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+Nix - A One Pager
+=================
+
+[Nix](https://nixos.org/nix/), the package manager, is built on and with Nix,
+the language. This page serves as a fast intro to most of the (small) language.
+
+Unless otherwise specified, the word "Nix" refers only to the language below.
+
+Please ping me ([Twitter](https://twitter.com/tazjin),
+[email](mailto:tazjin@google.com)) if something in here confuses you or you
+think something important is missing.
+
+<!-- markdown-toc start - Don't edit this section. Run M-x markdown-toc-refresh-toc -->
+**Table of Contents**
+
+- [Overview](#overview)
+- [Language constructs](#language-constructs)
+    - [Primitives / literals](#primitives--literals)
+    - [Variable bindings](#variable-bindings)
+    - [Functions](#functions)
+        - [Multiple arguments (currying)](#multiple-arguments-currying)
+        - [Multiple arguments (attribute sets)](#multiple-arguments-attribute-sets)
+    - [`if ... then ... else ...`](#if--then--else-)
+    - [`inherit` keyword](#inherit-keyword)
+    - [`with` statements](#with-statements)
+    - [`import` / `NIX_PATH` / `<entry>`](#import--nixpath--entry)
+- [Standard libraries](#standard-libraries)
+    - [`builtins`](#builtins)
+    - [`pkgs.lib`](#pkgslib)
+    - [`pkgs` itself](#pkgs-itself)
+- [Nix Idioms](#nix-idioms)
+
+<!-- markdown-toc end -->
+
+
+# Overview
+
+Nix is:
+
+*   **purely functional**. It has no concept of sequential steps being executed,
+    any dependency between operations is established by depending on *data* from
+    previous operations.
+
+    Everything in Nix is an expression, meaning that every directive returns
+    some kind of data.
+
+    Evaluating a Nix expression *yields a single data structure*, it does not
+    execute a sequence of operations.
+
+    Every Nix file evaluates to a *single expression*.
+*   **lazy**. It will only evaluate expressions when their result is actually
+    requested.
+
+    For example, the builtin function `throw` causes evaluation to stop.
+    Entering the following expression works fine however, because we never
+    actually ask for the part of the structure that causes the `throw`.
+
+    ```nix
+    let attrs = { a = 15; b = builtins.throw "Oh no!"; };
+    in "The value of 'a' is ${toString attrs.a}"
+    ```
+*   **purpose-built**. Nix only exists to be the language for Nix, the package
+    manager. While people have occasionally used it for other use-cases, it is
+    explicitly not a general-purpose language.
+
+# Language constructs
+
+This section describes the language constructs in Nix. It is a small language
+and most of these should be self-explanatory.
+
+## Primitives / literals
+
+Nix has a handful of data types which can be represented literally in source
+code, similar to many other languages.
+
+```nix
+# numbers
+42
+1.72394
+
+# strings & paths
+"hello"
+./some-file.json
+
+# strings support interpolation
+"Hello ${name}"
+
+# multi-line strings (common prefix whitespace is dropped)
+''
+first line
+second line
+''
+
+# lists (note: no commas!)
+[ 1 2 3 ]
+
+# attribute sets (field access with dot syntax)
+{ a = 15; b = "something else"; }
+```
+
+## Variable bindings
+
+Bindings in Nix are introduced locally via `let` expressions, which make some
+variables available within a given scope.
+
+For example:
+
+```nix
+let
+  a = 15;
+  b = 2;
+in a * b
+
+# yields 30
+```
+
+Variables are immutable. This means that after defining what `a` or `b` are, you
+can not *modify* their value in the scope in which they are available.
+
+You can nest `let`-expressions to shadow variables.
+
+Variables are *not* available outside of the scope of the `let` expression.
+There are no global variables.
+
+## Functions
+
+All functions in Nix are anonymous. This means that they are treated just like
+data. Giving them names is accomplished by assigning them to variables, or
+setting them as values in an attribute set (more on that below).
+
+```
+# simple function
+# declaration is simply the argument followed by a colon
+name: "Hello ${name}"
+```
+
+### Multiple arguments (currying)
+
+Technically any Nix function can only accept **one argument**. Sometimes
+however, a function needs multiple arguments. This is achieved in Nix via
+[currying][], which means to create a function with one argument, that returns a
+function with another argument, that returns ... and so on.
+
+For example:
+
+```nix
+name: age: "${name} is ${toString age} years old"
+```
+
+An additional benefit of this approach is that you can pass one parameter to a
+curried function, and receive back a function that you can re-use (similar to
+partial application):
+
+```nix
+let
+  multiply = a: b: a * b;
+  doubleIt = multiply 2; # at this point we have passed in the value for 'a' and
+                         # receive back another function that still expects 'b'
+in
+  doubleIt 15
+
+# yields 30
+```
+
+### Multiple arguments (attribute sets)
+
+Another way of specifying multiple arguments to a function in Nix is to make it
+accept an attribute set, which enables multiple other features:
+
+```nix
+{ name, age }: "${name} is ${toString age} years old"
+```
+
+Using this method, we gain the ability to specify default arguments (so that
+callers can omit them):
+
+```nix
+{ name, age ? 42 }: "${name} is ${toString age} years old"
+
+```
+
+Or in practice:
+
+```nix
+let greeter =  { name, age ? 42 }: "${name} is ${toString age} years old";
+in greeter { name = "Slartibartfast"; }
+
+# yields "Slartibartfast is 42 years old"
+# (note: Slartibartfast is actually /significantly/ older)
+```
+
+Additionally we can introduce an ellipsis using `...`, meaning that we can
+accept an attribute set as our input that contains more variables than are
+needed for the function.
+
+```nix
+let greeter = { name, age, ... }: "${name} is ${toString age} years old";
+    person = {
+      name = "Slartibartfast";
+      age = 42;
+      # the 'email' attribute is not expected by the 'greeter' function ...
+      email = "slartibartfast@magrath.ea";
+    };
+in greeter person # ... but the call works due to the ellipsis.
+```
+
+## `if ... then ... else ...`
+
+Nix has simple conditional support. Note that `if` is an **expression** in Nix,
+which means that both branches must be specified.
+
+```nix
+if someCondition
+then "it was true"
+else "it was false"
+```
+
+## `inherit` keyword
+
+The `inherit` keyword is used in attribute sets or `let` bindings to "inherit"
+variables from the parent scope.
+
+In short, a statement like `inherit foo;` expands to `foo = foo;`.
+
+Consider this example:
+
+```nix
+let
+  name = "Slartibartfast";
+  # ... other variables
+in {
+  name = name; # set the attribute set key 'name' to the value of the 'name' var
+  # ... other attributes
+}
+```
+
+The `name = name;` line can be replaced with `inherit name;`:
+
+```nix
+let
+  name = "Slartibartfast";
+  # ... other variables
+in {
+  inherit name;
+  # ... other attributes
+}
+```
+
+This is often convenient, especially because inherit supports multiple variables
+at the same time as well as "inheritance" from other attribute sets:
+
+```nix
+inherit name age; # equivalent to `name = name; age = age;`
+
+inherit (otherAttrs) email; # equivalent to `email = otherAttrs.email`;
+```
+
+## `with` statements
+
+The `with` statement "imports" all attributes from an attribute set into
+variables of the same name:
+
+```nix
+let attrs = { a = 15; b = 2; };
+in with attrs; a + b # 'a' and 'b' become variables in the scope following 'with'
+```
+
+## `import` / `NIX_PATH` / `<entry>`
+
+Nix files can import each other by using the `import` keyword and a literal
+path:
+
+```nix
+# assuming there is a file lib.nix with some useful functions
+let myLib = import ./lib.nix;
+in myLib.usefulFunction 42
+```
+
+Nix files often begin with a function header to pass parameters into the rest of
+the file, so you will often see imports of the form `import ./some-file { ... }`.
+
+Nix has a concept of a `NIX_PATH` (similar to the standard `PATH` environment
+variable) which contains named aliases for file paths containing Nix
+expressions.
+
+In a standard Nix installation, several [channels][] will be present (for
+example `nixpkgs` or `nixos-unstable`) on the `NIX_PATH`.
+
+`NIX_PATH` entries can be accessed using the `<entry>` syntax, which simply
+evaluates to their file path:
+
+```nix
+<nixpkgs>
+# might yield something like `/home/tazjin/.nix-defexpr/channels/nixpkgs`
+```
+
+This is commonly used to import from channels:
+
+```nix
+let pkgs = import <nixpkgs> {};
+in pkgs.something
+```
+
+# Standard libraries
+
+Yes, libraries, plural.
+
+Nix has three major things that could be considered its standard library and
+while there's a lot of debate to be had about this point, you still need to know
+all three.
+
+## `builtins`
+
+Nix comes with several functions that are baked into the language. These work
+regardless of which other Nix code you may or may not have imported.
+
+Most of these functions are implemented in the Nix interpreter itself, which
+means that they are rather fast when compared to some of the equivalents which
+are implemented in Nix itself.
+
+The Nix manual has [a section listing all `builtins`][builtins] and their usage.
+
+Examples of builtins that you will commonly encounter include, but are not
+limited to:
+
+* `derivation` (see [Derivations](#derivations))
+* `toJSON` / `fromJSON`
+* `toString`
+* `toPath` / `fromPath`
+
+The builtins also include several functions that have the (spooky) ability to
+break Nix' evaluation purity. No functions written in Nix itself can do this.
+
+Examples of those include:
+
+* `fetchGit` which can fetch a git-repository using the environment's default
+  git/ssh configuration
+* `fetchTarball` which can fetch & extract archives without having to specify
+  hashes
+
+Read through the manual linked above to get the full overview.
+
+## `pkgs.lib`
+
+The Nix package set, commonly referred to by Nixers simply as [nixpkgs][],
+contains a child attribute set called `lib` which provides a large number of
+useful functions.
+
+The canonical definition of these functions is [their source code][lib-src]. I
+wrote a tool ([nixdoc][]) in 2018 which generates manual entries for these
+functions, however not all of the files are included as of July 2019.
+
+See the [Nixpkgs manual entry on `lib`][lib-manual] for the documentation.
+
+These functions include various utilities for dealing with the data types in Nix
+(lists, attribute sets, strings etc.) and it is useful to at least skim through
+them to familiarise yourself with what is available.
+
+```nix
+{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:
+
+with pkgs.lib; # bring contents pkgs.lib into scope
+
+strings.toUpper "hello"
+
+# yields "HELLO"
+```
+
+## `pkgs` itself
+
+The Nix package set itself does not just contain packages, but also many useful
+functions which you might run into while creating new Nix packages.
+
+One particular subset of these that stands out are the [trivial builders][],
+which provide utilities for writing text files or shell scripts, running shell
+commands and capturing their output and so on.
+
+```nix
+{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:
+
+pkgs.writeText "hello.txt" "Hello dear reader!"
+
+# yields a derivation which creates a text file with the above content
+```
+
+# Derivations
+
+When a Nix expression is evaluated it may yield one or more *derivations*.
+Derivations describe a single build action that, when run, places one or more
+outputs (whether they be files or folders) in the Nix store.
+
+The builtin function `derivation` is responsible for creating derivations at a
+lower level. Usually when Nix users create derivations they will use the
+higher-level functions such as [stdenv.mkDerivation][smkd].
+
+Please see the manual [on derivations][drv-manual] for more information, as the
+general build logic is out of scope for this document.
+
+# Nix Idioms
+
+TODO(tazjin): This section should contain information on various Nix idioms,
+such as import headers, `callPackage`, fixed points (+ overrides / overlays) and
+so on.
+
+[currying]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currying
+[builtins]: https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#ssec-builtins
+[nixpkgs]: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs
+[lib-src]: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/tree/master/lib
+[lib-manual]: https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/manual/#sec-functions-library
+[channels]: https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#sec-channels
+[trivial builders]: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/build-support/trivial-builders.nix
+[smkd]: https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/manual/#chap-stdenv
+[drv-manual]: https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#ssec-derivation