HCoop / jackhill / guix / guix.git / blame
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1 | -*- mode: org -*- |
| 2 | ||
| f8348b91 | 3 | GNU Guix is Nix[0] from Guile[1]! |
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4 | |
| 5 | Concretely, it allows Nix package management to be done entirely in | |
| 6 | Scheme. The goal is to investigate whether Scheme, and in particular | |
| 7 | the ability to define EDSLs, would allow it to fulfill the role of the | |
| 8 | Nix language. | |
| 9 | ||
| 10 | [0] http://nixos.org/nix/ | |
| 11 | [1] http://gnu.org/software/guile/ | |
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12 | |
| 13 | ||
| 14 | * Hacking | |
| 15 | ||
| 16 | Guix currently depends on the following packages: | |
| 17 | ||
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18 | - [[http://gnu.org/software/guile/][GNU Guile 2.0.x]] |
| 19 | - [[http://nixos.org/nix/][Nix]] | |
| d388c2c4 | 20 | - [[http://gnupg.org/][GNU libgcrypt]] |
| 4255d4e3 | 21 | |
| e76bdf8b | 22 | Optionally, packages from Nixpkgs may be transparently reused from Guix. |
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23 | For this to work, you need to have a checkout of the Nixpkgs repository; |
| 24 | the `--with-nixpkgs' option allows you to let `configure' know where the | |
| 25 | Nixpkgs checkout is. | |
| 4255d4e3 | 26 | |
| a1e4a936 | 27 | - [[http://nixos.org/nixpkgs/][Nixpkgs]] |
| 4255d4e3 | 28 | |
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29 | When building Guix from a checkout, the following packages are also |
| 30 | required: | |
| 31 | ||
| 32 | - [[http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/][GNU Autoconf]] | |
| 33 | - [[http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/][GNU Automake]] | |
| 34 | - [[http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/][GNU Gettext]] | |
| 35 | ||
| 36 | The "autoreconf -vi" command can be used to generate the build system | |
| 37 | infrastructure; it reports an error if an inappropriate version of the | |
| 38 | above packages is being used. | |
| 39 | ||
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40 | * How It Works |
| 41 | ||
| 42 | Guix does the high-level preparation of a /derivation/. A derivation is | |
| 43 | the promise of a build; it is stored as a text file under | |
| 44 | =/nix/store/xxx.drv=. The (guix derivations) module provides the | |
| 45 | `derivation' primitive, as well as higher-level wrappers such as | |
| 46 | `build-expression->derivation'. | |
| 47 | ||
| 48 | Guix does remote procedure calls (RPCs) to the Nix daemon (the | |
| 49 | =nix-worker --daemon= command), which in turn performs builds and | |
| 50 | accesses to the Nix store on its behalf. The RPCs are implemented in | |
| 51 | the (guix store) module. | |
| 52 | ||
| 53 | * Contact | |
| 54 | ||
| 55 | The repository is at <https://gitorious.org/guix/>. | |
| 56 | ||
| 57 | Please email <ludo@gnu.org> or <nix-dev@lists.science.uu.nl>, or | |
| 58 | join #guile or #nixos on irc.freenode.net or `civodul'. | |
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59 | |
| 60 | * Related software | |
| 61 | ||
| 62 | - [[http://nixos.org][Nix, Nixpkgs, and NixOS]], functional package manager and associated | |
| 63 | software distribution, are the inspiration of Guix | |
| 64 | - [[http://www.gnu.org/software/stow/][GNU Stow]] builds around the idea of one directory per prefix, and a | |
| 65 | symlink tree to create user environments | |
| 66 | - [[http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~arnej/store/storedoc_6.html][STORE]] shares the same idea | |
| 67 | - [[https://live.gnome.org/OSTree/][GNOME's OSTree]] allows bootable system images to be built from a | |
| 68 | specified set of packages | |
| 69 | - The [[http://www.gnu.org/s/gsrc/][GNU Source Release Collection]] (GSRC) is a user-land software | |
| 70 | distribution; unlike Guix, it relies on core tools available on the | |
| 71 | host system |