590 lines
22 KiB
XML
590 lines
22 KiB
XML
<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
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xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
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xml:id="chap-package-notes">
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<title>Package Notes</title>
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<para>
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This chapter contains information about how to use and maintain the Nix
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expressions for a number of specific packages, such as the Linux kernel or
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X.org.
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</para>
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<!--============================================================-->
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<section xml:id="sec-linux-kernel">
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<title>Linux kernel</title>
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<para>
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The Nix expressions to build the Linux kernel are in
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<link
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xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel"><filename>pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel</filename></link>.
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</para>
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<para>
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The function that builds the kernel has an argument
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<varname>kernelPatches</varname> which should be a list of <literal>{name,
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patch, extraConfig}</literal> attribute sets, where <varname>name</varname>
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is the name of the patch (which is included in the kernel’s
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<varname>meta.description</varname> attribute), <varname>patch</varname> is
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the patch itself (possibly compressed), and <varname>extraConfig</varname>
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(optional) is a string specifying extra options to be concatenated to the
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kernel configuration file (<filename>.config</filename>).
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</para>
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<para>
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The kernel derivation exports an attribute <varname>features</varname>
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specifying whether optional functionality is or isn’t enabled. This is
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used in NixOS to implement kernel-specific behaviour. For instance, if the
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kernel has the <varname>iwlwifi</varname> feature (i.e. has built-in support
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for Intel wireless chipsets), then NixOS doesn’t have to build the
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external <varname>iwlwifi</varname> package:
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<programlisting>
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modulesTree = [kernel]
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++ pkgs.lib.optional (!kernel.features ? iwlwifi) kernelPackages.iwlwifi
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++ ...;
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</programlisting>
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</para>
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<para>
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How to add a new (major) version of the Linux kernel to Nixpkgs:
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<orderedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Copy the old Nix expression (e.g. <filename>linux-2.6.21.nix</filename>)
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to the new one (e.g. <filename>linux-2.6.22.nix</filename>) and update
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it.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Add the new kernel to <filename>all-packages.nix</filename> (e.g., create
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an attribute <varname>kernel_2_6_22</varname>).
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Now we’re going to update the kernel configuration. First unpack the
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kernel. Then for each supported platform (<literal>i686</literal>,
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<literal>x86_64</literal>, <literal>uml</literal>) do the following:
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<orderedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Make an copy from the old config (e.g.
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<filename>config-2.6.21-i686-smp</filename>) to the new one (e.g.
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<filename>config-2.6.22-i686-smp</filename>).
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Copy the config file for this platform (e.g.
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<filename>config-2.6.22-i686-smp</filename>) to
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<filename>.config</filename> in the kernel source tree.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Run <literal>make oldconfig
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ARCH=<replaceable>{i386,x86_64,um}</replaceable></literal> and answer
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all questions. (For the uml configuration, also add
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<literal>SHELL=bash</literal>.) Make sure to keep the configuration
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consistent between platforms (i.e. don’t enable some feature on
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<literal>i686</literal> and disable it on <literal>x86_64</literal>).
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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If needed you can also run <literal>make menuconfig</literal>:
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<screen>
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<prompt>$ </prompt>nix-env -i ncurses
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<prompt>$ </prompt>export NIX_CFLAGS_LINK=-lncurses
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<prompt>$ </prompt>make menuconfig ARCH=<replaceable>arch</replaceable></screen>
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Copy <filename>.config</filename> over the new config file (e.g.
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<filename>config-2.6.22-i686-smp</filename>).
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</para>
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</listitem>
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</orderedlist>
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Test building the kernel: <literal>nix-build -A kernel_2_6_22</literal>.
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If it compiles, ship it! For extra credit, try booting NixOS with it.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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It may be that the new kernel requires updating the external kernel
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modules and kernel-dependent packages listed in the
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<varname>linuxPackagesFor</varname> function in
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<filename>all-packages.nix</filename> (such as the NVIDIA drivers, AUFS,
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etc.). If the updated packages aren’t backwards compatible with older
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kernels, you may need to keep the older versions around.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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</orderedlist>
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</para>
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</section>
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<!--============================================================-->
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<section xml:id="sec-xorg">
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<title>X.org</title>
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<para>
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The Nix expressions for the X.org packages reside in
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<filename>pkgs/servers/x11/xorg/default.nix</filename>. This file is
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automatically generated from lists of tarballs in an X.org release. As such
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it should not be modified directly; rather, you should modify the lists, the
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generator script or the file
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<filename>pkgs/servers/x11/xorg/overrides.nix</filename>, in which you can
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override or add to the derivations produced by the generator.
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</para>
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<para>
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The generator is invoked as follows:
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<screen>
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<prompt>$ </prompt>cd pkgs/servers/x11/xorg
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<prompt>$ </prompt>cat tarballs-7.5.list extra.list old.list \
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| perl ./generate-expr-from-tarballs.pl
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</screen>
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For each of the tarballs in the <filename>.list</filename> files, the script
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downloads it, unpacks it, and searches its <filename>configure.ac</filename>
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and <filename>*.pc.in</filename> files for dependencies. This information is
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used to generate <filename>default.nix</filename>. The generator caches
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downloaded tarballs between runs. Pay close attention to the <literal>NOT
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FOUND: <replaceable>name</replaceable></literal> messages at the end of the
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run, since they may indicate missing dependencies. (Some might be optional
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dependencies, however.)
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</para>
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<para>
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A file like <filename>tarballs-7.5.list</filename> contains all tarballs in
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a X.org release. It can be generated like this:
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<screen>
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<prompt>$ </prompt>export i="mirror://xorg/X11R7.4/src/everything/"
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<prompt>$ </prompt>cat $(PRINT_PATH=1 nix-prefetch-url $i | tail -n 1) \
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| perl -e 'while (<>) { if (/(href|HREF)="([^"]*.bz2)"/) { print "$ENV{'i'}$2\n"; }; }' \
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| sort > tarballs-7.4.list
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</screen>
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<filename>extra.list</filename> contains libraries that aren’t part of
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X.org proper, but are closely related to it, such as
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<literal>libxcb</literal>. <filename>old.list</filename> contains some
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packages that were removed from X.org, but are still needed by some people
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or by other packages (such as <varname>imake</varname>).
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</para>
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<para>
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If the expression for a package requires derivation attributes that the
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generator cannot figure out automatically (say, <varname>patches</varname>
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or a <varname>postInstall</varname> hook), you should modify
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<filename>pkgs/servers/x11/xorg/overrides.nix</filename>.
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</para>
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</section>
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<!--============================================================-->
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<!--
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<section xml:id="sec-package-notes-gnome">
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<title>Gnome</title>
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<para>* Expression is auto-generated</para>
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<para>* How to update</para>
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</section>
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-->
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<!--============================================================-->
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<!--
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<section xml:id="sec-package-notes-gcc">
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<title>GCC</title>
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<para>…</para>
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</section>
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-->
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<!--============================================================-->
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<section xml:id="sec-eclipse">
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<title>Eclipse</title>
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<para>
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The Nix expressions related to the Eclipse platform and IDE are in
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<link xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/applications/editors/eclipse"><filename>pkgs/applications/editors/eclipse</filename></link>.
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</para>
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<para>
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Nixpkgs provides a number of packages that will install Eclipse in its
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various forms. These range from the bare-bones Eclipse Platform to the more
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fully featured Eclipse SDK or Scala-IDE packages and multiple version are
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often available. It is possible to list available Eclipse packages by
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issuing the command:
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<screen>
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<prompt>$ </prompt>nix-env -f '<nixpkgs>' -qaP -A eclipses --description
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</screen>
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Once an Eclipse variant is installed it can be run using the
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<command>eclipse</command> command, as expected. From within Eclipse it is
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then possible to install plugins in the usual manner by either manually
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specifying an Eclipse update site or by installing the Marketplace Client
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plugin and using it to discover and install other plugins. This installation
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method provides an Eclipse installation that closely resemble a manually
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installed Eclipse.
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</para>
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<para>
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If you prefer to install plugins in a more declarative manner then Nixpkgs
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also offer a number of Eclipse plugins that can be installed in an
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<emphasis>Eclipse environment</emphasis>. This type of environment is
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created using the function <varname>eclipseWithPlugins</varname> found
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inside the <varname>nixpkgs.eclipses</varname> attribute set. This function
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takes as argument <literal>{ eclipse, plugins ? [], jvmArgs ? [] }</literal>
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where <varname>eclipse</varname> is a one of the Eclipse packages described
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above, <varname>plugins</varname> is a list of plugin derivations, and
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<varname>jvmArgs</varname> is a list of arguments given to the JVM running
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the Eclipse. For example, say you wish to install the latest Eclipse
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Platform with the popular Eclipse Color Theme plugin and also allow Eclipse
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to use more RAM. You could then add
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<screen>
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packageOverrides = pkgs: {
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myEclipse = with pkgs.eclipses; eclipseWithPlugins {
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eclipse = eclipse-platform;
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jvmArgs = [ "-Xmx2048m" ];
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plugins = [ plugins.color-theme ];
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};
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}
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</screen>
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to your Nixpkgs configuration
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(<filename>~/.config/nixpkgs/config.nix</filename>) and install it by
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running <command>nix-env -f '<nixpkgs>' -iA myEclipse</command> and
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afterward run Eclipse as usual. It is possible to find out which plugins are
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available for installation using <varname>eclipseWithPlugins</varname> by
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running
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<screen>
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<prompt>$ </prompt>nix-env -f '<nixpkgs>' -qaP -A eclipses.plugins --description
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</screen>
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</para>
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<para>
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If there is a need to install plugins that are not available in Nixpkgs then
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it may be possible to define these plugins outside Nixpkgs using the
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<varname>buildEclipseUpdateSite</varname> and
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<varname>buildEclipsePlugin</varname> functions found in the
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<varname>nixpkgs.eclipses.plugins</varname> attribute set. Use the
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<varname>buildEclipseUpdateSite</varname> function to install a plugin
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distributed as an Eclipse update site. This function takes <literal>{ name,
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src }</literal> as argument where <literal>src</literal> indicates the
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Eclipse update site archive. All Eclipse features and plugins within the
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downloaded update site will be installed. When an update site archive is not
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available then the <varname>buildEclipsePlugin</varname> function can be
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used to install a plugin that consists of a pair of feature and plugin JARs.
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This function takes an argument <literal>{ name, srcFeature, srcPlugin
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}</literal> where <literal>srcFeature</literal> and
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<literal>srcPlugin</literal> are the feature and plugin JARs, respectively.
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</para>
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<para>
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Expanding the previous example with two plugins using the above functions we
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have
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<screen>
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packageOverrides = pkgs: {
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myEclipse = with pkgs.eclipses; eclipseWithPlugins {
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eclipse = eclipse-platform;
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jvmArgs = [ "-Xmx2048m" ];
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plugins = [
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plugins.color-theme
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(plugins.buildEclipsePlugin {
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name = "myplugin1-1.0";
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srcFeature = fetchurl {
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url = "http://…/features/myplugin1.jar";
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sha256 = "123…";
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};
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srcPlugin = fetchurl {
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url = "http://…/plugins/myplugin1.jar";
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sha256 = "123…";
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};
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});
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(plugins.buildEclipseUpdateSite {
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name = "myplugin2-1.0";
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src = fetchurl {
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stripRoot = false;
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url = "http://…/myplugin2.zip";
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sha256 = "123…";
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};
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});
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];
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};
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}
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</screen>
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</para>
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</section>
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<section xml:id="sec-elm">
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<title>Elm</title>
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<para>
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To start a development environment do <command>nix-shell -p elmPackages.elm
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elmPackages.elm-format</command>
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</para>
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<para>
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To update Elm compiler, see
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<filename>nixpkgs/pkgs/development/compilers/elm/README.md</filename>.
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</para>
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<para>
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To package Elm applications,
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<link xlink:href="https://github.com/hercules-ci/elm2nix#elm2nix">read about
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elm2nix</link>.
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</para>
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</section>
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<section xml:id="sec-kakoune">
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<title>Kakoune</title>
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<para>
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Kakoune can be built to autoload plugins:
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<programlisting>(kakoune.override {
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configure = {
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plugins = with pkgs.kakounePlugins; [ parinfer-rust ];
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};
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})</programlisting>
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</para>
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</section>
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<section xml:id="sec-shell-helpers">
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<title>Interactive shell helpers</title>
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<para>
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Some packages provide the shell integration to be more useful. But unlike
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other systems, nix doesn't have a standard share directory location. This is
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why a bunch <command>PACKAGE-share</command> scripts are shipped that print
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the location of the corresponding shared folder. Current list of such
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packages is as following:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<literal>autojump</literal>: <command>autojump-share</command>
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<literal>fzf</literal>: <command>fzf-share</command>
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</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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E.g. <literal>autojump</literal> can then used in the .bashrc like this:
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<screen>
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source "$(autojump-share)/autojump.bash"
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</screen>
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</para>
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</section>
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<section xml:id="sec-weechat">
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<title>Weechat</title>
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<para>
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Weechat can be configured to include your choice of plugins, reducing its
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closure size from the default configuration which includes all available
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plugins. To make use of this functionality, install an expression that
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overrides its configuration such as
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<programlisting>weechat.override {configure = {availablePlugins, ...}: {
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plugins = with availablePlugins; [ python perl ];
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}
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}</programlisting>
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If the <literal>configure</literal> function returns an attrset without the
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<literal>plugins</literal> attribute, <literal>availablePlugins</literal>
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will be used automatically.
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</para>
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<para>
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The plugins currently available are <literal>python</literal>,
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<literal>perl</literal>, <literal>ruby</literal>, <literal>guile</literal>,
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<literal>tcl</literal> and <literal>lua</literal>.
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</para>
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<para>
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The python and perl plugins allows the addition of extra libraries. For
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instance, the <literal>inotify.py</literal> script in weechat-scripts
|
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requires D-Bus or libnotify, and the <literal>fish.py</literal> script
|
||
requires pycrypto. To use these scripts, use the plugin's
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<literal>withPackages</literal> attribute:
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<programlisting>weechat.override { configure = {availablePlugins, ...}: {
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plugins = with availablePlugins; [
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(python.withPackages (ps: with ps; [ pycrypto python-dbus ]))
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];
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};
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}
|
||
</programlisting>
|
||
</para>
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|
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<para>
|
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In order to also keep all default plugins installed, it is possible to use
|
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the following method:
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<programlisting>weechat.override { configure = { availablePlugins, ... }: {
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plugins = builtins.attrValues (availablePlugins // {
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python = availablePlugins.python.withPackages (ps: with ps; [ pycrypto python-dbus ]);
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});
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||
}; }
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</programlisting>
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</para>
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|
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<para>
|
||
WeeChat allows to set defaults on startup using the
|
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<literal>--run-command</literal>. The <literal>configure</literal> method
|
||
can be used to pass commands to the program:
|
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<programlisting>weechat.override {
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configure = { availablePlugins, ... }: {
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init = ''
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/set foo bar
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/server add freenode chat.freenode.org
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'';
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||
};
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}</programlisting>
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Further values can be added to the list of commands when running
|
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<literal>weechat --run-command "your-commands"</literal>.
|
||
</para>
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|
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<para>
|
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Additionally it's possible to specify scripts to be loaded when starting
|
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<literal>weechat</literal>. These will be loaded before the commands from
|
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<literal>init</literal>:
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<programlisting>weechat.override {
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configure = { availablePlugins, ... }: {
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scripts = with pkgs.weechatScripts; [
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weechat-xmpp weechat-matrix-bridge wee-slack
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||
];
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init = ''
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/set plugins.var.python.jabber.key "val"
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'':
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};
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}</programlisting>
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||
</para>
|
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|
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<para>
|
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In <literal>nixpkgs</literal> there's a subpackage which contains
|
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derivations for WeeChat scripts. Such derivations expect a
|
||
<literal>passthru.scripts</literal> attribute which contains a list of all
|
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scripts inside the store path. Furthermore all scripts have to live in
|
||
<literal>$out/share</literal>. An exemplary derivation looks like this:
|
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<programlisting>{ stdenv, fetchurl }:
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|
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stdenv.mkDerivation {
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name = "exemplary-weechat-script";
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src = fetchurl {
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url = "https://scripts.tld/your-scripts.tar.gz";
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sha256 = "...";
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};
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passthru.scripts = [ "foo.py" "bar.lua" ];
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installPhase = ''
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mkdir $out/share
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cp foo.py $out/share
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cp bar.lua $out/share
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'';
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}</programlisting>
|
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</para>
|
||
</section>
|
||
<section xml:id="sec-ibus-typing-booster">
|
||
<title>ibus-engines.typing-booster</title>
|
||
|
||
<para>
|
||
This package is an ibus-based completion method to speed up typing.
|
||
</para>
|
||
|
||
<section xml:id="sec-ibus-typing-booster-activate">
|
||
<title>Activating the engine</title>
|
||
|
||
<para>
|
||
IBus needs to be configured accordingly to activate
|
||
<literal>typing-booster</literal>. The configuration depends on the desktop
|
||
manager in use. For detailed instructions, please refer to the
|
||
<link xlink:href="https://mike-fabian.github.io/ibus-typing-booster/documentation.html">upstream
|
||
docs</link>.
|
||
</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>
|
||
On NixOS you need to explicitly enable <literal>ibus</literal> with given
|
||
engines before customizing your desktop to use
|
||
<literal>typing-booster</literal>. This can be achieved using the
|
||
<literal>ibus</literal> module:
|
||
<programlisting>{ pkgs, ... }: {
|
||
i18n.inputMethod = {
|
||
enabled = "ibus";
|
||
ibus.engines = with pkgs.ibus-engines; [ typing-booster ];
|
||
};
|
||
}</programlisting>
|
||
</para>
|
||
</section>
|
||
|
||
<section xml:id="sec-ibus-typing-booster-customize-hunspell">
|
||
<title>Using custom hunspell dictionaries</title>
|
||
|
||
<para>
|
||
The IBus engine is based on <literal>hunspell</literal> to support
|
||
completion in many languages. By default the dictionaries
|
||
<literal>de-de</literal>, <literal>en-us</literal>,
|
||
<literal>fr-moderne</literal> <literal>es-es</literal>,
|
||
<literal>it-it</literal>, <literal>sv-se</literal> and
|
||
<literal>sv-fi</literal> are in use. To add another dictionary, the package
|
||
can be overridden like this:
|
||
<programlisting>ibus-engines.typing-booster.override {
|
||
langs = [ "de-at" "en-gb" ];
|
||
}</programlisting>
|
||
</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>
|
||
<emphasis>Note: each language passed to <literal>langs</literal> must be an
|
||
attribute name in <literal>pkgs.hunspellDicts</literal>.</emphasis>
|
||
</para>
|
||
</section>
|
||
|
||
<section xml:id="sec-ibus-typing-booster-emoji-picker">
|
||
<title>Built-in emoji picker</title>
|
||
|
||
<para>
|
||
The <literal>ibus-engines.typing-booster</literal> package contains a
|
||
program named <literal>emoji-picker</literal>. To display all emojis
|
||
correctly, a special font such as <literal>noto-fonts-emoji</literal> is
|
||
needed:
|
||
</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>
|
||
On NixOS it can be installed using the following expression:
|
||
<programlisting>{ pkgs, ... }: {
|
||
fonts.fonts = with pkgs; [ noto-fonts-emoji ];
|
||
}</programlisting>
|
||
</para>
|
||
</section>
|
||
</section>
|
||
<section xml:id="sec-nginx">
|
||
<title>Nginx</title>
|
||
|
||
<para>
|
||
<link xlink:href="https://nginx.org/">Nginx</link> is a reverse proxy and
|
||
lightweight webserver.
|
||
</para>
|
||
|
||
<section xml:id="sec-nginx-etag">
|
||
<title>ETags on static files served from the Nix store</title>
|
||
|
||
<para>
|
||
HTTP has a couple different mechanisms for caching to prevent clients from
|
||
having to download the same content repeatedly if a resource has not
|
||
changed since the last time it was requested. When nginx is used as a
|
||
server for static files, it implements the caching mechanism based on the
|
||
<link xlink:href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Last-Modified"><literal>Last-Modified</literal></link>
|
||
response header automatically; unfortunately, it works by using filesystem
|
||
timestamps to determine the value of the <literal>Last-Modified</literal>
|
||
header. This doesn't give the desired behavior when the file is in the Nix
|
||
store, because all file timestamps are set to 0 (for reasons related to
|
||
build reproducibility).
|
||
</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>
|
||
Fortunately, HTTP supports an alternative (and more effective) caching
|
||
mechanism: the
|
||
<link xlink:href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/ETag"><literal>ETag</literal></link>
|
||
response header. The value of the <literal>ETag</literal> header specifies
|
||
some identifier for the particular content that the server is sending (e.g.
|
||
a hash). When a client makes a second request for the same resource, it
|
||
sends that value back in an <literal>If-None-Match</literal> header. If the
|
||
ETag value is unchanged, then the server does not need to resend the
|
||
content.
|
||
</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>
|
||
As of NixOS 19.09, the nginx package in Nixpkgs is patched such that when
|
||
nginx serves a file out of <filename>/nix/store</filename>, the hash in the
|
||
store path is used as the <literal>ETag</literal> header in the HTTP
|
||
response, thus providing proper caching functionality. This happens
|
||
automatically; you do not need to do modify any configuration to get this
|
||
behavior.
|
||
</para>
|
||
</section>
|
||
</section>
|
||
</chapter>
|