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+<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="sec-building-source">
+
+<title>Building Nix from Source</title>
+
+<para>After unpacking or checking out the Nix sources, issue the
+following commands:
+
+<screen>
+$ ./configure <replaceable>options...</replaceable>
+$ make
+$ make install</screen>
+
+Nix requires GNU Make so you may need to invoke
+<command>gmake</command> instead.</para>
+
+<para>When building from the Git repository, these should be preceded
+by the command:
+
+<screen>
+$ ./bootstrap.sh</screen>
+
+</para>
+
+<para>The installation path can be specified by passing the
+<option>--prefix=<replaceable>prefix</replaceable></option> to
+<command>configure</command>.  The default installation directory is
+<filename>/usr/local</filename>.  You can change this to any location
+you like.  You must have write permission to the
+<replaceable>prefix</replaceable> path.</para>
+
+<para>Nix keeps its <emphasis>store</emphasis> (the place where
+packages are stored) in <filename>/nix/store</filename> by default.
+This can be changed using
+<option>--with-store-dir=<replaceable>path</replaceable></option>.</para>
+
+<warning><para>It is best <emphasis>not</emphasis> to change the Nix
+store from its default, since doing so makes it impossible to use
+pre-built binaries from the standard Nixpkgs channels — that is, all
+packages will need to be built from source.</para></warning>
+
+<para>Nix keeps state (such as its database and log files) in
+<filename>/nix/var</filename> by default.  This can be changed using
+<option>--localstatedir=<replaceable>path</replaceable></option>.</para>
+
+</section>