336 lines
12 KiB
XML
336 lines
12 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-introduction">
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<title>Introduction</title>
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<section><title>About Nix</title>
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<para>Nix is a <emphasis>purely functional package manager</emphasis>.
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This means that it treats packages like values in purely functional
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programming languages such as Haskell — they are built by functions
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that don’t have side-effects, and they never change after they have
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been built. Nix stores packages in the <emphasis>Nix
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store</emphasis>, usually the directory
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<filename>/nix/store</filename>, where each package has its own unique
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subdirectory such as
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<programlisting>
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/nix/store/r8vvq9kq18pz08v249h8my6r9vs7s0n3-firefox-2.0.0.1/
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</programlisting>
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where <literal>r8vvq9kq…</literal> is a unique identifier for the
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package that captures all its dependencies (it’s a cryptographic hash
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of the package’s build dependency graph). This enables many powerful
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features.</para>
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<simplesect><title>Multiple versions</title>
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<para>You can have multiple versions or variants of a package
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installed at the same time. This is especially important when
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different applications have dependencies on different versions of the
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same package — it prevents the “DLL hell”. Because of the hashing
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scheme, different versions of a package end up in different paths in
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the Nix store, so they don’t interfere with each other.</para>
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<para>An important consequence is that operations like upgrading or
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uninstalling an application cannot break other applications, since
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these operations never “destructively” update or delete files that are
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used by other packages.</para>
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</simplesect>
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<simplesect><title>Complete dependencies</title>
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<para>Nix helps you make sure that package dependency specifications
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are complete. In general, when you’re making a package for a package
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management system like RPM, you have to specify for each package what
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its dependencies are, but there are no guarantees that this
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specification is complete. If you forget a dependency, then the
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package will build and work correctly on <emphasis>your</emphasis>
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machine if you have the dependency installed, but not on the end
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user's machine if it's not there.</para>
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<para>Since Nix on the other hand doesn’t install packages in “global”
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locations like <filename>/usr/bin</filename> but in package-specific
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directories, the risk of incomplete dependencies is greatly reduced.
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This is because tools such as compilers don’t search in per-packages
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directories such as
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<filename>/nix/store/5lbfaxb722zp…-openssl-0.9.8d/include</filename>,
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so if a package builds correctly on your system, this is because you
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specified the dependency explicitly.</para>
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<para>Runtime dependencies are found by scanning binaries for the hash
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parts of Nix store paths (such as <literal>r8vvq9kq…</literal>). This
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sounds risky, but it works extremely well.</para>
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</simplesect>
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<simplesect><title>Multi-user support</title>
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<para>Starting at version 0.11, Nix has multi-user support. This
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means that non-privileged users can securely install software. Each
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user can have a different <emphasis>profile</emphasis>, a set of
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packages in the Nix store that appear in the user’s
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<envar>PATH</envar>. If a user installs a package that another user
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has already installed previously, the package won’t be built or
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downloaded a second time. At the same time, it is not possible for
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one user to inject a Trojan horse into a package that might be used by
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another user.</para>
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<!--
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<para>More details can be found in Section 3 of our <a
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href="docs/papers.html#securesharing">ASE 2005 paper</a>.</para>
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-->
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</simplesect>
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<simplesect><title>Atomic upgrades and rollbacks</title>
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<para>Since package management operations never overwrite packages in
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the Nix store but just add new versions in different paths, they are
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<emphasis>atomic</emphasis>. So during a package upgrade, there is no
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time window in which the package has some files from the old version
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and some files from the new version — which would be bad because a
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program might well crash if it’s started during that period.</para>
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<para>And since package aren’t overwritten, the old versions are still
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there after an upgrade. This means that you can <emphasis>roll
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back</emphasis> to the old version:</para>
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<screen>
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$ nix-env --upgrade <replaceable>some-packages</replaceable>
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$ nix-env --rollback
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</screen>
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</simplesect>
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<simplesect><title>Garbage collection</title>
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<para>When you install a package like this…
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<screen>
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$ nix-env --uninstall firefox
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</screen>
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the package isn’t deleted from the system right away (after all, you
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might want to do a rollback, or it might be in the profiles of other
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users). Instead, unused packages can be deleted safely by running the
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<emphasis>garbage collector</emphasis>:
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<screen>
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$ nix-collect-garbage
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</screen>
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This deletes all packages that aren’t in use by any user profile or by
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a currently running program.</para>
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</simplesect>
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<simplesect><title>Functional package language</title>
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<para>Packages are built from <emphasis>Nix expressions</emphasis>,
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which is a simple functional language. A Nix expression describes
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everything that goes into a package build action (a “derivation”):
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other packages, sources, the build script, environment variables for
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the build script, etc. Nix tries very hard to ensure that Nix
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expressions are <emphasis>deterministic</emphasis>: building a Nix
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expression twice should yield the same result.</para>
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<para>Because it’s a functional language, it’s easy to support
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building variants of a package: turn the Nix expression into a
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function and call it any number of times with the appropriate
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arguments. Due to the hashing scheme, variants don’t conflict with
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each other in the Nix store.</para>
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</simplesect>
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<simplesect><title>Transparent source/binary deployment</title>
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<para>Nix expressions generally describe how to build a package from
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source, so an installation action like
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<screen>
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$ nix-env --install firefox
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</screen>
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<emphasis>could</emphasis> cause quite a bit of build activity, as not
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only Firefox but also all its dependencies (all the way up to the C
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library and the compiler) would have to built, at least if they are
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not already in the Nix store. This is a <emphasis>source deployment
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model</emphasis>. For most users, building from source is not very
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pleasant as it takes far too long. However, Nix can automatically
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skip building from source and download a pre-built binary instead if
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it knows about it. <emphasis>Nix channels</emphasis> provide Nix
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expressions along with pre-built binaries.</para>
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<!--
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<para>source deployment model (like <a
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href="http://www.gentoo.org/">Gentoo</a>) and a binary model (like
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RPM)</para>
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-->
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</simplesect>
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<simplesect><title>Binary patching</title>
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<para>In addition to downloading binaries automatically if they’re
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available, Nix can download binary deltas that patch an existing
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package in the Nix store into a new version. This speeds up
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upgrades.</para>
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</simplesect>
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<simplesect><title>Nix Packages collection</title>
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<para>We provide a large set of Nix expressions containing hundreds of
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existing Unix packages, the <emphasis>Nix Packages
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collection</emphasis> (Nixpkgs).</para>
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</simplesect>
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<simplesect><title>Service deployment</title>
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<para>Nix can be used not only for rolling out packages, but also
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complete <emphasis>configurations</emphasis> of services. This is
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done by treating all the static bits of a service (such as software
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packages, configuration files, control scripts, static web pages,
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etc.) as “packages” that can be built by Nix expressions. As a
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result, all the features above apply to services as well: for
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instance, you can roll back a web server configuration if a
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configuration change turns out to be undesirable, you can easily have
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multiple instances of a service (e.g., a test and production server),
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and because the whole service is built in a purely functional way from
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a Nix expression, it is repeatable so you can easily reproduce the
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service on another machine.</para>
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<!--
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<para>You can read more about this in our <a
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href="docs/papers.html#servicecm">SCM-12 paper</a>.</para>
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-->
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</simplesect>
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<simplesect><title>Portability</title>
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<para>Nix should run on most Unix systems, including Linux, FreeBSD and
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Mac OS X. It is also supported on Windows using Cygwin.</para>
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</simplesect>
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<simplesect><title>NixOS</title>
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<para>NixOS is a Linux distribution based on Nix. It uses Nix not
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just for package management but also to manage the system
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configuration (e.g., to build configuration files in
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<filename>/etc</filename>). This means, among other things, that it’s
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possible to easily roll back the entire configuration of the system to
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an earlier state. Also, users can install software without root
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privileges. For more information and downloads, see the <link
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xlink:href="http://nix.cs.uu.nl/nixos/">NixOS homepage</link>.</para>
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</simplesect>
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<!-- other features:
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- build farms
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- reproducibility (Nix expressions allows whole configuration to be rebuilt)
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-->
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</section>
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<section><title>About us</title>
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<para>Nix was developed at the <link
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xlink:href="http://www.cs.uu.nl/">Department of Information and
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Computing Sciences</link>, Utrecht University by the <link
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xlink:href="http://www.cs.uu.nl/wiki/Trace/WebHome">TraCE
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project</link>. The project is funded by the Software Engineering
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Research Program <link
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xlink:href="http://www.jacquard.nl/">Jacquard</link> to improve the
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support for variability in software systems.</para>
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</section>
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<section><title>About this manual</title>
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<para>This manual tells you how to install and use Nix and how to
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write Nix expressions for software not already in the Nix Packages
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collection. It also discusses some advanced topics, such as setting
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up a Nix-based build farm.</para>
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</section>
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<section><title>License</title>
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<para>Nix is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
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under the terms of the <link
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xlink:href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html">GNU Lesser General
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Public License</link> as published by the <link
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xlink:href="http://www.fsf.org/">Free Software Foundation</link>;
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either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later
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version. Nix is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
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WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
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Lesser General Public License for more details.</para>
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</section>
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<section><title>More information</title>
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<para>Some background information on Nix can be found in a number of
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papers. The ICSE 2004 paper <citetitle
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xlink:href='http://www.cs.uu.nl/~eelco/pubs/immdsd-icse2004-final.pdf'>Imposing
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a Memory Management Discipline on Software Deployment</citetitle>
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discusses the hashing mechanism used to ensure reliable dependency
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identification and non-interference between different versions and
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variants of packages. The LISA 2004 paper <citetitle
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xlink:href='http://www.cs.uu.nl/~eelco/pubs/nspfssd-lisa2004-final.pdf'>Nix:
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A Safe and Policy-Free System for Software Deployment</citetitle>
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gives a more general discussion of Nix from a system-administration
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perspective. The CBSE 2005 paper <citetitle
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xlink:href='http://www.cs.uu.nl/~eelco/pubs/eupfcdm-cbse2005-final.pdf'>Efficient
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Upgrading in a Purely Functional Component Deployment Model
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</citetitle> is about transparent patch deployment in Nix. The SCM-12
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paper <citetitle
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xlink:href='http://www.cs.uu.nl/~eelco/pubs/servicecm-scm12-final.pdf'>
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Service Configuration Management</citetitle> shows how services (e.g.,
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web servers) can be deployed and managed through Nix. A short
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overview of NixOS is given in the HotOS XI paper <citetitle
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xlink:href="http://www.cs.uu.nl/~eelco/pubs/hotos-final.pdf">Purely
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Functional System Configuration Management</citetitle>. The Nix
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homepage has <link
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xlink:href="http://nix.cs.uu.nl/docs/papers.html">an up-to-date list
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of Nix-related papers</link>.</para>
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<para>Nix is the subject of Eelco Dolstra’s PhD thesis <citetitle
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xlink:href="http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/dissertations/2006-0118-200031/index.htm">The
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Purely Functional Software Deployment Model</citetitle>, which
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contains most of the papers listed above.</para>
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<para>Nix has a homepage at <link
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xlink:href="http://nix.cs.uu.nl/"/>.</para>
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</section>
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</chapter>
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