README

   1 -*- mode: org -*-
   2
   3 [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/][GNU Guix]] (IPA: /ɡiːks/) is a purely functional package manager, and
   4 associated free software distribution, for the [[https://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu.html][GNU system]].  In addition
   5 to standard package management features, Guix supports transactional
   6 upgrades and roll-backs, unprivileged package management, per-user
   7 profiles, and garbage collection.
   8
   9 It provides [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/][Guile]] Scheme APIs, including a high-level embedded
  10 domain-specific languages (EDSLs) to describe how packages are to be
  11 built and composed.
  12
  13 GNU Guix can be used on top of an already-installed GNU/Linux distribution, or
  14 it can be used standalone (we call that “Guix System”).
  15
  16 Guix is based on the [[https://nixos.org/nix/][Nix]] package manager.
  17
  18
  19 * Requirements
  20
  21 If you are building Guix from source, please see the manual for build
  22 instructions and requirements, either by running:
  23
  24   info -f doc/guix.info "Requirements"
  25
  26 or by checking the [[https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Requirements.html][web copy of the manual]].
  27
  28 * Installation
  29
  30 See the manual for the installation instructions, either by running
  31
  32   info -f doc/guix.info "Installation"
  33
  34 or by checking the [[https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Installation.html][web copy of the manual]].
  35
  36 * 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