Nix language basics#
The Nix language is designed for conveniently creating and composing derivations – precise descriptions of how contents of existing files are used to derive new files. It is a domain-specific, purely functional, lazily evaluated, dynamically typed programming language.
Notable uses of the Nix language
-
The largest, most up-to-date software distribution in the world, and written in the Nix language.
-
A Linux distribution that can be configured fully declaratively and is based on Nix and Nixpkgs.
Its underlying modular configuration system is written in the Nix language, and uses packages from Nixpkgs. The operating system environment and services it provides are configured with the Nix language.
You may quickly encounter Nix language expressions that look very complicated. As with any programming language, the required amount of Nix language code closely matches the complexity of the problem it is supposed to solve, and reflects how well the problem – and its solution – is understood. Building software is a complex undertaking, and Nix both exposes and allows managing this complexity with the Nix language.
Yet, the Nix language itself has only few basic concepts that will be introduced in this tutorial, and which can be combined arbitrarily. What may look complicated comes not from the language, but from how it is used.
Overview#
This is an introduction to reading the Nix language, for the purpose of following other tutorials and examples.
Using the Nix language in practice entails multiple things:
Language: syntax and semantics
Libraries:
builtins
andpkgs.lib
Developer tools: testing, debugging, linting, formatting, …
Generic build mechanisms:
stdenv.mkDerivation
, trivial builders, …Composition and configuration mechanisms:
override
,overrideAttrs
, overlays,callPackage
, …Ecosystem-specific packaging mechanisms:
buildGoModule
,buildPythonApplication
, …NixOS module system:
config
,option
, …
This tutorial only covers the most important language features, briefly discusses libraries, and at the end will direct you to reference material and resources on the other components.
What will you learn?#
This tutorial should enable you to read typical Nix language code and understand its structure. Its goal is to highlight where the Nix language may differ from languages you are used to.
It therefore shows the most common and distinguishing patterns in the Nix language:
Declaring and calling functions
Impurities to obtain build inputs
Derivations that describe build tasks
Important
This tutorial does not explain all Nix language features in detail and does not go into specifics of syntactical rules.
See the Nix manual for a full language reference.
What do you need?#
Familiarity with software development
Familiarity with Unix shell, to read command line examples
A Nix installation to run the examples
How long does it take?#
No experience with functional programming: 2 hours
Familiar with functional programming: 1 hour
Proficient with functional programming: 30 minutes
We recommend to run all examples. Play with them to validate your assumptions and test what you have learned. Read detailed explanations if you want to make sure you fully understand the examples.
How to run the examples?#
A piece of Nix language code is a Nix expression.
Evaluating a Nix expression produces a Nix value.
The content of a Nix file (file extension
.nix
) is a Nix expression.
Note
To evaluate means to transform an expression into a value according to the language rules.
This tutorial contains many examples of Nix expressions. Each one is followed by the expected evaluation result.
The following example is a Nix expression adding two numbers:
1 + 2
3
Interactive evaluation#
Use nix repl
to evaluate Nix expressions interactively (by typing them on the command line):
$ nix repl
Welcome to Nix 2.13.3. Type :? for help.
nix-repl> 1 + 2
3
Note
The Nix language uses lazy evaluation, and nix repl
by default only computes values when needed.
Some examples show a fully evaluated data structure for clarity.
If your output does not match the example, try prepending :p
to the input expression.
Example:
nix-repl> { a.b.c = 1; }
{ a = { ... }; }
nix-repl> :p { a.b.c = 1; }
{ a = { b = { c = 1; }; }; }
Type :q
to exit nix repl
.
Evaluating Nix files#
Use nix-instantiate --eval
to evaluate the expression in a Nix file.
$ echo 1 + 2 > file.nix
$ nix-instantiate --eval file.nix
3
Detailed explanation
The first command writes 1 + 2
to a file file.nix
in the current directory.
The contents of file.nix
are now 1 + 2
, which you can check with
$ cat file.nix
1 + 2
The second command runs nix-instantiate
with the --eval
option on file.nix
, which reads the file and evaluates the contained Nix expression.
The resulting value is printed as output.
--eval
is required to evaluate the file and do nothing else.
If --eval
is omitted, nix-instantiate
expects the expression in the given file to evaluate to a special value called a derivation, which we will come back to at the end of this tutorial in Derivations.
Note
nix-instantiate --eval
will try to read from default.nix
if no file name is specified.
$ echo 1 + 2 > default.nix
$ nix-instantiate --eval
3
Note
The Nix language uses lazy evaluation, and nix-instantiate
by default only computes values when needed.
Some examples show a fully evaluated data structure for clarity.
If your output does not match the example, try adding the --strict
option to nix-instantiate
.
Example:
$ echo "{ a.b.c = 1; }" > file.nix
$ nix-instantiate --eval file.nix
{ a = <CODE>; }
$ echo "{ a.b.c = 1; }" > file.nix
$ nix-instantiate --eval --strict file.nix
{ a = { b = { c = 1; }; }; }
Notes on whitespace#
White space is used to delimit lexical tokens, where required. It is otherwise insignificant.
Line breaks, indentation, and additional spaces are for readers’ convenience.
The following are equivalent:
let
x = 1;
y = 2;
in x + y
3
let x=1;y=2;in x+y
3
Names and values#
Values in the Nix language can be primitive data types, lists, attribute sets, and functions.
We show examples of primitive data types and lists in the context of attribute sets. Later in this section we cover special features of character strings: string interpolation, file system paths, and indented strings. We deal with functions separately.
Attribute sets and let
expressions are used to assign names to values.
Assignments are denoted by a single equal sign (=
).
Whenever you encounter an equal sign (=
) in Nix language code:
On its left is the assigned name.
On its right is the value, delimited by a semicolon (
;
).
Attribute set { ... }
#
An attribute set is a collection of name-value-pairs, where names must be unique.
The following example shows all primitive data types, lists, and attribute sets.
Note
If you are familiar with JSON, imagine the Nix language as JSON with functions.
Nix language data types without functions work just like their counterparts in JSON and look very similar.
Nix
1{
2 string = "hello";
3 integer = 1;
4 float = 3.141;
5 bool = true;
6 null = null;
7 list = [ 1 "two" false ];
8 attribute-set = {
9 a = "hello";
10 b = 2;
11 c = 2.718;
12 d = false;
13 }; # comments are supported
14}
JSON
{
"string": "hello",
"integer": 1,
"float": 3.141,
"bool": true,
"null": null,
"list": [1, "two", false],
"object": {
"a": "hello",
"b": 1,
"c": 2.718,
"d": false
}
}
Recursive attribute set rec { ... }
#
You will sometimes see attribute sets declared with rec
prepended.
This allows access to attributes from within the set.
Example:
rec {
one = 1;
two = one + 1;
three = two + 1;
}
{ one = 1; three = 3; two = 2; }
Note
Elements in an attribute set can be declared in any order, and are ordered on evaluation.
Counter-example:
{
one = 1;
two = one + 1;
three = two + 1;
}
error: undefined variable 'one'
at «string»:3:9:
2| one = 1;
3| two = one + 1;
| ^
4| three = two + 1;
let ... in ...
#
Also known as “let
expression” or “let
binding”
let
expressions allow assigning names to values for repeated use.
Example:
let
a = 1;
in
a + a
2
Detailed explanation
Assignments are placed between the keywords let
and in
.
In this example we assign a = 1
.
After in
comes the expression in which the assignments are valid, i.e., where assigned names can be used.
In this example the expression is a + a
, where a
refers to a = 1
.
By replacing the names with their assigned values, a + a
evaluates to 2
.
Names can be assigned in any order, and expressions on the right of the assignment (=
) can refer to other assigned names.
Example:
let
b = a + 1;
a = 1;
in
a + b
3
Detailed explanation
Assignments are placed between the keywords let
and in
.
In this example we assign a = 1
and b = a + 1
.
The order of assignments does not matter. Therefore the following example, where the assignments are in reverse order, is equivalent:
let
a = 1;
b = a + 1;
in
a + b
3
Note that the a
in b = a + 1
refers to a = 1
.
After in
comes the expression in which the assignments are valid.
In this example the expression is a + b
, where a
refers to a = 1
, and b
refers to b = a + 1
.
By replacing the names with their assigned values, a + b
evaluates to 3
.
This is similar to recursive attribute sets:
in both, the order of assignments does not matter, and names on the left can be used in expressions on the right of the assignment (=
).
Example:
let ... in ...
let
b = a + 1;
c = a + b;
a = 1;
in { c = c; a = a; b = b; }
{ a = 1; b = 2; c = 3; }
rec { ... }
rec {
b = a + 1;
c = a + b;
a = 1;
}
{ a = 1; b = 2; c = 3; }
The difference is that while a recursive attribute set evaluates to an attribute set, any expression can follow after the in
keyword.
In the following example we use the let
expression to form a list:
let
b = a + 1;
c = a + b;
a = 1;
in [ a b c ]
[ 1 2 3 ]
Only expressions within the let
expression itself can access the newly declared names.
We say: the bindings have local scope.
Counter-example:
{
a = let x = 1; in x;
b = x;
}
error: undefined variable 'x'
at «string»:3:7:
2| a = let x = 1; in x;
3| b = x;
| ^
4| }
Attribute access#
Attributes in a set are accessed with a dot (.
) and the attribute name.
Example:
let
attrset = { x = 1; };
in
attrset.x
1
Accessing nested attributes works the same way.
Example:
let
attrset = { a = { b = { c = 1; }; }; };
in
attrset.a.b.c
1
The dot (.
) notation can also be used for assigning attributes.
Example:
{ a.b.c = 1; }
{ a = { b = { c = 1; }; }; }
with ...; ...
#
The with
expression allows access to attributes without repeatedly referencing their attribute set.
Example:
let
a = {
x = 1;
y = 2;
z = 3;
};
in
with a; [ x y z ]
[ 1 2 3 ]
The expression
with a; [ x y z ]
is equivalent to
[ a.x a.y a.z ]
Attributes made available through with
are only in scope of the expression following the semicolon (;
).
Counter-example:
let
a = {
x = 1;
y = 2;
z = 3;
};
in
{
b = with a; [ x y z ];
c = x;
}
error: undefined variable 'x'
at «string»:10:7:
9| b = with a; [ x y z ];
10| c = x;
| ^
11| }
inherit ...
#
inherit
is shorthand for assigning the value of a name from an existing scope to the same name in a nested scope.
It is for convenience to avoid repeating the same name multiple times.
Example:
let
x = 1;
y = 2;
in
{
inherit x y;
}
{ x = 1; y = 2; }
The fragment
inherit x y;
is equivalent to
x = x; y = y;
It is also possible to inherit
names from a specific attribute set with parentheses (inherit (...) ...
).
Example:
let
a = { x = 1; y = 2; };
in
{
inherit (a) x y;
}
{ x = 1; y = 2; }
The fragment
inherit (a) x y;
is equivalent to
x = a.x; y = a.y;
inherit
also works inside let
expressions.
Example:
let
inherit ({ x = 1; y = 2; }) x y;
in [ x y ]
[ 1 2 ]
Detailed explanation
While this example is contrived, in more complex code you will regularly see nested let
expressions that re-use names from their outer scope.
Here we use the attribute set { x = 1; y = 2; }
to have something non-trivial to inherit from.
The let
expression inherits x
and y
from that attribute set using ( )
, which is equivalent to writing:
let
x = { x = 1; y = 2; }.x;
y = { x = 1; y = 2; }.y;
in
The new inner scope now contains x
and y
, which are used in the list [ x y ]
.
String interpolation ${ ... }
#
Previously known as “antiquotation”.
The value of a Nix expression can be inserted into a character string with the dollar-sign and braces (${ }
).
Example:
let
name = "Nix";
in
"hello ${name}"
"hello Nix"
Only character strings or values that can be represented as a character string are allowed.
Counter-example:
let
x = 1;
in
"${x} + ${x} = ${x + x}"
error: cannot coerce an integer to a string
at «string»:4:2:
3| in
4| "${x} + ${x} = ${x + x}"
| ^
5|
Interpolated expressions can be arbitrarily nested.
(This can become hard to read, and we recommend to avoid it in practice.)
Example:
let
a = "no";
in
"${a + " ${a + " ${a}"}"}"
"no no no"
Warning
You may encounter strings that use the dollar sign ($
) before an assigned name, but no braces ({ }
):
These are not interpolated strings, but usually denote variables in a shell script.
In such cases, the use of names from the surrounding Nix expression is a coincidence.
Example:
let
out = "Nix";
in
"echo ${out} > $out"
"echo Nix > $out"
File system paths#
The Nix language offers convenience syntax for file system paths.
Absolute paths always start with a slash (/
).
Example:
/absolute/path
/absolute/path
Paths are relative when they contain at least one slash (/
) but do not start with one.
They evaluate to the path relative to the file containing the expression.
The following examples assume the containing Nix file is in /current/directory
(or nix repl
is run in /current/directory
).
Example:
./relative
/current/directory/relative
Example:
relative/path
/current/directory/relative/path
One dot (.
) denotes the current directory within the given path.
You will often see the following expression, which specifies a Nix file’s directory.
Example:
./.
/current/directory
Detailed explanation
Since relative paths must contain a slash (/
) but must not start with one, and the dot (.
) denotes no change of directory, the combination ./.
specifies the current directory as a relative path.
Two dots (..
) denote the parent directory.
Example:
../.
/current
Note
Paths can be used in interpolated expressions – an impure operation we will cover in detail in a later section.
Lookup paths#
Also known as “angle bracket syntax”.
Example:
<nixpkgs>
/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixpkgs
The value of a lookup path is a file system path that depends on the value of builtins.nixPath
.
In practice, <nixpkgs>
points to the file system path of some revision of Nixpkgs.
For example, <nixpkgs/lib>
points to the subdirectory lib
of that file system path:
<nixpkgs/lib>
/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixpkgs/lib
While you will encounter many such examples, we recommend to avoid lookup paths in production code, as they are impurities which are not reproducible.
Indented strings#
Also known as “multi-line strings”.
The Nix language offers convenience syntax for character strings which span multiple lines that have common indentation.
Indented strings are denoted by double single quotes ('' ''
).
Example:
''
multi
line
string
''
"multi\nline\nstring\n"
Equal amounts of prepended white space are trimmed from the result.
Example:
''
one
two
three
''
"one\n two\n three\n"
Functions#
Functions are everywhere in the Nix language and deserve particular attention.
A function always takes exactly one argument.
Argument and function body are separated by a colon (:
).
Wherever you find a colon (:
) in Nix language code:
On its left is the function argument
On its right is the function body.
Function arguments are the third way, apart from attribute sets and let
expressions, to assign names to values.
Notably, values are not known in advance: the names are placeholders that are filled when calling a function.
Function declarations in the Nix language can appear in different forms. Each of them is explained in the following, and here is an overview:
Single argument
x: x + 1
Multiple arguments via nesting
x: y: x + y
Attribute set argument
{ a, b }: a + b
With default attributes
{ a, b ? 0 }: a + b
With additional attributes allowed
{ a, b, ...}: a + b
Named attribute set argument
args@{ a, b, ... }: a + b + args.c
or
{ a, b, ... }@args: a + b + args.c
Functions have no names. We say they are anonymous, and call such a function a lambda.[3]
Example:
x: x + 1
<LAMBDA>
The <LAMBDA>
indicates the resulting value is an anonymous function.
As with any other value, functions can be assigned to a name.
Example:
let
f = x: x + 1;
in f
<LAMBDA>
Calling functions#
Also known as “function application”.
Calling a function with an argument means writing the argument after the function.
Example:
let
f = x: x + 1;
in f 1
2
Example:
let
f = x: x.a;
in
f { a = 1; }
1
The above example calls f
on a literal attribute set.
One can also pass arguments by name.
Example:
let
f = x: x.a;
v = { a = 1; };
in
f v
1
Since function and argument are separated by white space, sometimes parentheses (( )
) are required to achieve the desired result.
Example:
(x: x + 1) 1
2
Detailed explanation
This expression applies an anonymous function x: x + 1
to the argument 1
.
The function has to be written in parentheses to distinguish it from the argument.
Example:
List elements are also separated by white space, therefore the following are different:
let
f = x: x + 1;
a = 1;
in [ (f a) ]
[ 2 ]
let
f = x: x + 1;
a = 1;
in [ f a ]
[ <LAMBDA> 1 ]
The first example reads: apply f
to a
, and put the result in a list.
The resulting list has one element.
The second example reads: put f
and a
in a list.
The resulting list has two elements.
Multiple arguments#
Also known as “curried functions”.
Nix functions take exactly one argument. Multiple arguments can be handled by nesting functions.
Such a nested function can be used like a function that takes multiple arguments, but offers additional flexibility.
Example:
x: y: x + y
<LAMBDA>
The above function is equivalent to
x: (y: x + y)
<LAMBDA>
This function takes one argument and returns another function y: x + y
with x
set to the value of that argument.
Example:
let
f = x: y: x + y;
in
f 1
<LAMBDA>
Applying the function which results from f 1
to another argument yields the inner body x + y
(with x
set to 1
and y
set to the other argument), which can now be fully evaluated.
let
f = x: y: x + y;
in
f 1 2
3
Attribute set argument#
Also known as “keyword arguments” or “destructuring” .
Nix functions can be declared to require an attribute set with specific structure as argument.
This is denoted by listing the expected attribute names separated by commas (,
) and enclosed in braces ({ }
).
Example:
{a, b}: a + b
<LAMBDA>
The argument defines the exact attributes that have to be in that set. Leaving out or passing additional attributes is an error.
Example:
let
f = {a, b}: a + b;
in
f { a = 1; b = 2; }
3
Counter-example:
let
f = {a, b}: a + b;
in
f { a = 1; b = 2; c = 3; }
error: 'f' at (string):2:7 called with unexpected argument 'c'
at «string»:4:1:
3| in
4| f { a = 1; b = 2; c = 3; }
| ^
5|
Default values#
Also known as “default arguments”.
Destructured arguments can have default values for attributes.
This is denoted by separating the attribute name and its default value with a question mark (?
).
Attributes in the argument are not required if they have a default value.
Example:
let
f = {a, b ? 0}: a + b;
in
f { a = 1; }
1
Example:
let
f = {a ? 0, b ? 0}: a + b;
in
f { } # empty attribute set
0
Additional attributes#
Additional attributes are allowed with an ellipsis (...
):
{a, b, ...}: a + b
Unlike in the previous counter-example, passing an argument that contains additional attributes is not an error.
Example:
let
f = {a, b, ...}: a + b;
in
f { a = 1; b = 2; c = 3; }
3
Named attribute set argument#
Also known as “@ pattern”, “@ syntax”, or “‘at’ syntax”.
An attribute set argument can be given a name to be accessible as a whole.
This is denoted by prepending or appending the name to the attribute set argument, separated by the at sign (@
).
Example:
{a, b, ...}@args: a + b + args.c
<LAMBDA>
or
args@{a, b, ...}: a + b + args.c
<LAMBDA>
Example:
let
f = {a, b, ...}@args: a + b + args.c;
in
f { a = 1; b = 2; c = 3; }
6
Function libraries#
In addition to the built-in operators (+
, ==
, &&
, etc.), there are two widely used libraries that together can be considered standard for the Nix language.
You need to know about both to understand and navigate Nix language code.
We recommend to at least skim them to familiarise yourself with what is available.
builtins
#
Also known as “primitive operations” or “primops”.
Nix comes with many functions that are built into the language. They are implemented in C++ as part of the Nix language interpreter.
Note
The Nix manual lists all Built-in Functions, and shows how to use them.
These functions are available under the builtins
constant.
Example:
builtins.toString
<PRIMOP>
import
#
Most built-in functions are only accessible through builtins
.
A notable exception is import
, which is also available at the top level.
import
takes a path to a Nix file, reads it to evaluate the contained Nix expression, and returns the resulting value.
If the path points to a directory, the file default.nix
in that directory is used instead.
Example:
$ echo 1 + 2 > file.nix
import ./file.nix
3
Detailed explanation
The preceding shell command writes the contents 1 + 2
to the file file.nix
in the current directory.
The above Nix expression refers to this file as ./file.nix
.
import
reads the file and evaluates to the contained Nix expression.
It is an error if the file system path does not exist.
After reading file.nix
the Nix expression is equivalent to the file contents:
1 + 2
3
Since a Nix file can contain any Nix expression, import
ed functions can be applied to arguments immediately.
That is, whenever you find additional tokens after a call to import
, the value it returns should be a function, and anything that follows are arguments to that function.
Example:
$ echo "x: x + 1" > file.nix
import ./file.nix 1
2
Detailed explanation
The preceding shell command writes the contents x: x + 1
to the file file.nix
in the current directory.
The above Nix expression refers to this file as ./file.nix
.
import ./file.nix
reads the file and evaluates to the contained Nix expression.
It is an error if the file system path does not exist.
After reading the file, the Nix expression import ./file.nix
is equivalent to the file contents:
(x: x + 1) 1
2
This applies the function x: x + 1
to the argument 1
, and therefore evaluates to 2
.
Note
Parentheses are required to separate function declaration from function application.
pkgs.lib
#
The nixpkgs
repository contains an attribute set called lib
, which provides a large number of useful functions.
They are implemented in the Nix language, as opposed to builtins
, which are part of the language itself.
Note
The Nixpkgs manual lists all Nixpkgs library functions.
These functions are usually accessed through pkgs.lib
, as the Nixpkgs attribute set is given the name pkgs
by convention.
Example:
let
pkgs = import <nixpkgs> {};
in
pkgs.lib.strings.toUpper "lookup paths considered harmful"
LOOKUP PATHS CONSIDERED HARMFUL
Detailed explanation
This is a more complex example, but by now you should be familiar with all its components.
The name pkgs
is declared to be the expression import
ed from some file.
That file’s path is determined by the value of the lookup path <nixpkgs>
, which in turn is determined by the $NIX_PATH
environment variable at the time this expression is evaluated.
As this expression happens to be a function, it requires an argument to evaluate, and in this case passing an empty attribute set {}
is sufficient.
Now that pkgs
is in scope of let ... in ...
, its attributes can be accessed.
From the Nixpkgs manual one can determine that there exists a function under lib.strings.toUpper
.
For brevity, this example uses a lookup path to obtain some version of Nixpkgs.
The function toUpper
is trivial enough that we can expect it not to produce different results for different versions of Nixpkgs.
Yet, more sophisticated software is likely to suffer from such problems.
A fully reproducible example would therefore look like this:
let
nixpkgs = fetchTarball "https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/archive/06278c77b5d162e62df170fec307e83f1812d94b.tar.gz";
pkgs = import nixpkgs {};
in
pkgs.lib.strings.toUpper "always pin your sources"
ALWAYS PIN YOUR SOURCES
See Towards reproducibility: pinning Nixpkgs for details.
What you will also often see is that pkgs
is passed as an argument to a function.
By convention one can assume that it refers to the Nixpkgs attribute set, which has a lib
attribute:
{ pkgs, ... }:
pkgs.lib.strings.removePrefix "no " "no true scotsman"
<LAMBDA>
To make this function produce a result, you can write it to a file (e.g. file.nix
) and pass it an argument through nix-instantiate
:
$ nix-instantiate --eval file.nix --arg pkgs 'import <nixpkgs> {}'
"true scotsman"
Oftentimes you will see in NixOS configurations, and also within Nixpkgs, that lib
is passed directly.
In that case one can assume that this lib
is equivalent to pkgs.lib
where only pkgs
is available.
Example:
{ lib, ... }:
let
to-be = true;
in
lib.trivial.or to-be (! to-be)
<LAMBDA>
To make this function produce a result, you can write it to a file (e.g. file.nix
) and pass it an argument through nix-instantiate
:
$ nix-instantiate --eval file.nix --arg lib '(import <nixpkgs> {}).lib'
true
Sometimes both pkgs
and lib
are passed as arguments.
In that case, one can assume pkgs.lib
and lib
to be equivalent.
This is done to improve readability by avoiding repeated use of pkgs.lib
.
Example:
{ pkgs, lib, ... }:
# ... multiple uses of `pkgs`
# ... multiple uses of `lib`
For historical reasons, some of the functions in pkgs.lib
are equivalent to builtins
of the same name.
Impurities#
So far we have only covered what we call pure expressions: declaring data and transforming it with functions.
In practice, describing derivations requires observing the outside world.
There is only one impurity in the Nix language that is relevant here: reading files from the file system as build inputs
Build inputs are files that derivations refer to in order to describe how to derive new files. When run, a derivation will only have access to explicitly declared build inputs.
The only way to specify build inputs in the Nix language is explicitly with:
File system paths
Dedicated functions.
Nix and the Nix language refer to files by their content hash. If file contents are not known in advance, it’s unavoidable to read files during expression evaluation.
Note
Nix supports other types of impure expressions, such as lookup paths or the constant builtins.currentSystem
.
We do not cover those here in more detail, as they do not matter for how the Nix language works in principle, and because they are discouraged for the very reason of breaking reproducibility.
Paths#
Whenever a file system path is used in string interpolation, the contents of that file are copied to a special location in the file system, the Nix store, as a side effect.
The evaluated string then contains the Nix store path assigned to that file.
Example:
$ echo 123 > data
"${./data}"
"/nix/store/h1qj5h5n05b5dl5q4nldrqq8mdg7dhqk-data"
Detailed explanation
The preceding shell command writes the characters 123
to the file data
in the current directory.
The above Nix expression refers to this file as ./data
and converts the file system path to an interpolated string ${ ... }
.
Such interpolated expressions must evaluate to something that can be represented as a character string. A file system path is such a value, and its character string representation is the corresponding Nix store path:
/nix/store/<hash>-<name>
The Nix store path is obtained by taking the hash of the file’s contents (<hash>
) and combining it with the file name (<name>
).
The file is copied into the Nix store directory /nix/store
as a side effect of evaluation.
It is an error if the file system path does not exist.
For directories the same thing happens: The entire directory (including nested files and directories) is copied to the Nix store, and the evaluated string becomes the Nix store path of the directory.
Fetchers#
Files to be used as build inputs do not have to come from the file system.
The Nix language provides built-in impure functions to fetch files over the network during evaluation:
These functions evaluate to a file system path in the Nix store.
Example:
builtins.fetchurl "https://github.com/NixOS/nix/archive/7c3ab5751568a0bc63430b33a5169c5e4784a0ff.tar.gz"
"/nix/store/7dhgs330clj36384akg86140fqkgh8zf-7c3ab5751568a0bc63430b33a5169c5e4784a0ff.tar.gz"
Some of them add extra convenience, such as automatically unpacking archives.
Example:
builtins.fetchTarball "https://github.com/NixOS/nix/archive/7c3ab5751568a0bc63430b33a5169c5e4784a0ff.tar.gz"
"/nix/store/d59llm96vgis5fy231x6m7nrijs0ww36-source"
Note
The Nixpkgs manual on Fetchers lists numerous additional library functions to fetch files over the network.
It is an error if the network request fails.
Derivations#
Derivations are at the core of both Nix and the Nix language:
The Nix language is used to describe derivations.
Nix runs derivations to produce build results.
Build results can in turn be used as inputs for other derivations.
The Nix language primitive to declare a derivation is the built-in impure function derivation
.
It is usually wrapped by the Nixpkgs build mechanism stdenv.mkDerivation
, which hides much of the complexity involved in non-trivial build procedures.
Note
You will probably never encounter derivation
in practice.
Whenever you encounter mkDerivation
, it denotes something that Nix will eventually build.
Example: a package using mkDerivation
The evaluation result of derivation
(and mkDerivation
) is an attribute set with a certain structure and a special property:
It can be used in string interpolation, and in that case evaluates to the Nix store path of its build result.
Example:
let
pkgs = import <nixpkgs> {};
in "${pkgs.nix}"
"/nix/store/sv2srrjddrp2isghmrla8s6lazbzmikd-nix-2.11.0"
Note
Your output may differ. It may produce a different hash or even a different package version.
A derivation’s output path is fully determined by its inputs, which in this case come from some version of Nixpkgs.
This is why we recommend to avoid lookup paths to ensure predictable outcomes, except in examples intended for illustration only.
Detailed explanation
The example imports the Nix expression from the lookup path <nixpkgs>
, and applies the resulting function to an empty attribute set {}
.
Its output is assigned the name pkgs
.
Converting the attribute pkgs.nix
to a string with string interpolation is allowed, as pkgs.nix
is a derivation.
That is, ultimately pkgs.nix
boils down to a call to derivation
.
The resulting string is the file system path where the build result of that derivation will end up.
There is more depth to the inner workings of derivations, but at this point it should be enough to know that such expressions evaluate to Nix store paths.
String interpolation on derivations is used to refer to their build results as file system paths when declaring new derivations.
This allows constructing arbitrarily complex compositions of derivations with the Nix language.
Worked examples#
So far we have seen artificial examples illustrating the various constructs in the Nix language.
You should now be able to read Nix language code for simple packages and configurations, and come up with similar explanations of the following practical examples.
Note
The goal of the following exercises is not to understand what the code means or how it works, but how it is structured in terms of functions, attribute sets, and other Nix language data types.
Shell environment#
{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:
let
message = "hello world";
in
pkgs.mkShellNoCC {
packages = with pkgs; [ cowsay ];
shellHook = ''
cowsay ${message}
'';
}
This example declares a shell environment (which runs the shellHook
on initialization).
Explanation:
This expression is a function that takes an attribute set as an argument.
If the argument has the attribute
pkgs
, it will be used in the function body. Otherwise, by default, import the Nix expression in the file found on the lookup path<nixpkgs>
(which is a function in this case), call the function with an empty attribute set, and use the resulting value.The name
message
is bound to the string value"hello world"
.The attribute
mkShellNoCC
of thepkgs
set is a function that is passed an attribute set as argument. Its return value is also the result of the outer function.The attribute set passed to
mkShellNoCC
has the attributespackages
(set to a list with one element: thecowsay
attribute frompkgs
) andshellHook
(set to an indented string).The indented string contains an interpolated expression, which will expand the value of
message
to yield"hello world"
.
NixOS configuration#
{ config, pkgs, ... }: {
imports = [ ./hardware-configuration.nix ];
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ git ];
# ...
}
This example is (part of) a NixOS configuration.
Explanation:
This expression is a function that takes an attribute set as an argument. It returns an attribute set.
The argument must at least have the attributes
config
andpkgs
, and may have more attributes.The returned attribute set contains the attributes
imports
andenvironment
.imports
is a list with one element: a path to a file next to this Nix file, calledhardware-configuration.nix
.Note
imports
is not the impure built-inimport
, but a regular attribute name!environment
is itself an attribute set with one attributesystemPackages
, which will evaluate to a list with one element: thegit
attribute from thepkgs
set.The
config
argument is not (shown to be) used.
Package#
{ lib, stdenv, fetchurl }:
stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
pname = "hello";
version = "2.12";
src = fetchurl {
url = "mirror://gnu/${pname}/${pname}-${version}.tar.gz";
sha256 = "1ayhp9v4m4rdhjmnl2bq3cibrbqqkgjbl3s7yk2nhlh8vj3ay16g";
};
meta = with lib; {
license = licenses.gpl3Plus;
};
}
This example is a (simplified) package declaration from Nixpkgs.
Explanation:
This expression is a function that takes an attribute set which must have exactly the attributes
lib
,stdenv
, andfetchurl
.It returns the result of evaluating the function
mkDerivation
, which is an attribute ofstdenv
, applied to a recursive set.The recursive set passed to
mkDerivation
uses its ownpname
andversion
attributes in the argument to the functionfetchurl
.fetchurl
itself comes from the outer function’s arguments.The
meta
attribute is itself an attribute set, where thelicense
attribute has the value that was assigned to the nested attributelib.licenses.gpl3Plus
.
References#
Next steps#
Get things done#
Declarative shell environments with shell.nix – create reproducible shell environments from a Nix file
Packaging existing software with Nix – make more software available through Nix
If you want to take a longer break from learning Nix, you can remove unused build results from the Nix store with:
$ nix-collect-garbage
Learn more#
If you worked through the examples, you will have noticed that reading the Nix language reveals the structure of the code, but does not necessarily tell what the code actually means.
Often it is not possible to determine from the code at hand
the data type of a named value or function argument.
the data type a called function accepts for its argument.
which attributes are present in a given attribute set.
Example:
{ x, y, z }: (x y) z.a
How do we know…
that
x
will be a function that, given an argument, returns a function?that, given
x
is a function,y
will be an appropriate argument tox
?that, given
(x y)
is a function,z.a
will be an appropriate argument to(x y)
?that
z
will be an attribute set at all?that, given
z
is an attribute set, it will have an attributea
?which data type
y
andz.a
will be?the data type of the end result?
And how does the caller of this function know that it requires an attribute set with attributes x
, y
, z
?
Answering such questions requires knowing the context in which a given expression is supposed to be used.
The Nix ecosystem and code style is driven by conventions. Most names you will encounter in Nix language code come from Nixpkgs:
Nix Pills - a detailed explanation of derivations and how Nixpkgs is constructed from first principles
Nixpkgs provides generic build mechanisms that are widely used:
stdenv
- most importantlymkDerivation
Trivial Builders - to create files and shell scripts
Packages from Nixpkgs can be modified through multiple mechanisms:
overrides – specifically
override
andoverrideAttrs
to modify single packagesoverlays – to produce a custom variant of Nixpkgs with individually modified packages
Different language ecosystems and frameworks have different requirements to accommodating them into Nixpkgs:
Languages and frameworks lists tools provided by Nixpkgs to build language- or framework-specific packages with Nix.
The NixOS Linux distribution has a modular configuration system that imposes its own conventions:
NixOS modules shows how NixOS configurations are organized.