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| -rw-r--r-- | doc/manual/src/language/builtin-constants.md | 19 |
1 files changed, 9 insertions, 10 deletions
diff --git a/doc/manual/src/language/builtin-constants.md b/doc/manual/src/language/builtin-constants.md index 3898bfd66..c6bc9b74c 100644 --- a/doc/manual/src/language/builtin-constants.md +++ b/doc/manual/src/language/builtin-constants.md @@ -1,20 +1,19 @@ # Built-in Constants -Here are the constants built into the Nix expression evaluator: +These constants are built into the Nix language evaluator: + +- [`builtins`]{#builtins-builtins} (attribute set) + + Contains all the [built-in functions](./builtins.md) and values, in order to avoid polluting the global scope. + + Since built-in functions were added over time, [testing for attributes](./operators.md#has-attribute) in `builtins` can be used for graceful fallback on older Nix installations: -- `builtins`\ - The set `builtins` contains all the built-in functions and values. - You can use `builtins` to test for the availability of features in - the Nix installation, e.g., - ```nix if builtins ? getEnv then builtins.getEnv "PATH" else "" ``` - - This allows a Nix expression to fall back gracefully on older Nix - installations that don’t have the desired built-in function. -- [`builtins.currentSystem`]{#builtins-currentSystem}\ +- [`builtins.currentSystem`]{#builtins-currentSystem} (string) + The built-in value `currentSystem` evaluates to the Nix platform identifier for the Nix installation on which the expression is being evaluated, such as `"i686-linux"` or `"x86_64-darwin"`. |