Restructuring the Nix manual

doc/manual/expressions/generic-builder.xml

@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+<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-generic-builder'>
+
+<title>Generic Builder Syntax</title>
+
+<para>Recall from <xref linkend='ex-hello-builder' /> that the builder
+looked something like this:
+
+<programlisting>
+PATH=$perl/bin:$PATH
+tar xvfz $src
+cd hello-*
+./configure --prefix=$out
+make
+make install</programlisting>
+
+The builders for almost all Unix packages look like this — set up some
+environment variables, unpack the sources, configure, build, and
+install.  For this reason the standard environment provides some Bash
+functions that automate the build process.  A builder using the
+generic build facilities in shown in <xref linkend='ex-hello-builder2'
+/>.</para>
+
+<example xml:id='ex-hello-builder2'><title>Build script using the generic
+build functions</title>
+<programlisting>
+buildInputs="$perl" <co xml:id='ex-hello-builder2-co-1' />
+
+source $stdenv/setup <co xml:id='ex-hello-builder2-co-2' />
+
+genericBuild <co xml:id='ex-hello-builder2-co-3' /></programlisting>
+</example>
+
+<calloutlist>
+
+  <callout arearefs='ex-hello-builder2-co-1'>
+
+    <para>The <envar>buildInputs</envar> variable tells
+    <filename>setup</filename> to use the indicated packages as
+    <quote>inputs</quote>.  This means that if a package provides a
+    <filename>bin</filename> subdirectory, it's added to
+    <envar>PATH</envar>; if it has a <filename>include</filename>
+    subdirectory, it's added to GCC's header search path; and so
+    on.<footnote><para>How does it work? <filename>setup</filename>
+    tries to source the file
+    <filename><replaceable>pkg</replaceable>/nix-support/setup-hook</filename>
+    of all dependencies.  These “setup hooks” can then set up whatever
+    environment variables they want; for instance, the setup hook for
+    Perl sets the <envar>PERL5LIB</envar> environment variable to
+    contain the <filename>lib/site_perl</filename> directories of all
+    inputs.</para></footnote>
+    </para>
+
+  </callout>
+
+  <callout arearefs='ex-hello-builder2-co-2'>
+
+    <para>The function <function>genericBuild</function> is defined in
+    the file <literal>$stdenv/setup</literal>.</para>
+
+  </callout>
+
+  <callout arearefs='ex-hello-builder2-co-3'>
+
+    <para>The final step calls the shell function
+    <function>genericBuild</function>, which performs the steps that
+    were done explicitly in <xref linkend='ex-hello-builder' />.  The
+    generic builder is smart enough to figure out whether to unpack
+    the sources using <command>gzip</command>,
+    <command>bzip2</command>, etc.  It can be customised in many ways;
+    see <xref linkend='sec-standard-environment' />.</para>
+
+  </callout>
+
+</calloutlist>
+
+<para>Discerning readers will note that the
+<envar>buildInputs</envar> could just as well have been set in the Nix
+expression, like this:
+
+<programlisting>
+  buildInputs = [ perl ];</programlisting>
+
+The <varname>perl</varname> attribute can then be removed, and the
+builder becomes even shorter:
+
+<programlisting>
+source $stdenv/setup
+genericBuild</programlisting>
+
+In fact, <varname>mkDerivation</varname> provides a default builder
+that looks exactly like that, so it is actually possible to omit the
+builder for Hello entirely.</para>
+
+</section>