--*- mode: org -*-
-
-Guix is Nix[0] from Guile[1]!
-
-Concretely, it allows Nix package management to be done entirely in
-Scheme. The goal is to investigate whether Scheme, and in particular
-the ability to define EDSLs, would allow it to fulfill the role of the
-Nix language.
-
-[0] http://nixos.org/nix/
-[1] http://gnu.org/software/guile/
-
-
-* Hacking
-
-Guix currently depends on the following packages:
-
- - GNU Guile 2.0.x, http://gnu.org/software/guile/
- - Nix, http://nixos.org/nix/
- - libchop, http://nongnu.org/libchop/
-
-For bootstrapping purposes, it is useful to reuse packages from Nixpkgs.
-For this to work, you need to have a checkout of the Nixpkgs repository,
-with the `NIXPKGS' environment variable pointing to it.
-
- - Nixpkgs, http://nixos.org/nixpkgs/
-
-* How It Works
-
-Guix does the high-level preparation of a /derivation/. A derivation is
-the promise of a build; it is stored as a text file under
-=/nix/store/xxx.drv=. The (guix derivations) module provides the
-`derivation' primitive, as well as higher-level wrappers such as
-`build-expression->derivation'.
-
-Guix does remote procedure calls (RPCs) to the Nix daemon (the
-=nix-worker --daemon= command), which in turn performs builds and
-accesses to the Nix store on its behalf. The RPCs are implemented in
-the (guix store) module.
-
-* Contact
-
-The repository is at <https://gitorious.org/guix/>.
-
-Please email <ludo@gnu.org> or <nix-dev@lists.science.uu.nl>, or
-join #guile or #nixos on irc.freenode.net or `civodul'.
+-*- mode: org -*-
+
+[[https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/][GNU Guix]] (IPA: /ɡiːks/) is a purely functional package manager, and
+associated free software distribution, for the [[https://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu.html][GNU system]]. In addition
+to standard package management features, Guix supports transactional
+upgrades and roll-backs, unprivileged package management, per-user
+profiles, and garbage collection.
+
+It provides [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/][Guile]] Scheme APIs, including a high-level embedded
+domain-specific languages (EDSLs) to describe how packages are to be
+built and composed.
+
+GNU Guix can be used on top of an already-installed GNU/Linux distribution, or
+it can be used standalone (we call that “Guix System”).
+
+Guix is based on the [[https://nixos.org/nix/][Nix]] package manager.
+
+
+* Requirements
+
+If you are building Guix from source, please see the manual for build
+instructions and requirements, either by running:
+
+ info -f doc/guix.info "Requirements"
+
+or by checking the [[https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Requirements.html][web copy of the manual]].
+
+* Installation
+
+See the manual for the installation instructions, either by running
+
+ info -f doc/guix.info "Installation"
+
+or by checking the [[https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Installation.html][web copy of the manual]].
+
+For information on installation from a Git checkout, please see the section
+"Building from Git" in the manual.
+
+* Installing Guix from Guix
+
+You can re-build and re-install Guix using a system that already runs Guix.
+To do so:
+
+ - Start a shell with the development environment for Guix:
+
+ guix environment guix
+
+ - Re-run the 'configure' script passing it the option
+ '--localstatedir=/somewhere', where '/somewhere' is the 'localstatedir'
+ value of the currently installed Guix (failing to do that would lead the
+ new Guix to consider the store to be empty!). We recommend to use the
+ value '/var'.
+
+ - Run "make", "make check", and "make install".
+
+* How It Works
+
+Guix does the high-level preparation of a /derivation/. A derivation is
+the promise of a build; it is stored as a text file under
+=/gnu/store/xxx.drv=. The (guix derivations) module provides the
+`derivation' primitive, as well as higher-level wrappers such as
+`build-expression->derivation'.
+
+Guix does remote procedure calls (RPCs) to the build daemon (the =guix-daemon=
+command), which in turn performs builds and accesses to the store on its
+behalf. The RPCs are implemented in the (guix store) module.
+
+* Contact
+
+GNU Guix is hosted at https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/guix/.
+
+Please email <help-guix@gnu.org> for questions and <bug-guix@gnu.org> for bug
+reports; email <gnu-system-discuss@gnu.org> for general issues regarding the
+GNU system.
+
+Join #guix on irc.freenode.net.
+
+* Guix & Nix
+
+GNU Guix is based on [[https://nixos.org/nix/][the Nix package manager]]. It implements the same
+package deployment paradigm, and in fact it reuses some of its code.
+Yet, different engineering decisions were made for Guix, as described
+below.
+
+Nix is really two things: a package build tool, implemented by a library
+and daemon, and a special-purpose programming language. GNU Guix relies
+on the former, but uses Scheme as a replacement for the latter.
+
+Using Scheme instead of a specific language allows us to get all the
+features and tooling that come with Guile (compiler, debugger, REPL,
+Unicode, libraries, etc.) And it means that we have a general-purpose
+language, on top of which we can have embedded domain-specific languages
+(EDSLs), such as the one used to define packages. This broadens what
+can be done in package recipes themselves, and what can be done around them.
+
+Technically, Guix makes remote procedure calls to the ‘nix-worker’
+daemon to perform operations on the store. At the lowest level, Nix
+“derivations” represent promises of a build, stored in ‘.drv’ files in
+the store. Guix produces such derivations, which are then interpreted
+by the daemon to perform the build. Thus, Guix derivations can use
+derivations produced by Nix (and vice versa).
+
+With Nix and the [[https://nixos.org/nixpkgs][Nixpkgs]] distribution, package composition happens at
+the Nix language level, but builders are usually written in Bash.
+Conversely, Guix encourages the use of Scheme for both package
+composition and builders. Likewise, the core functionality of Nix is
+written in C++ and Perl; Guix relies on some of the original C++ code,
+but exposes all the API as Scheme.
+
+* Related software
+
+ - [[https://nixos.org][Nix, Nixpkgs, and NixOS]], functional package manager and associated
+ software distribution, are the inspiration of Guix
+ - [[https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/][GNU Stow]] builds around the idea of one directory per prefix, and a
+ symlink tree to create user environments
+ - [[https://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~arnej/store/storedoc_6.html][STORE]] shares the same idea
+ - [[https://live.gnome.org/OSTree/][GNOME's OSTree]] allows bootable system images to be built from a
+ specified set of packages
+ - The [[https://www.gnu.org/s/gsrc/][GNU Source Release Collection]] (GSRC) is a user-land software
+ distribution; unlike Guix, it relies on core tools available on the
+ host system
HCoop / jackhill / guix / guix.git / blobdiff