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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="ssec-derivation">
-
-<title>Derivations</title>
-
-<para>The most important built-in function is
-<function>derivation</function>, which is used to describe a single
-derivation (a build action). It takes as input a set, the attributes
-of which specify the inputs of the build.</para>
-
-<itemizedlist>
-
- <listitem xml:id="attr-system"><para>There must be an attribute named
- <varname>system</varname> whose value must be a string specifying a
- Nix platform identifier, such as <literal>"i686-linux"</literal> or
- <literal>"x86_64-darwin"</literal><footnote><para>To figure out
- your platform identifier, look at the line <quote>Checking for the
- canonical Nix system name</quote> in the output of Nix's
- <filename>configure</filename> script.</para></footnote> The build
- can only be performed on a machine and operating system matching the
- platform identifier. (Nix can automatically forward builds for
- other platforms by forwarding them to other machines; see <xref
- linkend='chap-distributed-builds' />.)</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para>There must be an attribute named
- <varname>name</varname> whose value must be a string. This is used
- as a symbolic name for the package by <command>nix-env</command>,
- and it is appended to the output paths of the
- derivation.</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para>There must be an attribute named
- <varname>builder</varname> that identifies the program that is
- executed to perform the build. It can be either a derivation or a
- source (a local file reference, e.g.,
- <filename>./builder.sh</filename>).</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para>Every attribute is passed as an environment variable
- to the builder. Attribute values are translated to environment
- variables as follows:
-
- <itemizedlist>
-
- <listitem><para>Strings and numbers are just passed
- verbatim.</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para>A <emphasis>path</emphasis> (e.g.,
- <filename>../foo/sources.tar</filename>) causes the referenced
- file to be copied to the store; its location in the store is put
- in the environment variable. The idea is that all sources
- should reside in the Nix store, since all inputs to a derivation
- should reside in the Nix store.</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para>A <emphasis>derivation</emphasis> causes that
- derivation to be built prior to the present derivation; its
- default output path is put in the environment
- variable.</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para>Lists of the previous types are also allowed.
- They are simply concatenated, separated by
- spaces.</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para><literal>true</literal> is passed as the string
- <literal>1</literal>, <literal>false</literal> and
- <literal>null</literal> are passed as an empty string.
- </para></listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
-
- </para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para>The optional attribute <varname>args</varname>
- specifies command-line arguments to be passed to the builder. It
- should be a list.</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para>The optional attribute <varname>outputs</varname>
- specifies a list of symbolic outputs of the derivation. By default,
- a derivation produces a single output path, denoted as
- <literal>out</literal>. However, derivations can produce multiple
- output paths. This is useful because it allows outputs to be
- downloaded or garbage-collected separately. For instance, imagine a
- library package that provides a dynamic library, header files, and
- documentation. A program that links against the library doesn’t
- need the header files and documentation at runtime, and it doesn’t
- need the documentation at build time. Thus, the library package
- could specify:
-<programlisting>
-outputs = [ "lib" "headers" "doc" ];
-</programlisting>
- This will cause Nix to pass environment variables
- <literal>lib</literal>, <literal>headers</literal> and
- <literal>doc</literal> to the builder containing the intended store
- paths of each output. The builder would typically do something like
-<programlisting>
-./configure --libdir=$lib/lib --includedir=$headers/include --docdir=$doc/share/doc
-</programlisting>
- for an Autoconf-style package. You can refer to each output of a
- derivation by selecting it as an attribute, e.g.
-<programlisting>
-buildInputs = [ pkg.lib pkg.headers ];
-</programlisting>
- The first element of <varname>outputs</varname> determines the
- <emphasis>default output</emphasis>. Thus, you could also write
-<programlisting>
-buildInputs = [ pkg pkg.headers ];
-</programlisting>
- since <literal>pkg</literal> is equivalent to
- <literal>pkg.lib</literal>.</para></listitem>
-
-</itemizedlist>
-
-<para>The function <function>mkDerivation</function> in the Nixpkgs
-standard environment is a wrapper around
-<function>derivation</function> that adds a default value for
-<varname>system</varname> and always uses Bash as the builder, to
-which the supplied builder is passed as a command-line argument. See
-the Nixpkgs manual for details.</para>
-
-<para>The builder is executed as follows:
-
-<itemizedlist>
-
- <listitem><para>A temporary directory is created under the directory
- specified by <envar>TMPDIR</envar> (default
- <filename>/tmp</filename>) where the build will take place. The
- current directory is changed to this directory.</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para>The environment is cleared and set to the derivation
- attributes, as specified above.</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para>In addition, the following variables are set:
-
- <itemizedlist>
-
- <listitem><para><envar>NIX_BUILD_TOP</envar> contains the path of
- the temporary directory for this build.</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para>Also, <envar>TMPDIR</envar>,
- <envar>TEMPDIR</envar>, <envar>TMP</envar>, <envar>TEMP</envar>
- are set to point to the temporary directory. This is to prevent
- the builder from accidentally writing temporary files anywhere
- else. Doing so might cause interference by other
- processes.</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para><envar>PATH</envar> is set to
- <filename>/path-not-set</filename> to prevent shells from
- initialising it to their built-in default value.</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para><envar>HOME</envar> is set to
- <filename>/homeless-shelter</filename> to prevent programs from
- using <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> or the like to find the
- user's home directory, which could cause impurity. Usually, when
- <envar>HOME</envar> is set, it is used as the location of the home
- directory, even if it points to a non-existent
- path.</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para><envar>NIX_STORE</envar> is set to the path of the
- top-level Nix store directory (typically,
- <filename>/nix/store</filename>).</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para>For each output declared in
- <varname>outputs</varname>, the corresponding environment variable
- is set to point to the intended path in the Nix store for that
- output. Each output path is a concatenation of the cryptographic
- hash of all build inputs, the <varname>name</varname> attribute
- and the output name. (The output name is omitted if it’s
- <literal>out</literal>.)</para></listitem>
-
- </itemizedlist>
-
- </para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para>If an output path already exists, it is removed.
- Also, locks are acquired to prevent multiple Nix instances from
- performing the same build at the same time.</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para>A log of the combined standard output and error is
- written to <filename>/nix/var/log/nix</filename>.</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para>The builder is executed with the arguments specified
- by the attribute <varname>args</varname>. If it exits with exit
- code 0, it is considered to have succeeded.</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para>The temporary directory is removed (unless the
- <option>-K</option> option was specified).</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para>If the build was successful, Nix scans each output
- path for references to input paths by looking for the hash parts of
- the input paths. Since these are potential runtime dependencies,
- Nix registers them as dependencies of the output
- paths.</para></listitem>
-
- <listitem><para>After the build, Nix sets the last-modified
- timestamp on all files in the build result to 1 (00:00:01 1/1/1970
- UTC), sets the group to the default group, and sets the mode of the
- file to 0444 or 0555 (i.e., read-only, with execute permission
- enabled if the file was originally executable). Note that possible
- <literal>setuid</literal> and <literal>setgid</literal> bits are
- cleared. Setuid and setgid programs are not currently supported by
- Nix. This is because the Nix archives used in deployment have no
- concept of ownership information, and because it makes the build
- result dependent on the user performing the build.</para></listitem>
-
-</itemizedlist>
-
-</para>
-
-<xi:include href="advanced-attributes.xml" />
-
-</section>