doc: Add preliminary section about `release.nix'.

[?]

Oct 11, 2011, 9:05 PM

2LTNY56W6QEDRSI6IWRZGQPTJTAFQSGIQO6FBTU7M4VQCTF6OVNAC

Dependencies

[2] PKE6I67S doc: Import the "Creating Projects" chapter by Visser & Dolstra.

Change contents

replacement in doc/manual/projects.xml at line 153

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<title><filename>release.nix</filename></title>

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<title>Build Recipes</title>

<para>
Build jobs and <emphasis>build recipes</emphasis> for a jobset are
specified in a text file written in the <link
xlink:href="http://nixos.org/nix/">Nix language</link>. The
recipe is actually called a <emphasis>Nix expression</emphasis> in
Nix parlance. By convention this file is often called
<filename>release.nix</filename>.
</para>
replacement in doc/manual/projects.xml at line 164

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- Voorbeelden van Nix expressies voor Hydra:

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<para>
The <filename>release.nix</filename> file is typically kept under
version control, and the repository that contains it one of the
build inputs of the corresponding–often called
<literal>hydraConfig</literal> by convention. The repository for
that file and the actual file name are specified on the web
interface of Hydra under the <literal>Setup</literal> tab of the
jobset's overview page, under the <literal>Nix
expression</literal> heading. See, for example, the <link
xlink:href="http://hydra.nixos.org/jobset/patchelf/trunk">jobset
overview page</link> of the PatchELF project, and <link
xlink:href="https://svn.nixos.org/repos/nix/patchelf/trunk/release.nix">
the corresponding Nix file</link>.
</para>
edit in doc/manual/projects.xml at line 179

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<para>
Knowledge of the Nix language is recommended, but the example
below should already give a good idea of how it works:
</para>
edit in doc/manual/projects.xml at line 184

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<example xml:id='ex-hello'>
<title><filename>release.nix</filename> file for GNU Hello</title>
<programlisting>
{ nixpkgs }: <co xml:id='ex-hello-co-nixpkgs' />

let
pkgs = import nixpkgs {}; <co xml:id='ex-hello-co-import-nixpkgs' />
replacement in doc/manual/projects.xml at line 192

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https://svn.nixos.org/repos/nix/patchelf/trunk/release.nix
https://svn.nixos.org/repos/nix/nix/trunk/release.nix
https://svn.nixos.org/repos/nix/hydra/trunk/release.nix

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jobs = rec { <co xml:id='ex-hello-co-jobs' />

tarball = <co xml:id='ex-hello-co-tarball' />
{ helloSrc }: <co xml:id='ex-hello-co-tarball-arg' />

pkgs.releaseTools.sourceTarball { <co xml:id='ex-hello-co-source-tarball' />
name = "hello-tarball";
src = helloSrc;
buildInputs = (with pkgs; [ gettext texLive texinfo ]);
};

build = <co xml:id='ex-hello-co-build' />
{ tarball ? jobs.tarball {} <co xml:id='ex-hello-co-build-args' />
, system ? builtins.currentSystem
}:

let pkgs = import nixpkgs { inherit system; }; in
pkgs.releaseTools.nixBuild { <co xml:id='ex-hello-co-nix-build' />
name = "hello" ;
src = tarball;
};
};
in
jobs <co xml:id='ex-hello-body' />
</programlisting>
</example>

<para>
<xref linkend='ex-hello' /> shows what a
<filename>release.nix</filename> file for <link
xlink:href="http://www.gnu.org/software/hello/">GNU Hello</link>
would you like. GNU Hello is representative of many GNU
and non-GNU free software projects:

<itemizedlist>
<listitem>it uses the GNU Build System, namely GNU Autoconf,
and GNU Automake; for users, it means it can be installed
using the <link
xlink:href="http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Managing-Releases.html">usual
<literal>./configure && make install</literal>
procedure</link>;
</listitem>
<listitem>it uses Gettext for internationalization;</listitem>
<listitem>it has a Texinfo manual, which can be rendered as PDF
with TeX.</listitem>
</itemizedlist>

The file defines a jobset consisting of two jobs:
<literal>tarball</literal>, and <literal>build</literal>. It
contains the following elements (referenced from the figure by
numbers):

<calloutlist>

<callout arearefs='ex-hello-co-nixpkgs'>
<para>
This specifies a function of one named arguments,
<varname>nixpkgs</varname>. This function and those
defined below is called by Hydra. Here the
<varname>nixpkgs</varname> argument is meant to be a
checkout of the <link
xlink:href="http://nixos.org/nixpkgs/">Nixpkgs</link>
software distribution.
</para>
<para>
Hydra inspects the formal argument list of the function
(here, the <varname>nixpkgs</varname> argument) and passes
it the corresponding parameter specified as a build input
on Hydra's web interface. In this case, the web interface
should show a <varname>nixpkgs</varname> build input,
which is a checkout of the Nixpkgs source code repository.
</para>
</callout>
<callout arearefs='ex-hello-co-import-nixpkgs'>
<para>
This defines a variable <varname>pkgs</varname> holding
the set of packages provided by Nixpkgs.
</para>
</callout>

<callout arearefs='ex-hello-co-jobs'>
<para>
This defines a variable holding the two Hydra
jobs–an <emphasis>attribute set</emphasis> in Nix.
</para>
</callout>

<callout arearefs='ex-hello-co-tarball'>
<para>
This is the definition of the first job, named
<varname>tarball</varname>. The purpose of this job is to
produce a usable source code tarball.
</para>
</callout>
<callout arearefs='ex-hello-co-tarball-args'>
<para>
The <varname>tarball</varname> takes an additional
argument called <varname>helloSrc</varname>. Again, this
argument is passed by Hydra and is meant to be a checkout
of GNU Hello's source code repository.
</para>
</callout>
<callout arearefs='ex-hello-co-source-tarball'>
<para>
The <varname>tarball</varname> job calls the
<varname>sourceTarball</varname> function, which (roughly)
runs <command>autoreconf && ./configure &&
make dist</command> on the checkout. The
<varname>buildInputs</varname> attribute specifies
additional software dependencies for the job.
</para>
</callout>

<callout arearefs='ex-hello-co-build'>
<para>
This is the definition of the <varname>build</varname>
job, whose purpose is to build Hello from the tarball
produced above.
</para>
</callout>
<callout arearefs='ex-hello-co-build-args'>
<para>
The <varname>build</varname> function takes two additional
parameter: <varname>tarball</varname>, which is meant to
be the result of the <varname>tarball</varname> job, and
<varname>system</varname>, which should be a string
defining the Nix system type–e.g.,
<literal>"x86_64-linux"</literal>.
</para>
<para>
Again, these parameters are passed by Hydra when it calls
<varname>build</varname>. Thus, they must be defined as
build inputs in Hydra: <varname>tarball</varname> should
have type <literal>Build Output</literal>, its value being
the latest output of the <varname>tarball</varname> job,
and <varname>system</varname> should be a string.
</para>
<para>
The question mark after <literal>tarball</literal> and
<literal>system</literal> defines default values for these
arguments, and is only useful for debugging.
</para>
</callout>
<callout arearefs='ex-hello-co-nix-build'>
<para>
The <varname>build</varname> job calls the
<varname>nixBuild</varname> function, which unpacks the
tarball, then runs <command>./configure && make
&& make check && make install</command>.
</para>
</callout>

<callout arearefs='ex-hello-co-body'>
<para>
Finally, the set of jobs is returned to Hydra, as a Nix
attribute set.
</para>
</callout>
</calloutlist>
</para>