X-Git-Url: https://git.hcoop.net/jackhill/guix/guix.git/blobdiff_plain/4255d4e3c5c17b3f170f287388710ca1dc5cb711..de4705d92dd6c97abf9cca16023a35f0100a096d:/README diff --git a/README b/README dissimilarity index 80% index 442e4c3f35..5e9069f80f 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -1,46 +1,121 @@ --*- 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 . - -Please email or , 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 for questions and for bug +reports; email 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