dhallPackageToNix: function for turning Nixpkgs Dhall package into Nix code

pkgs/build-support/dhall/package-to-nix.nix

@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+
+# `dhallPackageToNix` is a utility function to take a Nixpkgs Dhall package
+# (created with a function like `dhallPackages.buildDhallDirectoryPackage`)
+# and read it in as a Nix expression.
+#
+# This function is similar to `dhallToNix`, but takes a Nixpkgs Dhall package
+# as input instead of raw Dhall code.
+#
+# Note that this uses "import from derivation" (IFD), meaning that Nix will
+# perform a build during the evaluation phase if you use this
+# `dhallPackageToNix` utility.  It is not possible to use `dhallPackageToNix`
+# in Nixpkgs, since the Nixpkgs Hydra doesn't allow IFD.
+
+{ stdenv, dhall-nix }:
+
+dhallPackage:
+  let
+    drv = stdenv.mkDerivation {
+      name = "dhall-compiled-package.nix";
+
+      buildCommand = ''
+        # Dhall requires that the cache is writable, even if it is never written to.
+        # We copy the cache from the input package to the current directory and
+        # set the cache as writable.
+        cp -r "${dhallPackage}/.cache" ./
+        export XDG_CACHE_HOME=$PWD/.cache
+        chmod -R +w ./.cache
+
+        dhall-to-nix <<< "${dhallPackage}/binary.dhall" > $out
+      '';
+
+      nativeBuildInputs = [ dhall-nix ];
+    };
+
+  in
+    import drv

pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix

@@ -301,6 +301,8 @@ with pkgs;
 
   crow-translate = libsForQt5.callPackage ../applications/misc/crow-translate { };
 
+  dhallPackageToNix = callPackage ../build-support/dhall/package-to-nix.nix { };
+
   dhallToNix = callPackage ../build-support/dhall/to-nix.nix { };
 
   deadcode = callPackage ../development/tools/deadcode { };