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-*- mode: org -*-

[[https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/][GNU Guix]] (IPA: /ɡiːks/) is a purely functional package manager, and
associated free software distribution, for the [[https://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu.html][GNU system]].  In addition
to standard package management features, Guix supports transactional
upgrades and roll-backs, unprivileged package management, per-user
profiles, and garbage collection.

It provides [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/][Guile]] Scheme APIs, including a high-level embedded
domain-specific languages (EDSLs) to describe how packages are to be
built and composed.

GNU Guix can be used on top of an already-installed GNU/Linux distribution, or
it can be used standalone (we call that “Guix System”).

Guix is based on the [[https://nixos.org/nix/][Nix]] package manager.


* Requirements

If you are building Guix from source, please see the manual for build
instructions and requirements, either by running:

  info -f doc/guix.info "Requirements"

or by checking the [[https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Requirements.html][web copy of the manual]].

* Installation

See the manual for the installation instructions, either by running

  info -f doc/guix.info "Installation"

or by checking the [[https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Installation.html][web copy of the manual]].

* Building from Git

For information on building Guix from a Git checkout, please see the relevant
section in the manual, either by running

  info -f doc/guix.info "Building from Git"

or by checking the [[https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Building-from-Git.html][web_copy of the manual]].

* How It Works

Guix does the high-level preparation of a /derivation/.  A derivation is
the promise of a build; it is stored as a text file under
=/gnu/store/xxx.drv=.  The (guix derivations) module provides the
`derivation' primitive, as well as higher-level wrappers such as
`build-expression->derivation'.

Guix does remote procedure calls (RPCs) to the build daemon (the =guix-daemon=
command), which in turn performs builds and accesses to the store on its
behalf.  The RPCs are implemented in the (guix store) module.

* Contact

GNU Guix is hosted at https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/guix/.

Please email <help-guix@gnu.org> for questions and <bug-guix@gnu.org> for bug
reports; email <gnu-system-discuss@gnu.org> for general issues regarding the
GNU system.

Join #guix on irc.freenode.net.

* Guix & Nix

GNU Guix is based on [[https://nixos.org/nix/][the Nix package manager]].  It implements the same
package deployment paradigm, and in fact it reuses some of its code.
Yet, different engineering decisions were made for Guix, as described
below.

Nix is really two things: a package build tool, implemented by a library
and daemon, and a special-purpose programming language.  GNU Guix relies
on the former, but uses Scheme as a replacement for the latter.

Using Scheme instead of a specific language allows us to get all the
features and tooling that come with Guile (compiler, debugger, REPL,
Unicode, libraries, etc.)  And it means that we have a general-purpose
language, on top of which we can have embedded domain-specific languages
(EDSLs), such as the one used to define packages.  This broadens what
can be done in package recipes themselves, and what can be done around them.

Technically, Guix makes remote procedure calls to the ‘nix-worker’
daemon to perform operations on the store.  At the lowest level, Nix
“derivations” represent promises of a build, stored in ‘.drv’ files in
the store.  Guix produces such derivations, which are then interpreted
by the daemon to perform the build.  Thus, Guix derivations can use
derivations produced by Nix (and vice versa).

With Nix and the [[https://nixos.org/nixpkgs][Nixpkgs]] distribution, package composition happens at
the Nix language level, but builders are usually written in Bash.
Conversely, Guix encourages the use of Scheme for both package
composition and builders.  Likewise, the core functionality of Nix is
written in C++ and Perl; Guix relies on some of the original C++ code,
but exposes all the API as Scheme.

* Related software

  - [[https://nixos.org][Nix, Nixpkgs, and NixOS]], functional package manager and associated
    software distribution, are the inspiration of Guix
  - [[https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/][GNU Stow]] builds around the idea of one directory per prefix, and a
    symlink tree to create user environments
  - [[https://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~arnej/store/storedoc_6.html][STORE]] shares the same idea
  - [[https://live.gnome.org/OSTree/][GNOME's OSTree]] allows bootable system images to be built from a
    specified set of packages
  - The [[https://www.gnu.org/s/gsrc/][GNU Source Release Collection]] (GSRC) is a user-land software
    distribution; unlike Guix, it relies on core tools available on the
    host system
avail'>...* gnu/system/mapped-devices.scm (check-device-initrd-modules): Add note about '--skip-checks'. Ludovic Courtès 2018-07-29linux-initrd: Report only missing modules, not all needed modules....Previously the warning would list all the required modules rather than just those that are missing. * gnu/system/mapped-devices.scm (check-device-initrd-modules): Compute 'missing' and report it. Ludovic Courtès 2018-07-29linux-initrd: Try several file names when looking up modules....Fixes <https://bugs.gnu.org/31714>. Reported by Tonton <tonton@riseup.net>. * gnu/build/linux-modules.scm (find-module-file): New procedure. * gnu/system/linux-initrd.scm (flat-linux-module-directory)[build-exp]: Remove 'lookup' procedure and use 'find-module-file' instead. * gnu/system/mapped-devices.scm (check-device-initrd-modules): Add comment. Ludovic Courtès 2018-07-29linux-initrd: Improve check of initrd modules....Previously we would not strip the ".ko" suffix if present. * gnu/build/linux-modules.scm (file-name->module-name): Export. * gnu/system/mapped-devices.scm (check-device-initrd-modules): Use 'file-name->module-name' instead of 'normalize-module-name'. Ludovic Courtès 2018-06-14linux-initrd: Module check correctly handles hyphen vs. underscore....Fixes <https://bugs.gnu.org/31714>. Reported by Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@debian.org> and Florian Pelz <pelzflorian@pelzflorian.de>. * gnu/system/mapped-devices.scm (check-device-initrd-modules): Pass LINUX-MODULES through 'normalize-module-name'. * gnu/build/linux-modules.scm (normalize-module-name): Export. Ludovic Courtès 2018-03-15linux-initrd: Autoload known-module-aliases, again....Fixes a regression introduced in 8ab10c19d72caab7459034a6e72b0117d7c5cec8. * gnu/system/mapped-devices.scm: Autoload 'known-module-aliases'. Mark H Weaver 2018-03-15linux-initrd: Move 'check-device-initrd-modules' elsewhere....This mostly reverts ca23693d280de5c4031058da4d3041d830080484, which introduced a circular dependency between (gnu system linux-initrd) and (gnu system mapped-devices). Reported by Eric Bavier. * gnu/system/linux-initrd.scm (check-device-initrd-modules): Move to... * gnu/system/mapped-devices.scm (check-device-initrd-modules): ... here. * po/guix/POTFILES.in: Adjust accordingly. Ludovic Courtès 2018-03-07linux-initrd: Factorize 'check-device-initrd-modules'....* gnu/system/mapped-devices.scm (check-device-initrd-modules): Move to... * gnu/system/linux-initrd.scm (check-device-initrd-modules): ... here. New procedure. * po/guix/POTFILES.in: Add it. * guix/scripts/system.scm (check-initrd-modules)[check-device]: Remove. Use 'check-device-initrd-modules' instead. Ludovic Courtès 2018-03-02guix system: Check for the lack of modules in the initrd....* guix/scripts/system.scm (check-mapped-devices): Take an OS instead of a list of <mapped-device>. Pass #:needed-for-boot? and #:initrd-modules to CHECK. (check-initrd-modules): New procedure. (perform-action): Move 'check-mapped-devices' call first. Add call to 'check-initrd-modules'. * gnu/system/mapped-devices.scm (check-device-initrd-modules): New procedure. (check-luks-device): Add #:initrd-modules and #:needed-for-boot?. Use them to call 'check-device-initrd-modules'. Ludovic Courtès 2017-12-22mapped-devices: 'luks-device-mapping' checks its source device....* gnu/system/mapped-devices.scm (check-luks-device): New procedure. (luks-device-mapping)[check]: New field. Ludovic Courtès 2017-12-22mapped-devices: Add 'location' and 'check' fields....* gnu/system/mapped-devices.scm (<mapped-device>)[location]: New field. (<mapped-device-type>)[check]: New field. Ludovic Courtès 2017-09-11system: Introduce a disjoint UUID type....Conceptually a UUID is just a bytevector. However, there's software out there such as GRUB that relies on the string representation of different UUID types (e.g., the string representation of DCE UUIDs differs from that of ISO-9660 UUIDs, even if they are actually bytevectors of the same length). This new <uuid> record type allows us to preserve information about the type of UUID so we can eventually convert it to a string using the right representation. * gnu/system/uuid.scm (<uuid>): New record type. (bytevector->uuid): New procedure. (uuid): Return calls to 'make-uuid'. (uuid->string): Rewrite using 'match-lambda*' to accept a single 'uuid?' argument. * gnu/bootloader/grub.scm (grub-root-search): Check for 'uuid?' instead of 'bytevector?'. * gnu/system.scm (bootable-kernel-arguments): Check whether ROOT-DEVICE is 'uuid?'. (read-boot-parameters): Use 'bytevector->uuid' when the store device is a bytevector. (read-boot-parameters-file): Check for 'uuid?' instead of 'bytevector?'. (device->sexp): New procedure. (operating-system-boot-parameters-file): Use it for 'root-device' and 'store'. (operating-system-bootcfg): Remove conditional in definition of 'root-device'. * gnu/system/file-systems.scm (file-system->spec): Check for 'uuid?' on DEVICE and take its bytevector. * gnu/system/mapped-devices.scm (open-luks-device): Likewise. * gnu/system/vm.scm (iso9660-image): Call 'uuid-bytevector' for the #:volume-uuid argument. Ludovic Courtès 2017-06-07mapped-devices: Cope with delayed appearance of LUKS source....Fixes <https://bugs.gnu.org/27242>. * gnu/system/mapped-devices.scm (open-luks-device): If 'find-partition-by-luks-uuid' fails, try again once per second, up to ten times. Mark H Weaver 2017-01-24mapped-devices: 'source' can be a list of strings....Reported by myglc2 <myglc2@gmail.com>. * gnu/system/mapped-devices.scm (<mapped-device>)[source]: Update comment to note that this can be a list of strings. Ludovic Courtès 2016-11-23mapped-devices: Use 'cryptsetup-static' in 'luks-device-mapping'....* gnu/system/mapped-devices.scm (open-luks-device): Use CRYPTSETUP-STATIC instead of CRYPTSETUP. Use 'file-append'. (close-luks-device): Likewise. Ludovic Courtès