doc: document new urxvt plugin system

2 files changed, 102 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/doc/builders/packages/index.xml b/doc/builders/packages/index.xml
index 9f3f58a8d903..4e109bd1c599 100644
--- a/doc/builders/packages/index.xml
+++ b/doc/builders/packages/index.xml
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
  <xi:include href="opengl.xml" />
  <xi:include href="shell-helpers.xml" />
  <xi:include href="steam.xml" />
+ <xi:include href="urxvt.xml" />
  <xi:include href="weechat.xml" />
  <xi:include href="xorg.xml" />
 </chapter>
diff --git a/doc/builders/packages/urxvt.xml b/doc/builders/packages/urxvt.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..f85680cecc40
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/builders/packages/urxvt.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
+         xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
+         xml:id="sec-urxvt">
+ <title>Urxvt</title>
+
+ <para>
+  Urxvt, also known as rxvt-unicode, is a highly customizable terminal emulator.
+ </para>
+
+ <section xml:id="sec-urxvt-conf">
+
+  <title>Configuring urxvt</title>
+
+  <para>
+   In <literal>nixpkgs</literal>, urxvt is provided by the package
+   <literal>rxvt-unicode</literal>. It can be configured to include your choice
+   of plugins, reducing its closure size from the default configuration which
+   includes all available plugins. To make use of this functionality, use an
+   overlay or directly install an expression that overrides its configuration,
+   such as
+   <programlisting>rxvt-unicode.override { configure = { availablePlugins, ... }: {
+    plugins = with availablePlugins; [ perls resize-font vtwheel ];
+  }
+}</programlisting>
+   If the <literal>configure</literal> function returns an attrset without the
+   <literal>plugins</literal> attribute, <literal>availablePlugins</literal>
+   will be used automatically.
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+   In order to add plugins but also keep all default plugins installed, it is
+   possible to use the following method:
+   <programlisting>rxvt-unicode.override { configure = { availablePlugins, ... }: {
+     plugins = (builtins.attrValues availablePlugins) ++ [ custom-plugin ];
+   };
+}</programlisting>
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+   To get a list of all the plugins available, open the Nix REPL and run
+   <programlisting>$ nix repl
+:l &lt;nixpkgs&gt;
+map (p: p.name) pkgs.rxvt-unicode.plugins
+   </programlisting>
+   Alternatively, if your shell is bash or zsh and have completion enabled,
+   simply type <literal>nixpkgs.rxvt-unicode.plugins.&lt;tab&gt;</literal>.
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+    In addition to <literal>plugins</literal> the options
+    <literal>extraDeps</literal> and <literal>perlDeps</literal> can be used
+    to install extra packages.
+    <literal>extraDeps</literal> can be used, for example, to provide 
+    <literal>xsel</literal> (a clipboard manager) to the clipboard plugin,
+    without installing it globally:
+    <programlisting>rxvt-unicode.override { configure = { availablePlugins, ... }: {
+     pluginsDeps = [ xsel ];
+   }
+}</programlisting>
+
+    <literal>perlDeps</literal> is a handy way to provide Perl packages to
+    your custom plugins (in <literal>$HOME/.urxvt/ext</literal>). For example,
+    if you need <literal>AnyEvent</literal> you can do:
+    <programlisting>rxvt-unicode.override { configure = { availablePlugins, ... }: {
+     perlDeps = with perlPackages; [ AnyEvent ];
+   }
+}</programlisting>
+  </para>
+
+ </section>
+
+ <section xml:id="sec-urxvt-pkg">
+
+  <title>Packaging urxvt plugins</title>
+
+  <para>
+   Urxvt plugins resides in
+   <literal>pkgs/applications/misc/rxvt-unicode-plugins</literal>.
+   To add a new plugin create an expression in a subdirectory and add the
+   package to the set in
+   <literal>pkgs/applications/misc/rxvt-unicode-plugins/default.nix</literal>.
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+   A plugin can be any kind of derivation, the only requirement is that it
+   should always install perl scripts in <literal>$out/lib/urxvt/perl</literal>.
+   Look for existing plugins for examples.
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+   If the plugin is itself a perl package that needs to be imported from
+   other plugins or scripts, add the following passthrough:
+   <programlisting>passthru.perlPackages = [ "self" ];
+</programlisting>
+   This will make the urxvt wrapper pick up the dependency and set up the perl
+   path accordingly.
+  </para>
+
+ </section>
+
+</section>