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diff --git a/users/sterni/nint/README.md b/users/sterni/nint/README.md
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+# nint — Nix INTerpreter
+
+`nint` is a shebang compatible interpreter for nix. It is currently
+implemented as a fairly trivial wrapper around `nix-instantiate --eval`.
+It allows to run nix expressions as command line tools if they conform
+to the following calling convention:
+
+* Every nix script needs to evaluate to a function which takes an
+  attribute set as its single argument. Ideally a set pattern with
+  an ellipsis should be used. By default `nint` passes the following
+  arguments:
+
+  * `currentDir`: the current working directory as a nix path
+  * `argv`: a list of arguments to the invokation including the
+    program name at `builtins.head argv`.
+  * Extra arguments can be manually passed as described below.
+
+* The return value should always be a string (throwing is also okay)
+  which is printed to stdout by `nint`.
+
+## Usage
+
+```
+nint [ --arg ARG VALUE … ] script.nix [ ARGS … ]
+```
+
+Instead of `--arg`, `--argstr` can also be used. They both work
+like the flags of the same name for `nix-instantiate` and may
+be specified any number of times as long as they are passed
+*before* the nix expression to run.
+
+Below is a shebang which also passes `depot` as an argument
+(note the usage of `env -S` to get around the shebang limitation
+to two arguments).
+
+```nix
+#!/usr/bin/env -S nint --arg depot /path/to/depot
+```
+
+## Limitations
+
+* No side effects except for writing to `stdout`.
+
+* Output is not streaming, i. e. even if the output is incrementally
+  calculated, nothing will be printed until the full output is available.
+  With plain nix strings we can't do better anyways.
+
+* Limited error handling for the script, no way to set the exit code etc.
+
+Some of these limitations may be possible to address in the future by using
+an alternative nix interpreter and a more elaborate calling convention.
+
+## Example
+
+Below is a (very simple) implementation of a `ls(1)`-like program in nix:
+
+```nix
+#!/usr/bin/env nint
+{ currentDir, argv, ... }:
+
+let
+  lib = import <nixpkgs/lib>;
+
+  dirs =
+    let
+      args = builtins.tail argv;
+    in
+      if args == []
+      then [ currentDir ]
+      else args;
+
+  makeAbsolute = p:
+    if builtins.isPath p
+    then p
+    else if builtins.match "^/.*" p != null
+    then p
+    else "${toString currentDir}/${p}";
+in
+
+  lib.concatStringsSep "\n"
+    (lib.flatten
+      (builtins.map
+        (d: (builtins.attrNames (builtins.readDir (makeAbsolute d))))
+        dirs)) + "\n"
+```
diff --git a/users/sterni/nint/default.nix b/users/sterni/nint/default.nix
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+{ depot, pkgs, ... }:
+
+let
+  inherit (depot.users.Profpatsch.writers)
+    rustSimpleBin
+    ;
+
+  inherit (pkgs)
+    buildRustCrate
+    ;
+
+  serde = buildRustCrate {
+    pname = "serde";
+    crateName = "serde";
+    version = "1.0.123";
+    sha256 = "05xl2s1vpf3p7fi2yc9qlzw88d5ap0z3qmhmd7axa6pp9pn1s5xc";
+    features = [ "std" ];
+  };
+
+  ryu = buildRustCrate {
+    pname = "ryu";
+    version = "1.0.5";
+    crateName = "ryu";
+    sha256 = "060y2ln1csix593ingwxr2y3wl236ls0ly1ffkv39h5im7xydhrc";
+  };
+
+  itoa = buildRustCrate {
+    pname = "itoa";
+    version = "0.4.7";
+    crateName = "itoa";
+    sha256 = "0079jlkcmcaw37wljrvb6r3dqq15nfahkqnl5npvlpdvkg31k11x";
+  };
+
+  serde_json = buildRustCrate {
+    pname = "serde_json";
+    version = "1.0.62";
+    crateName = "serde_json";
+    sha256 = "0sgc8dycigq0nxr4j613m4q733alfb2i10s6nz80lsbbqgrka21q";
+    dependencies = [ serde ryu itoa ];
+    features = [ "std" ];
+    edition = "2018";
+  };
+
+in
+
+  rustSimpleBin {
+    name = "nint";
+    dependencies = [ serde_json ];
+  } (builtins.readFile ./nint.rs)
diff --git a/users/sterni/nint/nint.rs b/users/sterni/nint/nint.rs
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+extern crate serde_json;
+
+use serde_json::Value;
+use std::ffi::OsString;
+use std::os::unix::ffi::{OsStringExt, OsStrExt};
+use std::io::{Error, ErrorKind, Write};
+use std::process::Command;
+
+fn render_nix_string(s: &OsString) -> OsString {
+    let mut rendered = Vec::new();
+
+    rendered.extend(b"\"");
+
+    for b in s.as_os_str().as_bytes() {
+        match char::from(*b) {
+            '\"' => rendered.extend(b"\\\""),
+            '\\' => rendered.extend(b"\\\\"),
+            '$'  => rendered.extend(b"\\$"),
+            _    => rendered.push(*b),
+        }
+    }
+
+    rendered.extend(b"\"");
+
+    OsString::from_vec(rendered)
+}
+
+fn render_nix_list(arr: &[OsString]) -> OsString {
+    let mut rendered = Vec::new();
+
+    rendered.extend(b"[ ");
+
+    for el in arr {
+        rendered.extend(render_nix_string(el).as_os_str().as_bytes());
+        rendered.extend(b" ");
+    }
+
+    rendered.extend(b"]");
+
+    OsString::from_vec(rendered)
+}
+
+fn main() -> std::io::Result<()> {
+    let mut nix_args = Vec::new();
+
+    let mut args = std::env::args_os().into_iter();
+    let mut in_args = true;
+
+    let mut argv: Vec<OsString> = Vec::new();
+
+    // skip argv[0]
+    args.next();
+
+    loop {
+        let arg = match args.next() {
+            Some(a) => a,
+            None => break,
+        };
+
+        if !arg.to_str().map(|s| s.starts_with("-")).unwrap_or(false) {
+            in_args = false;
+        }
+
+        if in_args {
+            match(arg.to_str()) {
+                Some("--arg") | Some("--argstr") => {
+                    nix_args.push(arg);
+                    nix_args.push(args.next().unwrap());
+                    nix_args.push(args.next().unwrap());
+                    Ok(())
+                }
+                _ => Err(Error::new(ErrorKind::Other, "unknown argument")),
+            }?
+        } else {
+            argv.push(arg);
+        }
+    }
+
+    if argv.len() < 1 {
+        Err(Error::new(ErrorKind::Other, "missing argv"))
+    } else {
+        let cd = std::env::current_dir()?.into_os_string();
+
+        nix_args.push(OsString::from("--arg"));
+        nix_args.push(OsString::from("currentDir"));
+        nix_args.push(cd);
+
+        nix_args.push(OsString::from("--arg"));
+        nix_args.push(OsString::from("argv"));
+        nix_args.push(render_nix_list(&argv[..]));
+
+        nix_args.push(OsString::from("--eval"));
+        nix_args.push(OsString::from("--json"));
+
+        nix_args.push(argv[0].clone());
+
+        let run = Command::new("nix-instantiate")
+                          .args(nix_args)
+                          .output()?;
+
+        match serde_json::from_slice(&run.stdout[..]) {
+            Ok(Value::String(s)) => Ok(print!("{}", s)),
+            Ok(_) => Err(Error::new(ErrorKind::Other, "output must be a string")),
+            _ => {
+                std::io::stderr().write_all(&run.stderr[..]);
+                Err(Error::new(ErrorKind::Other, "internal nix error"))
+            },
+        }
+    }
+}