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nixpkgs/pkgs/stdenv/darwin/README.md
Randy Eckenrode a845397040
darwin.stdenv: refactor stdenv definition 
In preparation for bumping the LLVM used by Darwin, this change
refactors and reworks the stdenv build process. When it made sense,
existing behaviors were kept to avoid causing any unwanted breakage.
However, there are some differences. The reasoning and differences are
discussed below.

- Improved cycle times - Working on the Darwin stdenv was a tedious
  process because `allowedRequisites` determined what was allowed
  between stages. If you made a mistake, you might have to wait a
  considerable amount of time for the build to fail. Using assertions
  makes many errors fail at evaluation time and makes moving things
  around safer and easier to do.
- Decoupling from bootstrap tools - The stdenv build process builds as
  much as it can in the early stages to remove the requirement that the
  bootstrap tools need bumped in order to bump the stdenv itself. This
  should lower the barrier to updates and make it easier to bump in the
  future. It also allows changes to be made without requiring additional
  tools be added to the bootstrap tools.
- Patterned after the Linux stdenv - I tried to follow the patterns
  established in the Linux stdenv with adaptations made to Darwin’s
  needs. My hope is this makes the Darwin stdenv more approable for
  non-Darwin developers who made need to interact with it. It also
  allowed some of the hacks to be removed.
- Documentation - Comments were added explaining what was happening and
  why things were being done. This is particular important for some
  stages that might not be obvious (such as the sysctl stage).
- Cleanup - Converting the intermediate `allowedRequisites` to
  assertions revealed that many packages were being referenced that no
  longer exist or have been renamed. Removing them reduces clutter and
  should help make the stdenv bootstrap process be more understandable.
2023-07-02 17:56:24 -04:00

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Darwin stdenv design goals

There are two more goals worth calling out explicitly:

  1. The standard environment should build successfully with sandboxing enabled on Darwin. It is fine if a package requires a sandboxProfile to build, but it should not be necessary to disable the sandbox to build the stdenv successfully; and
  2. The output should depend weakly on the bootstrap tools. Historically, Darwin required updating the bootstrap tools prior to updating the version of LLVM used in the standard environment. By not depending on a specific version, the LLVM used on Darwin can be updated simply by bumping the definition of llvmPackages in all-packages.nix.

Updating the stdenv

There are effectively two steps when updating the standard environment:

  1. Update the definition of llvmPackages in all-packages.nix for Darwin to match the value of llvmPackages.latest in all-packages.nix. Timing-wise, this done currently using the spring release of LLVM and once llvmPackages.latest has been updated to match. If the LLVM project has announced a release schedule of patch updates, wait until those are in nixpkgs. Otherwise, the LLVM updates will have to go through staging instead of being merged into master; and
  2. Fix the resulting breakage. Most things break due to additional warnings being turned into errors or additional strictness applied by LLVM. Fixes may come in the form of disabling those new warnings or by fixing the actual source (e.g., with a patch or update upstream). If the fix is trivial (e.g., adding a missing int to an implicit declaration), it is better to fix the problem instead of silencing the warning.