mirror of
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs.git
synced 2024-11-23 07:23:20 +00:00
47 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
47 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
# Preface {#preface}
|
||
|
||
The Nix Packages collection (Nixpkgs) is a set of thousands of packages for the
|
||
[Nix package manager](https://nixos.org/nix/), released under a
|
||
[permissive MIT/X11 license](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/COPYING).
|
||
Packages are available for several platforms, and can be used with the Nix
|
||
package manager on most GNU/Linux distributions as well as [NixOS](https://nixos.org/nixos).
|
||
|
||
This manual primarily describes how to write packages for the Nix Packages collection
|
||
(Nixpkgs). Thus it’s mainly for packagers and developers who want to add packages to
|
||
Nixpkgs. If you like to learn more about the Nix package manager and the Nix
|
||
expression language, then you are kindly referred to the [Nix manual](https://nixos.org/nix/manual/).
|
||
The NixOS distribution is documented in the [NixOS manual](https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/).
|
||
|
||
## Overview of Nixpkgs {#overview-of-nixpkgs}
|
||
|
||
Nix expressions describe how to build packages from source and are collected in
|
||
the [nixpkgs repository](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs). Also included in the
|
||
collection are Nix expressions for
|
||
[NixOS modules](https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/index.html#sec-writing-modules).
|
||
With these expressions the Nix package manager can build binary packages.
|
||
|
||
Packages, including the Nix packages collection, are distributed through
|
||
[channels](https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#sec-channels). The collection is
|
||
distributed for users of Nix on non-NixOS distributions through the channel
|
||
`nixpkgs`. Users of NixOS generally use one of the `nixos-*` channels, e.g.
|
||
`nixos-22.11`, which includes all packages and modules for the stable NixOS
|
||
22.11. Stable NixOS releases are generally only given
|
||
security updates. More up to date packages and modules are available via the
|
||
`nixos-unstable` channel.
|
||
|
||
Both `nixos-unstable` and `nixpkgs` follow the `master` branch of the Nixpkgs
|
||
repository, although both do lag the `master` branch by generally
|
||
[a couple of days](https://status.nixos.org/). Updates to a channel are
|
||
distributed as soon as all tests for that channel pass, e.g.
|
||
[this table](https://hydra.nixos.org/job/nixpkgs/trunk/unstable#tabs-constituents)
|
||
shows the status of tests for the `nixpkgs` channel.
|
||
|
||
The tests are conducted by a cluster called [Hydra](https://nixos.org/hydra/),
|
||
which also builds binary packages from the Nix expressions in Nixpkgs for
|
||
`x86_64-linux`, `i686-linux` and `x86_64-darwin`.
|
||
The binaries are made available via a [binary cache](https://cache.nixos.org).
|
||
|
||
The current Nix expressions of the channels are available in the
|
||
[`nixpkgs`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs) repository in branches
|
||
that correspond to the channel names (e.g. `nixos-22.11-small`).
|