<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>"powerpc-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>output</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>
