path: root/doc/guix.texi

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@setfilename guix.info
@documentencoding UTF-8
@settitle Guix Reference Manual
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@include version.texi

@dircategory Development
@direntry
* guix: (guix).       Guix, the functional package manager.
* guix-build: (guix)Invoking guix-build
                      Building packages with Guix.
@end direntry

@titlepage
@title{Guix Reference Manual}
@subtitle{Using the Guix Functional Package Manager}
@author Ludovic Courtès

@page
@vskip 0pt plus 1filll
Edition @value{EDITION} @*
@value{UPDATED} @*

Copyright @copyright{} 2012 Ludovic Court@`es

@quotation
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A
copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free
Documentation License''.
@end quotation
@end titlepage

@copying
This manual documents Guix version @value{VERSION}.

Copyright (C) 2012 Ludovic Courtès

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A
copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free
Documentation License.''
@end copying

@contents

@c *********************************************************************
@node Top
@top Guix

This document describes Guix version @value{VERSION}.

@menu
* Introduction::                What is Guix about?
* Programming Interface::       Using Guix in Scheme.
* Utilities::                   Package management commands.

* Acknowledgments::             Thanks!
* GNU Free Documentation License::  The license of this manual.
* Concept Index::               Concepts.
* Function Index::              Functions.
@end menu

@c *********************************************************************
@node Introduction
@chapter Introduction

Guix is a functional package management tool.  Package management
consists in all the activities that relate to building packages from
source, honoring the build-time and run-time dependencies on packages,
installing packages in user environments, upgrading installed packages
to new versions or rolling back to a previous set, removing unused
software packages, etc.

@cindex functional package management
The term @dfn{functional} refers to a specific package management
discipline.  In Guix, the package build and installation process is seen
as a function, in the mathematical sense: that function takes inputs,
such as build scripts, a compiler, and libraries depended on, and
returns the installed package.  As a pure function, its result depends
solely on its inputs---for instance, it cannot refer to software or
scripts that were not explicitly passed as inputs.  A build function
always produces the same result when passed a given set of inputs.  Last
but not least, a build function cannot alter the system's environment in
any way; for instance, it cannot create, modify, or delete files outside
of its build and installation directories.  This is achieved by running
build processes in dedicated ``chroots'', where only their explicit
inputs are visible.

@cindex package store
The result of package build functions is @dfn{cached} in the file
system, in a special directory called the @dfn{package store}.  In
practice, each package is installed in a directory of its own, in the
store---by default under @file{/nix/store}.  The directory name contains
a hash of all the inputs used to build that package; thus, changing an
input yields a different directory name.

This approach is the foundation of Guix's salient features: support for
transactional package upgrades and rollback, per-user installation, and
garbage collection of packages.

Guix has a command-line interface allowing users to build, install,
upgrade, and remove packages, as well as a Scheme programming interface.
The remainder of this manual describes them.

@c *********************************************************************
@node Programming Interface
@chapter Programming Interface

@menu
* Defining Packages::   Defining new packages.
* The Store::           Manipulating the package store.
* Derivations::         Low-level interface to package derivations.
@end menu

@node Defining Packages
@section Defining Packages

@code{(guix packages)} and @code{(guix build-system)}

@node The Store
@section The Store

@code{(guix store)}

@node Derivations
@section Derivations

@code{(guix derivations)}

@c *********************************************************************
@node Utilities
@chapter Utilities

@menu
* Invoking guix-build:: Building packages from the command line.
@end menu

@node Invoking guix-build
@section Invoking @command{guix-build}

The @command{guix-build} command builds packages or derivations and
their dependencies, and prints the resulting store paths.  It is mainly
useful for distribution developers.  The general syntax is:

@example
guix-build @var{options} @var{package-or-derivation}@dots{}
@end example

@var{package-or-derivation} may be either the name of a package found in
the software distribution such as @code{coreutils}, or a derivation such
as @file{/nix/store/xxx-coreutils-8.19.drv}.  Alternatively, the
@code{--expression} option may be used to specify a Scheme expression
that evaluates to a package; this is useful when disambiguation among
several same-named packages or package variants is needed.

The @var{options} may be zero or more of the following:

@table @code

@item --expression=@var{expr}
@itemx -e @var{expr}
Build the package @var{expr} evaluates to.

For example, @var{expr} may be @code{(@@ (distro packages guile)
guile-1.8)}, which unambiguously designates this specific variant of
version 1.8 of Guile.

@item --source
@itemx -S
Build the packages' source derivations, rather than the packages
themselves.

For instance, @code{guix-build -S gcc} returns something like
@file{/nix/store/xxx-gcc-4.7.2.tar.bz2}, which is GCC's source tarball.

@item --system=@var{system}
@itemx -s @var{system}
Attempt to build for @var{system}---e.g., @code{i686-linux}---instead of
the host's system type.

An example use of this is on Linux-based systems, which can emulate
different personalities.  For instance, passing
@code{--system=i686-linux} on an @code{x86_64-linux} system allows users
to build packages in a complete 32-bit environment.

@item --derivations
@itemx -d
Return the derivation paths, not the output paths, of the given
packages.

@item --keep-failed
@itemx -K
Keep the build tree of failed builds.  Thus, if a build fail, its build
tree is kept under @file{/tmp}, in a directory whose name is shown at
the end of the build log.  This is useful when debugging build issues.

@item --dry-run
@itemx -n
Do not build the derivations.

@item --no-substitutes
Build instead of resorting to pre-built substitutes.

@item --cores=@var{n}
@itemx -c @var{n}
Allow the use of up to @var{n} CPU cores for the build.  The special
value @code{0} means to use as many CPU cores as available.

@item --root=@var{file}
@itemx -r @var{file}
Make @var{file} a symlink to the result, and register it as a garbage
collector root.
@end table

Behind the scenes, @command{guix-build} is essentially an interface to
the @code{package-derivation} procedure of the @code{(guix packages)}
module, and to the @code{build-derivations} procedure of the @code{(guix
store)} module.


@c *********************************************************************
@node Acknowledgments
@chapter Acknowledgments

Guix is based on the Nix package manager, which was designed and
implemented by Eelco Dolstra.  Nix pioneered functional package
management, and promoted unprecedented features, such as transactional
package upgrades and rollbacks, per-user profiles, and referentially
transparent build processes.  Without this work, Guix would not exist.

The Nix-based software distributions, Nixpkgs and NixOS, have also been
an inspiration for Guix.

@c *********************************************************************
@node GNU Free Documentation License
@appendix GNU Free Documentation License

@include fdl-1.3.texi

@c *********************************************************************
@node Concept Index
@unnumbered Concept Index
@printindex cp

@node Function Index
@unnumbered Function Index
@printindex fn

@bye

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