this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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It's the same for Nixpkgs.
In well behaved build systems, it's likely easier to package than most other distros. If it's not as well behaved you will have to do some "exploration" and the complexity can get quite out of control if the build system is exceptionally terrible.
Here is the package for the GNU
hello
program which uses a well-behaved build system:https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/94b11073db6a7ca5733bc2d45378d800d9542975/pkgs/by-name/he/hello/package.nix
If you ignore the optional
passthru.tests
, this is very simple. You provide metadata, sources etc. to the genericmkDerivation
function and that's it. The most complex non-standard thing this derivation does is enable the build system's tests.You don't even need to run the provided build instructions because Nixpkgs' stdenv abstracts those away. If it finds a makefile, it'll automatically run
make
andmake install
with the correct flags for instance. Same for other standard build systems; if you passcmake
intonativeBuildInputs
, it'll attempt to build, install, check etc. usingcmake
's standardised interfaces.If the build system is poorly behaved however (like for instance Anki's), you will have to get into the weeds and do some rather advanced things:
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/94b11073db6a7ca5733bc2d45378d800d9542975/pkgs/games/anki/default.nix
Luckily though, most packages aren't like this.
Thank you for the thorough comment!