| | 1 | -*- mode: org -*- |
| | 2 | |
| | 3 | [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/][GNU Guix]] (IPA: /ɡiːks/) is a purely functional package manager, and |
| | 4 | associated free software distribution, for the [[https://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu.html][GNU system]]. In addition |
| | 5 | to standard package management features, Guix supports transactional |
| | 6 | upgrades and roll-backs, unprivileged package management, per-user |
| | 7 | profiles, and garbage collection. |
| | 8 | |
| | 9 | It provides [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/][Guile]] Scheme APIs, including a high-level embedded |
| | 10 | domain-specific languages (EDSLs) to describe how packages are to be |
| | 11 | built and composed. |
| | 12 | |
| | 13 | GNU Guix can be used on top of an already-installed GNU/Linux distribution, or |
| | 14 | it can be used standalone (we call that “Guix System”). |
| | 15 | |
| | 16 | Guix is based on the [[https://nixos.org/nix/][Nix]] package manager. |
| | 17 | |
| | 18 | |
| | 19 | * Requirements |
| | 20 | |
| | 21 | If you are building Guix from source, please see the manual for build |
| | 22 | instructions and requirements, either by running: |
| | 23 | |
| | 24 | info -f doc/guix.info "Requirements" |
| | 25 | |
| | 26 | or by checking the [[https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Requirements.html][web copy of the manual]]. |
| | 27 | |
| | 28 | * Installation |
| | 29 | |
| | 30 | See the manual for the installation instructions, either by running |
| | 31 | |
| | 32 | info -f doc/guix.info "Installation" |
| | 33 | |
| | 34 | or by checking the [[https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Installation.html][web copy of the manual]]. |
| | 35 | |
| | 36 | * Building from Git |
| | 37 | |
| | 38 | For information on building Guix from a Git checkout, please see the relevant |
| | 39 | section in the manual, either by running |
| | 40 | |
| | 41 | info -f doc/guix.info "Building from Git" |
| | 42 | |
| | 43 | or by checking the [[https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Building-from-Git.html][web_copy of the manual]]. |
| | 44 | |
| | 45 | * How It Works |
| | 46 | |
| | 47 | Guix does the high-level preparation of a /derivation/. A derivation is |
| | 48 | the promise of a build; it is stored as a text file under |
| | 49 | =/gnu/store/xxx.drv=. The (guix derivations) module provides the |
| | 50 | `derivation' primitive, as well as higher-level wrappers such as |
| | 51 | `build-expression->derivation'. |
| | 52 | |
| | 53 | Guix does remote procedure calls (RPCs) to the build daemon (the =guix-daemon= |
| | 54 | command), which in turn performs builds and accesses to the store on its |
| | 55 | behalf. The RPCs are implemented in the (guix store) module. |
| | 56 | |
| | 57 | * Contact |
| | 58 | |
| | 59 | GNU Guix is hosted at https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/guix/. |
| | 60 | |
| | 61 | Please email <help-guix@gnu.org> for questions and <bug-guix@gnu.org> for bug |
| | 62 | reports; email <gnu-system-discuss@gnu.org> for general issues regarding the |
| | 63 | GNU system. |
| | 64 | |
| | 65 | Join #guix on irc.freenode.net. |
| | 66 | |
| | 67 | * Guix & Nix |
| | 68 | |
| | 69 | GNU Guix is based on [[https://nixos.org/nix/][the Nix package manager]]. It implements the same |
| | 70 | package deployment paradigm, and in fact it reuses some of its code. |
| | 71 | Yet, different engineering decisions were made for Guix, as described |
| | 72 | below. |
| | 73 | |
| | 74 | Nix is really two things: a package build tool, implemented by a library |
| | 75 | and daemon, and a special-purpose programming language. GNU Guix relies |
| | 76 | on the former, but uses Scheme as a replacement for the latter. |
| | 77 | |
| | 78 | Using Scheme instead of a specific language allows us to get all the |
| | 79 | features and tooling that come with Guile (compiler, debugger, REPL, |
| | 80 | Unicode, libraries, etc.) And it means that we have a general-purpose |
| | 81 | language, on top of which we can have embedded domain-specific languages |
| | 82 | (EDSLs), such as the one used to define packages. This broadens what |
| | 83 | can be done in package recipes themselves, and what can be done around them. |
| | 84 | |
| | 85 | Technically, Guix makes remote procedure calls to the ‘nix-worker’ |
| | 86 | daemon to perform operations on the store. At the lowest level, Nix |
| | 87 | “derivations” represent promises of a build, stored in ‘.drv’ files in |
| | 88 | the store. Guix produces such derivations, which are then interpreted |
| | 89 | by the daemon to perform the build. Thus, Guix derivations can use |
| | 90 | derivations produced by Nix (and vice versa). |
| | 91 | |
| | 92 | With Nix and the [[https://nixos.org/nixpkgs][Nixpkgs]] distribution, package composition happens at |
| | 93 | the Nix language level, but builders are usually written in Bash. |
| | 94 | Conversely, Guix encourages the use of Scheme for both package |
| | 95 | composition and builders. Likewise, the core functionality of Nix is |
| | 96 | written in C++ and Perl; Guix relies on some of the original C++ code, |
| | 97 | but exposes all the API as Scheme. |
| | 98 | |
| | 99 | * Related software |
| | 100 | |
| | 101 | - [[https://nixos.org][Nix, Nixpkgs, and NixOS]], functional package manager and associated |
| | 102 | software distribution, are the inspiration of Guix |
| | 103 | - [[https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/][GNU Stow]] builds around the idea of one directory per prefix, and a |
| | 104 | symlink tree to create user environments |
| | 105 | - [[https://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~arnej/store/storedoc_6.html][STORE]] shares the same idea |
| | 106 | - [[https://live.gnome.org/OSTree/][GNOME's OSTree]] allows bootable system images to be built from a |
| | 107 | specified set of packages |
| | 108 | - The [[https://www.gnu.org/s/gsrc/][GNU Source Release Collection]] (GSRC) is a user-land software |
| | 109 | distribution; unlike Guix, it relies on core tools available on the |
| | 110 | host system |
HCoop / jackhill / guix / guix.git / blame_incremental