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authorGraham Christensen <graham@grahamc.com>2018-10-02 13:52:21 -0400
committerGraham Christensen <graham@grahamc.com>2018-10-02 13:52:21 -0400
commitf200a322c4f55c853d6543e47ebdbe7457262a61 (patch)
treec9a24290abc66ad508dcb40198d0b6da553410b6 /doc/functions.xml
parent18b468ed8186131d5a8a6590ff10253e12d0195a (diff)
nixpkgs docs: move overrides to its own file
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/functions.xml')
-rw-r--r--doc/functions.xml202
1 files changed, 1 insertions, 201 deletions
diff --git a/doc/functions.xml b/doc/functions.xml
index 8223a8b0531c..754159bff4f1 100644
--- a/doc/functions.xml
+++ b/doc/functions.xml
@@ -7,208 +7,8 @@
The nixpkgs repository has several utility functions to manipulate Nix
expressions.
</para>
- <section xml:id="sec-overrides">
- <title>Overriding</title>
- <para>
- Sometimes one wants to override parts of <literal>nixpkgs</literal>, e.g.
- derivation attributes, the results of derivations or even the whole package
- set.
- </para>
-
- <section xml:id="sec-pkg-override">
- <title>&lt;pkg&gt;.override</title>
-
- <para>
- The function <varname>override</varname> is usually available for all the
- derivations in the nixpkgs expression (<varname>pkgs</varname>).
- </para>
-
- <para>
- It is used to override the arguments passed to a function.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Example usages:
-<programlisting>pkgs.foo.override { arg1 = val1; arg2 = val2; ... }</programlisting>
-<programlisting>
-import pkgs.path { overlays = [ (self: super: {
- foo = super.foo.override { barSupport = true ; };
- })]};
-</programlisting>
-<programlisting>
-mypkg = pkgs.callPackage ./mypkg.nix {
- mydep = pkgs.mydep.override { ... };
- }
-</programlisting>
- </para>
-
- <para>
- In the first example, <varname>pkgs.foo</varname> is the result of a
- function call with some default arguments, usually a derivation. Using
- <varname>pkgs.foo.override</varname> will call the same function with the
- given new arguments.
- </para>
- </section>
-
- <section xml:id="sec-pkg-overrideAttrs">
- <title>&lt;pkg&gt;.overrideAttrs</title>
-
- <para>
- The function <varname>overrideAttrs</varname> allows overriding the
- attribute set passed to a <varname>stdenv.mkDerivation</varname> call,
- producing a new derivation based on the original one. This function is
- available on all derivations produced by the
- <varname>stdenv.mkDerivation</varname> function, which is most packages in
- the nixpkgs expression <varname>pkgs</varname>.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Example usage:
-<programlisting>
-helloWithDebug = pkgs.hello.overrideAttrs (oldAttrs: rec {
- separateDebugInfo = true;
-});
-</programlisting>
- </para>
-
- <para>
- In the above example, the <varname>separateDebugInfo</varname> attribute is
- overridden to be true, thus building debug info for
- <varname>helloWithDebug</varname>, while all other attributes will be
- retained from the original <varname>hello</varname> package.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- The argument <varname>oldAttrs</varname> is conventionally used to refer to
- the attr set originally passed to <varname>stdenv.mkDerivation</varname>.
- </para>
-
- <note>
- <para>
- Note that <varname>separateDebugInfo</varname> is processed only by the
- <varname>stdenv.mkDerivation</varname> function, not the generated, raw
- Nix derivation. Thus, using <varname>overrideDerivation</varname> will not
- work in this case, as it overrides only the attributes of the final
- derivation. It is for this reason that <varname>overrideAttrs</varname>
- should be preferred in (almost) all cases to
- <varname>overrideDerivation</varname>, i.e. to allow using
- <varname>sdenv.mkDerivation</varname> to process input arguments, as well
- as the fact that it is easier to use (you can use the same attribute names
- you see in your Nix code, instead of the ones generated (e.g.
- <varname>buildInputs</varname> vs <varname>nativeBuildInputs</varname>,
- and involves less typing.
- </para>
- </note>
- </section>
-
- <section xml:id="sec-pkg-overrideDerivation">
- <title>&lt;pkg&gt;.overrideDerivation</title>
-
- <warning>
- <para>
- You should prefer <varname>overrideAttrs</varname> in almost all cases,
- see its documentation for the reasons why.
- <varname>overrideDerivation</varname> is not deprecated and will continue
- to work, but is less nice to use and does not have as many abilities as
- <varname>overrideAttrs</varname>.
- </para>
- </warning>
-
- <warning>
- <para>
- Do not use this function in Nixpkgs as it evaluates a Derivation before
- modifying it, which breaks package abstraction and removes error-checking
- of function arguments. In addition, this evaluation-per-function
- application incurs a performance penalty, which can become a problem if
- many overrides are used. It is only intended for ad-hoc customisation,
- such as in <filename>~/.config/nixpkgs/config.nix</filename>.
- </para>
- </warning>
-
- <para>
- The function <varname>overrideDerivation</varname> creates a new derivation
- based on an existing one by overriding the original's attributes with the
- attribute set produced by the specified function. This function is
- available on all derivations defined using the
- <varname>makeOverridable</varname> function. Most standard
- derivation-producing functions, such as
- <varname>stdenv.mkDerivation</varname>, are defined using this function,
- which means most packages in the nixpkgs expression,
- <varname>pkgs</varname>, have this function.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Example usage:
-<programlisting>
-mySed = pkgs.gnused.overrideDerivation (oldAttrs: {
- name = "sed-4.2.2-pre";
- src = fetchurl {
- url = ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/sed/sed-4.2.2-pre.tar.bz2;
- sha256 = "11nq06d131y4wmf3drm0yk502d2xc6n5qy82cg88rb9nqd2lj41k";
- };
- patches = [];
-});
-</programlisting>
- </para>
-
- <para>
- In the above example, the <varname>name</varname>, <varname>src</varname>,
- and <varname>patches</varname> of the derivation will be overridden, while
- all other attributes will be retained from the original derivation.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- The argument <varname>oldAttrs</varname> is used to refer to the attribute
- set of the original derivation.
- </para>
-
- <note>
- <para>
- A package's attributes are evaluated *before* being modified by the
- <varname>overrideDerivation</varname> function. For example, the
- <varname>name</varname> attribute reference in <varname>url =
- "mirror://gnu/hello/${name}.tar.gz";</varname> is filled-in *before* the
- <varname>overrideDerivation</varname> function modifies the attribute set.
- This means that overriding the <varname>name</varname> attribute, in this
- example, *will not* change the value of the <varname>url</varname>
- attribute. Instead, we need to override both the <varname>name</varname>
- *and* <varname>url</varname> attributes.
- </para>
- </note>
- </section>
-
- <section xml:id="sec-lib-makeOverridable">
- <title>lib.makeOverridable</title>
-
- <para>
- The function <varname>lib.makeOverridable</varname> is used to make the
- result of a function easily customizable. This utility only makes sense for
- functions that accept an argument set and return an attribute set.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Example usage:
-<programlisting>
-f = { a, b }: { result = a+b; };
-c = lib.makeOverridable f { a = 1; b = 2; };
-</programlisting>
- </para>
-
- <para>
- The variable <varname>c</varname> is the value of the <varname>f</varname>
- function applied with some default arguments. Hence the value of
- <varname>c.result</varname> is <literal>3</literal>, in this example.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- The variable <varname>c</varname> however also has some additional
- functions, like <link linkend="sec-pkg-override">c.override</link> which
- can be used to override the default arguments. In this example the value of
- <varname>(c.override { a = 4; }).result</varname> is 6.
- </para>
- </section>
- </section>
+ <xi:include href="functions/overrides.xml" />
<section xml:id="sec-generators">
<title>Generators</title>