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Nixpkgs pkgs/by-name checker

This directory implements a program to check the validity of the pkgs/by-name Nixpkgs directory. This is part of the implementation of RFC 140.

This code in this repository was originally part of Nixpkgs, but has since been moved into this separate repository.

To see how it is used in Nixpkgs, see the check-by-name.yml workflow.

@infinisil is the admin and main developer of this repository, while everybody in @NixOS/nixpkgs-check-by-name has write access.

Interface

The interface of the tool is shown with --help:

cargo run -- --help

The interface may be changed over time only if the CI workflow making use of it is adjusted to deal with the change appropriately.

Validity checks

These checks are performed by this tool:

File structure checks

  • pkgs/by-name must only contain subdirectories of the form ${shard}/${name}, called package directories.
  • The name's of package directories must be unique when lowercased.
  • name is a string only consisting of the ASCII characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9, - or _.
  • shard is the lowercased first two letters of name, expressed in Nix: shard = toLower (substring 0 2 name).
  • Each package directory must contain a package.nix file and may contain arbitrary other files.

Nix parser checks

  • Each package directory must not refer to files outside itself using symlinks or Nix path expressions.

Nix evaluation checks

Evaluate Nixpkgs with system set to x86_64-linux and check that:

  • For each package directory, the pkgs.${name} attribute must be defined as callPackage pkgs/by-name/${shard}/${name}/package.nix args for some args.
  • For each package directory, pkgs.lib.isDerivation pkgs.${name} must be true.

Ratchet checks

Furthermore, this tool implements certain ratchet checks. This allows gradually phasing out deprecated patterns without breaking the base branch or having to migrate it all at once. It works by not allowing new instances of the pattern to be introduced, but allowing already existing instances. The existing instances are coming from <BASE_NIXPKGS>, which is then checked against <NIXPKGS> for new instances. Ratchets should be removed eventually once the pattern is not used anymore.

The current ratchets are:

  • New manual definitions of pkgs.${name} (e.g. in pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix) with args = { } (see nix evaluation checks) must not be introduced.
  • New top-level packages defined using pkgs.callPackage must be defined with a package directory.
    • Once a top-level package uses pkgs/by-name, it also can't be moved back out of it.

Development

Enter the development environment in this directory either automatically with direnv or with

nix-shell

Then use cargo:

cargo build
cargo test
cargo fmt
cargo clippy

Tests

Tests are declared in ./tests as subdirectories imitating Nixpkgs with these files:

  • default.nix: Always contains

    import <test-nixpkgs> { root = ./.; }

    which makes

    nix-instantiate <subdir> --eval -A <attr> --arg overlays <overlays>

    work very similarly to the real Nixpkgs, just enough for the program to be able to test it.

  • pkgs/by-name: The pkgs/by-name directory to check.

  • all-packages.nix (optional): Contains an overlay of the form

    self: super: {
  # ...
}

    allowing the simulation of package overrides to the real pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix. The default is an empty overlay.

  • base (optional): Contains another subdirectory imitating Nixpkgs with potentially any of the above structures. This is used for ratchet checks.

  • expected (optional): A file containing the expected standard output. The default is expecting an empty standard output.