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-rw-r--r-- | doc/language-support.xml | 166 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | doc/manual.xml | 36 |
2 files changed, 167 insertions, 35 deletions
diff --git a/doc/language-support.xml b/doc/language-support.xml new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..f5e7e74c123f --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/language-support.xml @@ -0,0 +1,166 @@ +<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" + xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" + xml:id="chap-meta"> + +<title>Support for specific programming languages</title> + +<para>The <link linkend="chap-stdenv">standard build +environment</link> makes it easy to build typical Autotools-based +packages with very little code. Any other kind of package can be +accomodated by overriding the appropriate phases of +<literal>stdenv</literal>. However, there are specialised functions +in Nixpkgs to easily build packages for other programming languages, +such as Perl or Haskell. These are described in this chapter.</para> + + +<section><title>Perl</title> + +<para>Nixpkgs provides a function <varname>buildPerlPackage</varname>, +a generic package builder function for any Perl package that has a +standard <varname>Makefile.PL</varname>. It’s implemented in <link +xlink:href="https://svn.nixos.org/repos/nix/nixpkgs/trunk/pkgs/development/perl-modules/generic"><filename>pkgs/development/perl-modules/generic</filename></link>.</para> + +<para>Most Perl packages from CPAN are so straight-forward to build +that they are defined in <filename>pkgs/all-packages.nix</filename> +itself. Here is an example: + +<programlisting> +perlClassC3 = buildPerlPackage rec { + name = "Class-C3-0.21"; + src = fetchurl { + url = "mirror://cpan/authors/id/F/FL/FLORA/${name}.tar.gz"; + sha256 = "1bl8z095y4js66pwxnm7s853pi9czala4sqc743fdlnk27kq94gz"; + }; +}; +</programlisting> + +Note the use of <literal>mirror://cpan/</literal>, and the +<literal>${name}</literal> in the URL definition to ensure that the +name attribute is consistent with the source that we’re actually +downloading. As usual, you can test this package as follows: + +<screen> +$ nix-build -A perlClassC3 +</screen> + +<varname>buildPerlPackage</varname> adds <literal>perl-</literal> to +the start of the name attribute, so the package above is actually +called <literal>perl-Class-C3-0.21</literal>. So to install it, you +can say: + +<screen> +$ nix-env -i perl-Class-C3 +</screen> + +(Of course you can also install using the attribute name: +<literal>nix-env -i -A perlClassC3</literal>.)</para> + +<para>So what does <varname>buildPerlPackage</varname> do? It does +the following: + +<orderedlist> + + <listitem><para>In the configure phase, it calls <literal>perl + Makefile.PL</literal> to generate a Makefile. You can set the + variable <varname>makeMakerFlags</varname> to pass flags to + <filename>Makefile.PL</filename></para></listitem> + + <listitem><para>It adds the contents of the <envar>PERL5LIB</envar> + environment variable to <literal>#! .../bin/perl</literal> line of + Perl scripts as <literal>-I<replaceable>dir</replaceable></literal> + flags. This ensures that a script can find its + dependencies.</para></listitem> + + <listitem><para>In the fixup phase, it writes the propagated build + inputs (<varname>propagatedBuildInputs</varname>) to the file + <filename>$out/nix-support/propagated-user-env-packages</filename>. + <command>nix-env</command> recursively installs all packages listed + in this file when you install a package that has it. This ensures + that a Perl package can find its dependencies.</para></listitem> + +</orderedlist> + +</para> + +<para><varname>buildPerlPackage</varname> is built on top of +<varname>stdenv</varname>, so everything can be customised in the +usual way. For instance, the <literal>BerkeleyDB</literal> module has +a <varname>preConfigure</varname> hook to generate a configuration +file used by <filename>Makefile.PL</filename>: + +<programlisting> +{buildPerlPackage, fetchurl, db4}: + +buildPerlPackage rec { + name = "BerkeleyDB-0.36"; + + src = fetchurl { + url = "mirror://cpan/authors/id/P/PM/PMQS/${name}.tar.gz"; + sha256 = "07xf50riarb60l1h6m2dqmql8q5dij619712fsgw7ach04d8g3z1"; + }; + + preConfigure = '' + echo "LIB = ${db4}/lib" > config.in + echo "INCLUDE = ${db4}/include" >> config.in + ''; +} +</programlisting> + +</para> + +<para>Dependencies on other Perl packages can be specified in the +<varname>buildInputs</varname> and +<varname>propagatedBuildInputs</varname> attributes. If something is +exclusively a build-time dependency, use +<varname>buildInputs</varname>; if it’s (also) a runtime dependency, +use <varname>propagatedBuildInputs</varname>. For instance, this +builds a Perl module that has runtime dependencies on a bunch of other +modules: + +<programlisting> +perlClassC3Componentised = buildPerlPackage rec { + name = "Class-C3-Componentised-1.0004"; + src = fetchurl { + url = "mirror://cpan/authors/id/A/AS/ASH/${name}.tar.gz"; + sha256 = "0xql73jkcdbq4q9m0b0rnca6nrlvf5hyzy8is0crdk65bynvs8q1"; + }; + propagatedBuildInputs = [ + perlClassC3 perlClassInspector perlTestException perlMROCompat + ]; +}; +</programlisting> + +</para> + +</section> + + +<section><title>Python</title> + +<para>TODO</para> + +</section> + + +<section><title>Haskell</title> + +<para>TODO</para> + +</section> + + +<section><title>Java</title> + +<para>TODO; Java support needs lots of improvement</para> + +</section> + + +<section><title>TeX / LaTeX</title> + +<para>* Special support for building TeX documents</para> + +</section> + + +</chapter>
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/doc/manual.xml b/doc/manual.xml index a16b783af310..9eb81ee2e59d 100644 --- a/doc/manual.xml +++ b/doc/manual.xml @@ -32,41 +32,7 @@ <xi:include href="quick-start.xml" /> <xi:include href="stdenv.xml" /> <xi:include href="meta.xml" /> - - - <!-- outline --> - - <chapter> - <title>Language Support</title> - - <section> - <title>Perl</title> - <para>* Generic Perl builder</para> - </section> - - <section> - <title>Python</title> - <para>* Wrapper generation</para> - </section> - - <section> - <title>Haskell</title> - <para>TODO</para> - </section> - - <section> - <title>Java</title> - <para>TODO; Java support needs lots of improvement</para> - </section> - - <section> - <title>TeX / LaTeX</title> - <para>* Special support for building TeX documents</para> - </section> - - </chapter> - - + <xi:include href="language-support.xml" /> <xi:include href="package-notes.xml" /> |