buildGo.nix =========== This is an alternative [Nix][] build system for [Go][]. It supports building Go libraries and programs, and even automatically generating Protobuf & gRPC libraries. *Note:* This will probably end up being folded into [Nixery][]. ## Background Most language-specific Nix tooling outsources the build to existing language-specific build tooling, which essentially means that Nix ends up being a wrapper around all sorts of external build systems. However, systems like [Bazel][] take an alternative approach in which the compiler is invoked directly and the composition of programs and libraries stays within a single homogeneous build system. Users don't need to learn per-language build systems and especially for companies with large monorepo-setups ([like Google][]) this has huge productivity impact. This project is an attempt to prove that Nix can be used in a similar style to build software directly, rather than shelling out to other build systems. ## Example Given a program layout like this: ``` . ├── lib <-- some library component │   ├── bar.go │   └── foo.go ├── api.proto <-- gRPC API definition ├── main.go <-- program implementation └── default.nix <-- build instructions ``` The contents of `default.nix` could look like this: ```nix { buildGo }: let api = buildGo.grpc { name = "someapi"; proto = ./api.proto; }; lib = buildGo.package { name = "somelib"; srcs = [ ./lib/bar.go ./lib/foo.go ]; }; in buildGo.program { name = "my-program"; deps = [ api lib ]; srcs = [ ./main.go ]; } ``` (If you don't know how to read Nix, check out [nix-1p][]) ## Usage `buildGo` exposes five different functions: * `buildGo.program`: Build a Go binary out of the specified source files. | parameter | type | use | required? | |-----------|-------------------------|------------------------------------------------|-----------| | `name` | `string` | Name of the program (and resulting executable) | yes | | `srcs` | `list` | List of paths to source files | yes | | `deps` | `list` | List of dependencies (i.e. other Go libraries) | no | | `x_defs` | `attrs` | Attribute set of linker vars (i.e. `-X`-flags) | no | * `buildGo.package`: Build a Go library out of the specified source files. | parameter | type | use | required? | |-----------|--------------|------------------------------------------------|-----------| | `name` | `string` | Name of the library | yes | | `srcs` | `list` | List of paths to source files | yes | | `deps` | `list` | List of dependencies (i.e. other Go libraries) | no | | `path` | `string` | Go import path for the resulting library | no | * `buildGo.external`: Build an externally defined Go library or program. This function performs analysis on the supplied source code (which can use the standard Go tooling layout) and creates a tree of all the packages contained within. This exists for compatibility with external libraries that were not defined using buildGo. | parameter | type | use | required? | |-----------|----------------|-----------------------------------------------|-----------| | `path` | `string` | Go import path for the resulting package | yes | | `src` | `path` | Path to the source **directory** | yes | | `deps` | `list` | List of dependencies (i.e. other Go packages) | no | For some examples of how `buildGo.external` is used, check out [`proto.nix`](./proto.nix). * `buildGo.proto`: Build a Go library out of the specified Protobuf definition. | parameter | type | use | required? | |-------------|-------------|--------------------------------------------------|-----------| | `name` | `string` | Name for the resulting library | yes | | `proto` | `path` | Path to the Protobuf definition file | yes | | `path` | `string` | Import path for the resulting Go library | no | | `extraDeps` | `list` | Additional Go dependencies to add to the library | no | * `buildGo.grpc`: Build a Go library out of the specified gRPC definition. The parameters are identical to `buildGo.proto`. ## Current status This project is work-in-progress. Crucially it is lacking the following features: * feature flag parity with Bazel's Go rules * documentation building * test execution There are still some open questions around how to structure some of those features in Nix. [Nix]: https://nixos.org/nix/ [Go]: https://golang.org/ [Nixery]: https://github.com/google/nixery [Bazel]: https://bazel.build/ [like Google]: https://ai.google/research/pubs/pub45424 [nix-1p]: https://github.com/tazjin/nix-1p