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diff --git a/doc/manual/src/expressions/language-values.md b/doc/manual/src/expressions/language-values.md deleted file mode 100644 index 75ae9f2eb..000000000 --- a/doc/manual/src/expressions/language-values.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,251 +0,0 @@ -# Values - -## Simple Values - -Nix has the following basic data types: - - - *Strings* can be written in three ways. - - The most common way is to enclose the string between double quotes, - e.g., `"foo bar"`. Strings can span multiple lines. The special - characters `"` and `\` and the character sequence `${` must be - escaped by prefixing them with a backslash (`\`). Newlines, carriage - returns and tabs can be written as `\n`, `\r` and `\t`, - respectively. - - You can include the result of an expression into a string by - enclosing it in `${...}`, a feature known as *antiquotation*. The - enclosed expression must evaluate to something that can be coerced - into a string (meaning that it must be a string, a path, or a - derivation). For instance, rather than writing - - ```nix - "--with-freetype2-library=" + freetype + "/lib" - ``` - - (where `freetype` is a derivation), you can instead write the more - natural - - ```nix - "--with-freetype2-library=${freetype}/lib" - ``` - - The latter is automatically translated to the former. A more - complicated example (from the Nix expression for - [Qt](http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt)): - - ```nix - configureFlags = " - -system-zlib -system-libpng -system-libjpeg - ${if openglSupport then "-dlopen-opengl - -L${mesa}/lib -I${mesa}/include - -L${libXmu}/lib -I${libXmu}/include" else ""} - ${if threadSupport then "-thread" else "-no-thread"} - "; - ``` - - Note that Nix expressions and strings can be arbitrarily nested; in - this case the outer string contains various antiquotations that - themselves contain strings (e.g., `"-thread"`), some of which in - turn contain expressions (e.g., `${mesa}`). - - The second way to write string literals is as an *indented string*, - which is enclosed between pairs of *double single-quotes*, like so: - - ```nix - '' - This is the first line. - This is the second line. - This is the third line. - '' - ``` - - This kind of string literal intelligently strips indentation from - the start of each line. To be precise, it strips from each line a - number of spaces equal to the minimal indentation of the string as a - whole (disregarding the indentation of empty lines). For instance, - the first and second line are indented two spaces, while the third - line is indented four spaces. Thus, two spaces are stripped from - each line, so the resulting string is - - ```nix - "This is the first line.\nThis is the second line.\n This is the third line.\n" - ``` - - Note that the whitespace and newline following the opening `''` is - ignored if there is no non-whitespace text on the initial line. - - Antiquotation (`${expr}`) is supported in indented strings. - - Since `${` and `''` have special meaning in indented strings, you - need a way to quote them. `$` can be escaped by prefixing it with - `''` (that is, two single quotes), i.e., `''$`. `''` can be escaped - by prefixing it with `'`, i.e., `'''`. `$` removes any special - meaning from the following `$`. Linefeed, carriage-return and tab - characters can be written as `''\n`, `''\r`, `''\t`, and `''\` - escapes any other character. - - Indented strings are primarily useful in that they allow multi-line - string literals to follow the indentation of the enclosing Nix - expression, and that less escaping is typically necessary for - strings representing languages such as shell scripts and - configuration files because `''` is much less common than `"`. - Example: - - ```nix - stdenv.mkDerivation { - ... - postInstall = - '' - mkdir $out/bin $out/etc - cp foo $out/bin - echo "Hello World" > $out/etc/foo.conf - ${if enableBar then "cp bar $out/bin" else ""} - ''; - ... - } - ``` - - Finally, as a convenience, *URIs* as defined in appendix B of - [RFC 2396](http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2396.txt) can be written *as - is*, without quotes. For instance, the string - `"http://example.org/foo.tar.bz2"` can also be written as - `http://example.org/foo.tar.bz2`. - - - Numbers, which can be *integers* (like `123`) or *floating point* - (like `123.43` or `.27e13`). - - Numbers are type-compatible: pure integer operations will always - return integers, whereas any operation involving at least one - floating point number will have a floating point number as a result. - - - *Paths*, e.g., `/bin/sh` or `./builder.sh`. A path must contain at - least one slash to be recognised as such. For instance, `builder.sh` - is not a path: it's parsed as an expression that selects the - attribute `sh` from the variable `builder`. If the file name is - relative, i.e., if it does not begin with a slash, it is made - absolute at parse time relative to the directory of the Nix - expression that contained it. For instance, if a Nix expression in - `/foo/bar/bla.nix` refers to `../xyzzy/fnord.nix`, the absolute path - is `/foo/xyzzy/fnord.nix`. - - If the first component of a path is a `~`, it is interpreted as if - the rest of the path were relative to the user's home directory. - e.g. `~/foo` would be equivalent to `/home/edolstra/foo` for a user - whose home directory is `/home/edolstra`. - - Paths can also be specified between angle brackets, e.g. - `<nixpkgs>`. This means that the directories listed in the - environment variable `NIX_PATH` will be searched for the given file - or directory name. - - Antiquotation is supported in any paths except those in angle brackets. - `./${foo}-${bar}.nix` is a more convenient way of writing - `./. + "/" + foo + "-" + bar + ".nix"` or `./. + "/${foo}-${bar}.nix"`. At - least one slash must appear *before* any antiquotations for this to be - recognized as a path. `a.${foo}/b.${bar}` is a syntactically valid division - operation. `./a.${foo}/b.${bar}` is a path. - - - *Booleans* with values `true` and `false`. - - - The null value, denoted as `null`. - -## Lists - -Lists are formed by enclosing a whitespace-separated list of values -between square brackets. For example, - -```nix -[ 123 ./foo.nix "abc" (f { x = y; }) ] -``` - -defines a list of four elements, the last being the result of a call to -the function `f`. Note that function calls have to be enclosed in -parentheses. If they had been omitted, e.g., - -```nix -[ 123 ./foo.nix "abc" f { x = y; } ] -``` - -the result would be a list of five elements, the fourth one being a -function and the fifth being a set. - -Note that lists are only lazy in values, and they are strict in length. - -## Sets - -Sets are really the core of the language, since ultimately the Nix -language is all about creating derivations, which are really just sets -of attributes to be passed to build scripts. - -Sets are just a list of name/value pairs (called *attributes*) enclosed -in curly brackets, where each value is an arbitrary expression -terminated by a semicolon. For example: - -```nix -{ x = 123; - text = "Hello"; - y = f { bla = 456; }; -} -``` - -This defines a set with attributes named `x`, `text`, `y`. The order of -the attributes is irrelevant. An attribute name may only occur once. - -Attributes can be selected from a set using the `.` operator. For -instance, - -```nix -{ a = "Foo"; b = "Bar"; }.a -``` - -evaluates to `"Foo"`. It is possible to provide a default value in an -attribute selection using the `or` keyword. For example, - -```nix -{ a = "Foo"; b = "Bar"; }.c or "Xyzzy" -``` - -will evaluate to `"Xyzzy"` because there is no `c` attribute in the set. - -You can use arbitrary double-quoted strings as attribute names: - -```nix -{ "foo ${bar}" = 123; "nix-1.0" = 456; }."foo ${bar}" -``` - -This will evaluate to `123` (Assuming `bar` is antiquotable). In the -case where an attribute name is just a single antiquotation, the quotes -can be dropped: - -```nix -{ foo = 123; }.${bar} or 456 -``` - -This will evaluate to `123` if `bar` evaluates to `"foo"` when coerced -to a string and `456` otherwise (again assuming `bar` is antiquotable). - -In the special case where an attribute name inside of a set declaration -evaluates to `null` (which is normally an error, as `null` is not -antiquotable), that attribute is simply not added to the set: - -```nix -{ ${if foo then "bar" else null} = true; } -``` - -This will evaluate to `{}` if `foo` evaluates to `false`. - -A set that has a `__functor` attribute whose value is callable (i.e. is -itself a function or a set with a `__functor` attribute whose value is -callable) can be applied as if it were a function, with the set itself -passed in first , e.g., - -```nix -let add = { __functor = self: x: x + self.x; }; - inc = add // { x = 1; }; -in inc 1 -``` - -evaluates to `2`. This can be used to attach metadata to a function -without the caller needing to treat it specially, or to implement a form -of object-oriented programming, for example. |