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| -rw-r--r-- | doc/default.nix | 5 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/introduction.md | 48 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/introduction.xml | 21 |
3 files changed, 53 insertions, 21 deletions
diff --git a/doc/default.nix b/doc/default.nix index 7e41380d63580..65e12254f78d1 100644 --- a/doc/default.nix +++ b/doc/default.nix @@ -43,6 +43,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation { cp -s '${sources-langs}'/* ./languages-frameworks '' + toDocbook { + inputFile = ./introduction.md; + outputFile = "introduction.xml"; + useChapters = true; + } + + toDocbook { inputFile = ./haskell-users-guide.md; outputFile = "haskell-users-guide.xml"; useChapters = true; diff --git a/doc/introduction.md b/doc/introduction.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000..618251a6e1562 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/introduction.md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +--- +title: Introduction +author: Frederik Rietdijk +date: 2015-11-25 +--- + +# Introduction + +The Nix Packages collection (Nixpkgs) is a set of over 30,000 packages for the +[Nix package manager](http://nixos.org/nix/), released under a [permissive MIT/X11 license](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/COPYING). +Packages are available for several architectures, and can be used with the Nix package manager +on most GNU/Linux distributions as well as NixOS. + +This manual describes how to write packages for the Nix Packages collection +(Nixpkgs). Thus it’s for packagers and developers who want to add packages to +Nixpkgs. If you like to learn more about the Nix package manager and the Nix +expression language, then you are kindly referred to the [Nix manual](http://nixos.org/nix/manual/). + +## Overview of Nixpkgs + +Nix expressions describe how to build packages from source and are collected in +the [nixpkgs repository](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs). Also included in the +collection are Nix expressions for [NixOS modules](http://nixos.org/nixos/manual/index.html#sec-writing-modules). With +these expressions the Nix package manager can build binary packages. + +Packages, including the Nix packages collection, are distributed through +[channels](http://nixos.org/nix/manual/#sec-channels). The collection is +distributed for users of Nix on non-NixOS distributions through the channel +`nixpkgs`. Users of NixOS generally use one of the `nixos-*` channels, e.g. +`nixos-15.09`, which includes all packages and modules for the stable NixOS +15.09. The channels of the stable NixOS releases are generally only given +security updates. More up to date packages and modules are available via the +`nixos-unstable` channel. + +Both `nixos-unstable` and `nixpkgs` follow the `master` branch of the Nixpkgs +repository, although both do lag the `master` branch by generally [a couple of days](http://howoldis.herokuapp.com/). Updates to a channel are distributed as +soon as all tests for that channel pass, e.g. [this table](http://hydra.nixos.org/job/nixpkgs/trunk/unstable#tabs-constituents) +shows the status of tests for the `nixpkgs` channel. + +The tests are conducted by a cluster called [Hydra](http://nixos.org/hydra/), +which also builds binary packages from the Nix expressions in Nixpkgs. As soon +as a channel is updated, the binaries are made available via a [binary cache](https://cache.nixos.org). Until the channel updates, binaries that have +already been built, are available via [Hydra's binary cache](https://hydra.nixos.org). + +The current Nix expressions of the channels are available in the +[`nixpkgs-channels`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs-channels) repository, +which has branches corresponding to the available channels. There is also the +Nixpkgs Monitor which keeps track of updates and security vulnerabilities. diff --git a/doc/introduction.xml b/doc/introduction.xml deleted file mode 100644 index 577b739e7d184..0000000000000 --- a/doc/introduction.xml +++ /dev/null @@ -1,21 +0,0 @@ -<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" - xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" - xml:id="chap-introduction"> - -<title>Introduction</title> - -<para>This manual tells you how to write packages for the Nix Packages -collection (Nixpkgs). Thus it’s for packagers and developers who want -to add packages to Nixpkgs. End users are kindly referred to the -<link xlink:href="http://hydra.nixos.org/job/nix/trunk/tarball/latest/download-by-type/doc/manual">Nix -manual</link>.</para> - -<para>This manual does not describe the syntax and semantics of the -Nix expression language, which are given in the Nix manual in the -<link -xlink:href="http://hydra.nixos.org/job/nix/trunk/tarball/latest/download-by-type/doc/manual/#chap-writing-nix-expressions">chapter -on writing Nix expressions</link>. It only describes the facilities -provided by Nixpkgs to make writing packages easier, such as the -standard build environment (<literal>stdenv</literal>).</para> - -</chapter> |