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nixpkgs/doc/functions.xml
2015-06-30 12:19:49 +02:00

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<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xml:id="chap-functions">
<title>Functions reference</title>
<para>
The nixpkgs repository has several utility functions to manipulate Nix expressions.
</para>
<section xml:id="sec-pkgs-overridePackages">
<title>pkgs.overridePackages</title>
<para>
This function inside the nixpkgs expression (<varname>pkgs</varname>)
can be used to override the set of packages itself.
</para>
<para>
Warning: this function is expensive and must not be used from within
the nixpkgs repository.
</para>
<para>
Example usage:
<programlisting>let
pkgs = import &lt;nixpkgs&gt; {};
newpkgs = pkgs.overridePackages (self: super: {
foo = super.foo.override { ... };
};
in ...</programlisting>
</para>
<para>
The resulting <varname>newpkgs</varname> will have the new <varname>foo</varname>
expression, and all other expressions depending on <varname>foo</varname> will also
use the new <varname>foo</varname> expression.
</para>
<para>
The behavior of this function is similar to <link
linkend="sec-modify-via-packageOverrides">config.packageOverrides</link>.
</para>
<para>
The <varname>self</varname> parameter refers to the final package set with the
applied overrides. Using this parameter may lead to infinite recursion if not
used consciously.
</para>
<para>
The <varname>super</varname> parameter refers to the old package set.
It's equivalent to <varname>pkgs</varname> in the above example.
</para>
</section>
<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>pkgs.overridePackages (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-lib-makeOverridable">
<title>lib.makeOverridable</title>
<para>
The function <varname>lib.makeOverridable</varname> is used 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>
</chapter>