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-rw-r--r--doc/functions.xml61
-rw-r--r--lib/customisation.nix22
-rw-r--r--pkgs/stdenv/generic/default.nix1
3 files changed, 74 insertions, 10 deletions
diff --git a/doc/functions.xml b/doc/functions.xml
index 908e9571ed69..f5fb90921bfa 100644
--- a/doc/functions.xml
+++ b/doc/functions.xml
@@ -85,10 +85,71 @@ in ...</programlisting>
</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
+ overriden 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
diff --git a/lib/customisation.nix b/lib/customisation.nix
index efe82d786600..3e6e279824be 100644
--- a/lib/customisation.nix
+++ b/lib/customisation.nix
@@ -56,16 +56,18 @@ rec {
ff = f origArgs;
overrideWith = newArgs: origArgs // (if builtins.isFunction newArgs then newArgs origArgs else newArgs);
in
- if builtins.isAttrs ff then (ff //
- { override = newArgs: makeOverridable f (overrideWith newArgs);
- overrideDerivation = fdrv:
- makeOverridable (args: overrideDerivation (f args) fdrv) origArgs;
- })
- else if builtins.isFunction ff then
- { override = newArgs: makeOverridable f (overrideWith newArgs);
- __functor = self: ff;
- overrideDerivation = throw "overrideDerivation not yet supported for functors";
- }
+ if builtins.isAttrs ff then (ff // {
+ override = newArgs: makeOverridable f (overrideWith newArgs);
+ overrideDerivation = fdrv:
+ makeOverridable (args: overrideDerivation (f args) fdrv) origArgs;
+ ${if ff ? overrideAttrs then "overrideAttrs" else null} = fdrv:
+ makeOverridable (args: (f args).overrideAttrs fdrv) origArgs;
+ })
+ else if builtins.isFunction ff then {
+ override = newArgs: makeOverridable f (overrideWith newArgs);
+ __functor = self: ff;
+ overrideDerivation = throw "overrideDerivation not yet supported for functors";
+ }
else ff;
diff --git a/pkgs/stdenv/generic/default.nix b/pkgs/stdenv/generic/default.nix
index e71c2f770b9b..489b6cbb426a 100644
--- a/pkgs/stdenv/generic/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/stdenv/generic/default.nix
@@ -227,6 +227,7 @@ let
outputs = outputs';
} else { })))) (
{
+ overrideAttrs = f: mkDerivation (attrs // (f attrs));
# The meta attribute is passed in the resulting attribute set,
# but it's not part of the actual derivation, i.e., it's not
# passed to the builder and is not a dependency. But since we