path: root/doc/manual/installation.xml

<chapter>
  <title>Installation</title>

  <sect1>
    <title>Prerequisites</title>

    <para>
      Nix uses Sleepycat's Berkeley DB and CWI's ATerm library.  However, these
      are fetched automatically as part of the build process.
    </para>

    <para>
      Other than that, you need a good C++ compiler.  GCC 2.95 does not appear
      to work; please use GCC 3.x.
    </para>
  </sect1>

  <sect1>
    <title>Obtaining Nix</title>

    <para>
      Nix can be obtained from its <ulink
        url='http://losser.st-lab.cs.uu.nl:12080/repos/trace/nix/trunk'>Subversion 
        repository</ulink>.  For example, the following command will check out
      the latest revision into a directory called <filename>nix</filename>:
    </para>

    <screen>
$ svn checkout http://losser.st-lab.cs.uu.nl:12080/repos/trace/nix/trunk nix</screen>

    <para>
      Likewise, specific releases can be obtained from the <ulink
        url='http://losser.st-lab.cs.uu.nl:12080/repos/trace/nix/tags'>tags
        directory</ulink> of the repository.  If you don't have Subversion, you
      can download a <ulink
        url='http://losser.st-lab.cs.uu.nl:12080/dist/trace/'>compressed
        tar-file</ulink> of the latest revision of the repository.
    </para>

  </sect1>

  <sect1>
    <title>Building Nix</title>

    <para>
      To build Nix, do the following:
    </para>

    <screen>
$ autoreconf -i
$ ./configure <replaceable>options...</replaceable>
$ make
$ make install</screen>

    <para>
      Currently, the only useful switch for <command>configure</command> is
      <option>--prefix=<replaceable>prefix</replaceable></option> to specify
      where Nix is to be installed.  The default installation directory is
      <filename>/nix</filename>.  You can change this to any location you like.
      You should ensure that you have write permission to the installation
      prefix. 
    </para>

    <warning>
      <para>
        It is advisable <emphasis>not</emphasis> to change the installation
        prefix, since doing so will in all likelihood make it impossible to use
        derivates built on other systems.
      </para>
    </warning>

  </sect1>

</chapter>

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