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-<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
- xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
- xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
- version="5.0"
- xml:id="sec-advanced-attributes">
-
-<title>Advanced Attributes</title>
-
-<para>Derivations can declare some infrequently used optional
-attributes.</para>
-
-<variablelist>
-
- <varlistentry xml:id="adv-attr-allowedReferences"><term><varname>allowedReferences</varname></term>
-
- <listitem><para>The optional attribute
- <varname>allowedReferences</varname> specifies a list of legal
- references (dependencies) of the output of the builder. For
- example,
-
-<programlisting>
-allowedReferences = [];
-</programlisting>
-
- enforces that the output of a derivation cannot have any runtime
- dependencies on its inputs. To allow an output to have a runtime
- dependency on itself, use <literal>"out"</literal> as a list item.
- This is used in NixOS to check that generated files such as
- initial ramdisks for booting Linux don’t have accidental
- dependencies on other paths in the Nix store.</para></listitem>
-
- </varlistentry>
-
-
- <varlistentry xml:id="adv-attr-allowedRequisites"><term><varname>allowedRequisites</varname></term>
-
- <listitem><para>This attribute is similar to
- <varname>allowedReferences</varname>, but it specifies the legal
- requisites of the whole closure, so all the dependencies
- recursively. For example,
-
-<programlisting>
-allowedRequisites = [ foobar ];
-</programlisting>
-
- enforces that the output of a derivation cannot have any other
- runtime dependency than <varname>foobar</varname>, and in addition
- it enforces that <varname>foobar</varname> itself doesn't
- introduce any other dependency itself.</para></listitem>
-
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry xml:id="adv-attr-disallowedReferences"><term><varname>disallowedReferences</varname></term>
-
- <listitem><para>The optional attribute
- <varname>disallowedReferences</varname> specifies a list of illegal
- references (dependencies) of the output of the builder. For
- example,
-
-<programlisting>
-disallowedReferences = [ foo ];
-</programlisting>
-
- enforces that the output of a derivation cannot have a direct runtime
- dependencies on the derivation <varname>foo</varname>.</para></listitem>
-
- </varlistentry>
-
-
- <varlistentry xml:id="adv-attr-disallowedRequisites"><term><varname>disallowedRequisites</varname></term>
-
- <listitem><para>This attribute is similar to
- <varname>disallowedReferences</varname>, but it specifies illegal
- requisites for the whole closure, so all the dependencies
- recursively. For example,
-
-<programlisting>
-disallowedRequisites = [ foobar ];
-</programlisting>
-
- enforces that the output of a derivation cannot have any
- runtime dependency on <varname>foobar</varname> or any other derivation
- depending recursively on <varname>foobar</varname>.</para></listitem>
-
- </varlistentry>
-
-
- <varlistentry xml:id="adv-attr-exportReferencesGraph"><term><varname>exportReferencesGraph</varname></term>
-
- <listitem><para>This attribute allows builders access to the
- references graph of their inputs. The attribute is a list of
- inputs in the Nix store whose references graph the builder needs
- to know. The value of this attribute should be a list of pairs
- <literal>[ <replaceable>name1</replaceable>
- <replaceable>path1</replaceable> <replaceable>name2</replaceable>
- <replaceable>path2</replaceable> <replaceable>...</replaceable>
- ]</literal>. The references graph of each
- <replaceable>pathN</replaceable> will be stored in a text file
- <replaceable>nameN</replaceable> in the temporary build directory.
- The text files have the format used by <command>nix-store
- --register-validity</command> (with the deriver fields left
- empty). For example, when the following derivation is built:
-
-<programlisting>
-derivation {
- ...
- exportReferencesGraph = [ "libfoo-graph" libfoo ];
-};
-</programlisting>
-
- the references graph of <literal>libfoo</literal> is placed in the
- file <filename>libfoo-graph</filename> in the temporary build
- directory.</para>
-
- <para><varname>exportReferencesGraph</varname> is useful for
- builders that want to do something with the closure of a store
- path. Examples include the builders in NixOS that generate the
- initial ramdisk for booting Linux (a <command>cpio</command>
- archive containing the closure of the boot script) and the
- ISO-9660 image for the installation CD (which is populated with a
- Nix store containing the closure of a bootable NixOS
- configuration).</para></listitem>
-
- </varlistentry>
-
-
- <varlistentry xml:id="adv-attr-impureEnvVars"><term><varname>impureEnvVars</varname></term>
-
- <listitem><para>This attribute allows you to specify a list of
- environment variables that should be passed from the environment
- of the calling user to the builder. Usually, the environment is
- cleared completely when the builder is executed, but with this
- attribute you can allow specific environment variables to be
- passed unmodified. For example, <function>fetchurl</function> in
- Nixpkgs has the line
-
-<programlisting>
-impureEnvVars = [ "http_proxy" "https_proxy" <replaceable>...</replaceable> ];
-</programlisting>
-
- to make it use the proxy server configuration specified by the
- user in the environment variables <envar>http_proxy</envar> and
- friends.</para>
-
- <para>This attribute is only allowed in <link
- linkend="fixed-output-drvs">fixed-output derivations</link>, where
- impurities such as these are okay since (the hash of) the output
- is known in advance. It is ignored for all other
- derivations.</para>
-
- <warning><para><varname>impureEnvVars</varname> implementation takes
- environment variables from the current builder process. When a daemon is
- building its environmental variables are used. Without the daemon, the
- environmental variables come from the environment of the
- <command>nix-build</command>.</para></warning></listitem>
-
- </varlistentry>
-
-
- <varlistentry xml:id="fixed-output-drvs">
- <term xml:id="adv-attr-outputHash"><varname>outputHash</varname></term>
- <term xml:id="adv-attr-outputHashAlgo"><varname>outputHashAlgo</varname></term>
- <term xml:id="adv-attr-outputHashMode"><varname>outputHashMode</varname></term>
-
- <listitem><para>These attributes declare that the derivation is a
- so-called <emphasis>fixed-output derivation</emphasis>, which
- means that a cryptographic hash of the output is already known in
- advance. When the build of a fixed-output derivation finishes,
- Nix computes the cryptographic hash of the output and compares it
- to the hash declared with these attributes. If there is a
- mismatch, the build fails.</para>
-
- <para>The rationale for fixed-output derivations is derivations
- such as those produced by the <function>fetchurl</function>
- function. This function downloads a file from a given URL. To
- ensure that the downloaded file has not been modified, the caller
- must also specify a cryptographic hash of the file. For example,
-
-<programlisting>
-fetchurl {
- url = "http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/hello/hello-2.1.1.tar.gz";
- sha256 = "1md7jsfd8pa45z73bz1kszpp01yw6x5ljkjk2hx7wl800any6465";
-}
-</programlisting>
-
- It sometimes happens that the URL of the file changes, e.g.,
- because servers are reorganised or no longer available. We then
- must update the call to <function>fetchurl</function>, e.g.,
-
-<programlisting>
-fetchurl {
- url = "ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/gnu/hello/hello-2.1.1.tar.gz";
- sha256 = "1md7jsfd8pa45z73bz1kszpp01yw6x5ljkjk2hx7wl800any6465";
-}
-</programlisting>
-
- If a <function>fetchurl</function> derivation was treated like a
- normal derivation, the output paths of the derivation and
- <emphasis>all derivations depending on it</emphasis> would change.
- For instance, if we were to change the URL of the Glibc source
- distribution in Nixpkgs (a package on which almost all other
- packages depend) massive rebuilds would be needed. This is
- unfortunate for a change which we know cannot have a real effect
- as it propagates upwards through the dependency graph.</para>
-
- <para>For fixed-output derivations, on the other hand, the name of
- the output path only depends on the <varname>outputHash*</varname>
- and <varname>name</varname> attributes, while all other attributes
- are ignored for the purpose of computing the output path. (The
- <varname>name</varname> attribute is included because it is part
- of the path.)</para>
-
- <para>As an example, here is the (simplified) Nix expression for
- <varname>fetchurl</varname>:
-
-<programlisting>
-{ stdenv, curl }: # The <command>curl</command> program is used for downloading.
-
-{ url, sha256 }:
-
-stdenv.mkDerivation {
- name = baseNameOf (toString url);
- builder = ./builder.sh;
- buildInputs = [ curl ];
-
- # This is a fixed-output derivation; the output must be a regular
- # file with SHA256 hash <varname>sha256</varname>.
- outputHashMode = "flat";
- outputHashAlgo = "sha256";
- outputHash = sha256;
-
- inherit url;
-}
-</programlisting>
-
- </para>
-
- <para>The <varname>outputHashAlgo</varname> attribute specifies
- the hash algorithm used to compute the hash. It can currently be
- <literal>"sha1"</literal>, <literal>"sha256"</literal> or
- <literal>"sha512"</literal>.</para>
-
- <para>The <varname>outputHashMode</varname> attribute determines
- how the hash is computed. It must be one of the following two
- values:
-
- <variablelist>
-
- <varlistentry><term><literal>"flat"</literal></term>
-
- <listitem><para>The output must be a non-executable regular
- file. If it isn’t, the build fails. The hash is simply
- computed over the contents of that file (so it’s equal to what
- Unix commands like <command>sha256sum</command> or
- <command>sha1sum</command> produce).</para>
-
- <para>This is the default.</para></listitem>
-
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry><term><literal>"recursive"</literal></term>
-
- <listitem><para>The hash is computed over the NAR archive dump
- of the output (i.e., the result of <link
- linkend="refsec-nix-store-dump"><command>nix-store
- --dump</command></link>). In this case, the output can be
- anything, including a directory tree.</para></listitem>
-
- </varlistentry>
-
- </variablelist>
-
- </para>
-
- <para>The <varname>outputHash</varname> attribute, finally, must
- be a string containing the hash in either hexadecimal or base-32
- notation. (See the <link
- linkend="sec-nix-hash"><command>nix-hash</command> command</link>
- for information about converting to and from base-32
- notation.)</para></listitem>
-
- </varlistentry>
-
-
- <varlistentry xml:id="adv-attr-passAsFile"><term><varname>passAsFile</varname></term>
-
- <listitem><para>A list of names of attributes that should be
- passed via files rather than environment variables. For example,
- if you have
-
- <programlisting>
-passAsFile = ["big"];
-big = "a very long string";
- </programlisting>
-
- then when the builder runs, the environment variable
- <envar>bigPath</envar> will contain the absolute path to a
- temporary file containing <literal>a very long
- string</literal>. That is, for any attribute
- <replaceable>x</replaceable> listed in
- <varname>passAsFile</varname>, Nix will pass an environment
- variable <envar><replaceable>x</replaceable>Path</envar> holding
- the path of the file containing the value of attribute
- <replaceable>x</replaceable>. This is useful when you need to pass
- large strings to a builder, since most operating systems impose a
- limit on the size of the environment (typically, a few hundred
- kilobyte).</para></listitem>
-
- </varlistentry>
-
-
- <varlistentry xml:id="adv-attr-preferLocalBuild"><term><varname>preferLocalBuild</varname></term>
-
- <listitem><para>If this attribute is set to
- <literal>true</literal> and <link
- linkend="chap-distributed-builds">distributed building is
- enabled</link>, then, if possible, the derivaton will be built
- locally instead of forwarded to a remote machine. This is
- appropriate for trivial builders where the cost of doing a
- download or remote build would exceed the cost of building
- locally.</para></listitem>
-
- </varlistentry>
-
-
- <varlistentry xml:id="adv-attr-allowSubstitutes"><term><varname>allowSubstitutes</varname></term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>If this attribute is set to
- <literal>false</literal>, then Nix will always build this
- derivation; it will not try to substitute its outputs. This is
- useful for very trivial derivations (such as
- <function>writeText</function> in Nixpkgs) that are cheaper to
- build than to substitute from a binary cache.</para>
-
- <note><para>You need to have a builder configured which satisfies
- the derivation’s <literal>system</literal> attribute, since the
- derivation cannot be substituted. Thus it is usually a good idea
- to align <literal>system</literal> with
- <literal>builtins.currentSystem</literal> when setting
- <literal>allowSubstitutes</literal> to <literal>false</literal>.
- For most trivial derivations this should be the case.
- </para></note>
- </listitem>
-
- </varlistentry>
-
-
-</variablelist>
-
-</section>