150 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
150 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
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---
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title: Nixpkgs Tools
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description: An overview of the various functions unrelated to building source code available in Nixpkgs.
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published: true
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date: 2024-06-22T16:41:59.925Z
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tags: nix, nixpkgs
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editor: markdown
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dateCreated: 2024-06-22T16:41:59.925Z
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---
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# Introduction to Nixpkgs' tools
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This page is an overview of various functionality included in Nixpkgs, that is not directly related to building packages from source code.
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## Fetchers (`pkgs.fetch*`)
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Fetchers such as `pkgs.fetchurl` allow to download content such as package sources, by specifying an expected hash of the content.
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Resources:
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- [Nixpkgs manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#chap-pkgs-fetchers)
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## Wrappers (`pkgs.runCommand*`, `pkgs.write*`)
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Functions such as `pkgs.runCommand` or `pkgs.writeShellScript` are use-case specific wrappers around `pkgs.stdenv` with simple arguments.
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Not to be confused with `pkgs.writers`.
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Resources:
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- [Nixpkgs manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#chap-trivial-builders)
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## Data Formats (`pkgs.writers`)
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Data format or application focussed writers that transform Nix expressions into the respective format.
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Not to be confused with `pkgs.write*`.
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Resource:
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- [Nixpkgs source](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/build-support/writers)
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## Config File Formats (`pkgs.formats`)
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Produce various config file formats from nix expressions.
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Resources:
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- [Nixpkgs source](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/pkgs-lib/formats.nix)
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## Custom Build Environments (`pkgs.mkShell`)
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Convenience wrapper around `mkDerivation` for usage with `nix-shell` / `nix develop`.
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Resources:
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- [Nixpkgs manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#sec-pkgs-mkShell)
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## Creating Hooks (`pkgs.makeSetupHook`)
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Helper to produce hooks for the `stdenv` build phases.
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(For more info on hooks in general, see [Language/Framework Specific Builders in Nixpkgs#Hooks](./pkgs-languages-frameworks#hooks)).
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Resources:
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- [Nixpkgs manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#sec-pkgs.makeSetupHook)
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## Test Utilities (`pkgs.testers`)
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Derivation builders for testing various properties of other derivations.
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Resources:
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- [Nixpkgs manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#chap-testers)
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## `fakeNss`
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Including this *derivation* in, e.g. docker images or other environments without them, provides a simplistic set of user/group entries, to allow binaries expecting them to exist to work.
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Resources:
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- [Nixpkgs manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#sec-fakeNss)
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## Standard Filesystem Layout Wrapper (`buildFHSEnv`)
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Wraps binaries that expect a [FHS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard)-compatible filesystem layout to run unpatched on NixOs.
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Resources:
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- [Nixpkgs manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#sec-fhs-environments)
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## Run AppImages (`pkgs.appimageTools`)
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A set of functions to run or extract [AppImages](https://appimage.org/).
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Resources:
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- [Nixpkgs manual](https://appimage.org/)
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## Docker Images (`pkgs.dockerTools`)
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A set of functions to create, modify, import or export docker images.
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Resources:
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- [Nixpkgs manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#sec-pkgs-dockerTools)
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## Build OCI Containers (`pkgs.ociTools`)
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A set of function to create [OCI containers](https://github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/blob/v1.0.0/spec.md).
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Resources:
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- [Nixpkgs manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#sec-pkgs-ociTools)
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## Build Portable Services (`pkgs.portableService`)
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A function to create [systemd's Portable Services](https://systemd.io/PORTABLE_SERVICES/).
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Resources:
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- [Nixpkgs manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#sec-pkgs-portableService)
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## Build Disk Images (`make-disk-image.nix`)
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This function creates disk images in various formats (e.g. raw, QCOW2 (QEMU), VDI (VirtualBox), etc.).
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Resources:
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- [Nixpkgs manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#sec-make-disk-image)
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## Run Derivations inside a VM (`pkgs.vmTools`)
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Various tools to run derivations inside a Qemu/KVM backed virtual machine.
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Resources:
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- [Nixpkgs manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#sec-vm-tools)
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## Incremental Builds (`pkgs.checkpointBuildTools`)
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Resources:
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- [Nixpkgs manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#sec-checkpoint-build)
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## Flat-file Binary Cache (`pkgs.mkBinaryCache`)
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Create Nix flat-file binary caches.
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Resources:
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- [Nixpkgs manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#sec-pkgs-binary-cache)
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