| 1 | -*- mode: org -*- |
| 2 | |
| 3 | [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/][GNU Guix]] (IPA: /ɡiːks/) is a purely functional package manager, and |
| 4 | associated free software distribution, for the [[https://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu.html][GNU system]]. In addition |
| 5 | to standard package management features, Guix supports transactional |
| 6 | upgrades and roll-backs, unprivileged package management, per-user |
| 7 | profiles, and garbage collection. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | It provides [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/][Guile]] Scheme APIs, including a high-level embedded |
| 10 | domain-specific languages (EDSLs) to describe how packages are to be |
| 11 | built and composed. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | GNU Guix can be used on top of an already-installed GNU/Linux distribution, or |
| 14 | it can be used standalone (we call that “Guix System”). |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Guix shares history with the [[https://nixos.org/nix/][Nix]] package manager. See [[Guix & Nix]] below. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | |
| 19 | * Requirements |
| 20 | |
| 21 | If you are building Guix from source, please see the manual for build |
| 22 | instructions and requirements, either by running: |
| 23 | |
| 24 | info -f doc/guix.info "Requirements" |
| 25 | |
| 26 | or by checking the [[https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Requirements.html][web copy of the manual]]. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | * Installation |
| 29 | |
| 30 | See the manual for the installation instructions, either by running |
| 31 | |
| 32 | info -f doc/guix.info "Installation" |
| 33 | |
| 34 | or by checking the [[https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Installation.html][web copy of the manual]]. |
| 35 | |
| 36 | * Building from Git |
| 37 | |
| 38 | For information on building Guix from a Git checkout, please see the relevant |
| 39 | section in the manual, either by running |
| 40 | |
| 41 | info -f doc/guix.info "Building from Git" |
| 42 | |
| 43 | or by checking the [[https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Building-from-Git.html][web_copy of the manual]]. |
| 44 | |
| 45 | * How It Works |
| 46 | |
| 47 | Guix does the high-level preparation of a /derivation/. A derivation is |
| 48 | the promise of a build; it is stored as a text file under |
| 49 | =/gnu/store/xxx.drv=. The (guix derivations) module provides the |
| 50 | `derivation' primitive, as well as higher-level wrappers such as |
| 51 | `build-expression->derivation'. |
| 52 | |
| 53 | Guix does remote procedure calls (RPCs) to the build daemon (the =guix-daemon= |
| 54 | command), which in turn performs builds and accesses to the store on its |
| 55 | behalf. The RPCs are implemented in the (guix store) module. |
| 56 | |
| 57 | * Contact |
| 58 | |
| 59 | GNU Guix is hosted at https://codeberg.org/guix/guix/. |
| 60 | |
| 61 | Please email mailto:[email protected] for questions. Bug reports should be |
| 62 | submitted via https://codeberg.org/guix/guix/issues/. Email |
| 63 | mailto:[email protected] for general issues regarding the GNU system. |
| 64 | |
| 65 | Join #guix on irc.libera.chat. |
| 66 | |
| 67 | * Guix & Nix |
| 68 | |
| 69 | GNU Guix shares history with [[https://nixos.org/nix/][the Nix package manager]]. It implements a |
| 70 | similar package deployment paradigm, and it reuses some of its code. Yet, |
| 71 | different engineering decisions were made for Guix, as described below. |
| 72 | |
| 73 | Nix is really two things: a package build tool, implemented by a library |
| 74 | and daemon, and a special-purpose programming language. GNU Guix relies |
| 75 | on the former, but uses Scheme as a replacement for the latter. |
| 76 | |
| 77 | Using Scheme instead of a specific language allows us to get all the |
| 78 | features and tooling that come with Guile (compiler, debugger, REPL, |
| 79 | Unicode, libraries, etc.) And it means that we have a general-purpose |
| 80 | language, on top of which we can have embedded domain-specific languages |
| 81 | (EDSLs), such as the one used to define packages. This broadens what |
| 82 | can be done in package recipes themselves, and what can be done around them. |
| 83 | |
| 84 | With Nix and the [[https://nixos.org/nixpkgs][Nixpkgs]] distribution, package composition happens at |
| 85 | the Nix language level, but builders are usually written in Bash. |
| 86 | Conversely, Guix encourages the use of Scheme for both package |
| 87 | composition and builders. Likewise, the core functionality of Nix is |
| 88 | written in C++ and Perl; Guix relies on some of the original C++ code, |
| 89 | but exposes all the API as Scheme. |
| 90 | |
| 91 | * Related software |
| 92 | |
| 93 | - [[https://nixos.org][Nix, Nixpkgs, and NixOS]], functional package manager and associated |
| 94 | software distribution, are the inspiration of Guix |
| 95 | - [[https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/][GNU Stow]] builds around the idea of one directory per prefix, and a |
| 96 | symlink tree to create user environments |
| 97 | - [[https://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~arnej/store/storedoc_6.html][STORE]] shares the same idea |
| 98 | - [[https://live.gnome.org/OSTree/][GNOME's OSTree]] allows bootable system images to be built from a |
| 99 | specified set of packages |
| 100 | - The [[https://www.gnu.org/s/gsrc/][GNU Source Release Collection]] (GSRC) is a user-land software |
| 101 | distribution; unlike Guix, it relies on core tools available on the |
| 102 | host system |
| 103 | |
| 104 | * Copyright |
| 105 | |
| 106 | GNU Guix is made available under the [[https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html][GNU GPL version 3 or later license]], and |
| 107 | authors retain their copyright. For more information, consult the manual, |
| 108 | either by running |
| 109 | |
| 110 | info -f doc/guix.info -n "Copyright Matters" |
| 111 | |
| 112 | or by checking the [[https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/html_node/Copyright-Matters.html][web copy of the manual]]. |