS} file in Guix.) Nix pioneered functional package
2970 management, and promoted unprecedented features, such as transactional
2971 package upgrades and rollbacks, per-user profiles, and referentially
2972 transparent build processes. Without this work, Guix would not exist.
2974 The Nix-based software distributions, Nixpkgs and NixOS, have also been
2975 an inspiration for Guix.
2977 GNU@tie{}Guix itself is a collective work with contributions from a
2978 number of people. See the @file{AUTHORS} file in Guix for more
2979 information on these fine people. The @file{THANKS} file lists people
2980 who have helped by reporting bugs, taking care of the infrastructure,
2981 providing artwork and themes, making suggestions, and more---thank you!
2983 This document includes adapted sections from articles that have previously
2984 been published on the Guix blog at @uref{https://guix.gnu.org/blog}.
2987 @c *********************************************************************
2988 @node GNU Free Documentation License
2989 @appendix GNU Free Documentation License
2990 @cindex license, GNU Free Documentation License
2991 @include fdl-1.3.texi
2993 @c *********************************************************************
2995 @unnumbered Concept Index
3001 @c ispell-local-dictionary: "american";