path: root/doc/build-helpers/trivial-build-helpers.chapter.md

# Trivial build helpers {#chap-trivial-builders}

Nixpkgs provides a couple of functions that help with building derivations. The most important one, `stdenv.mkDerivation`, has already been documented above. The following functions wrap `stdenv.mkDerivation`, making it easier to use in certain cases.

## `runCommand` {#trivial-builder-runCommand}

`runCommand :: String -> AttrSet -> String -> Derivation`

`runCommand name drvAttrs buildCommand` returns a derivation that is built by running the specified shell commands.

`name :: String`
:   The name that Nix will append to the store path in the same way that `stdenv.mkDerivation` uses its `name` attribute.

`drvAttr :: AttrSet`
:   Attributes to pass to the underlying call to [`stdenv.mkDerivation`](#chap-stdenv).

`buildCommand :: String`
:   Shell commands to run in the derivation builder.

    ::: {.note}
    You have to create a file or directory `$out` for Nix to be able to run the builder successfully.
    :::

::: {.example #ex-runcommand-simple}
# Invocation of `runCommand`

```nix
(import <nixpkgs> {}).runCommand "my-example" {} ''
  echo My example command is running

  mkdir $out

  echo I can write data to the Nix store > $out/message

  echo I can also run basic commands like:

  echo ls
  ls

  echo whoami
  whoami

  echo date
  date
''
```
:::

## `runCommandCC` {#trivial-builder-runCommandCC}

This works just like `runCommand`. The only difference is that it also provides a C compiler in `buildCommand`'s environment. To minimize your dependencies, you should only use this if you are sure you will need a C compiler as part of running your command.

## `runCommandLocal` {#trivial-builder-runCommandLocal}

Variant of `runCommand` that forces the derivation to be built locally, it is not substituted. This is intended for very cheap commands (<1s execution time). It saves on the network round-trip and can speed up a build.

::: {.note}
This sets [`allowSubstitutes` to `false`](https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#adv-attr-allowSubstitutes), so only use `runCommandLocal` if you are certain the user will always have a builder for the `system` of the derivation. This should be true for most trivial use cases (e.g., just copying some files to a different location or adding symlinks) because there the `system` is usually the same as `builtins.currentSystem`.
:::

## `writeTextFile`, `writeText`, `writeTextDir`, `writeScript`, `writeScriptBin` {#trivial-builder-writeText}

These functions write `text` to the Nix store. This is useful for creating scripts from Nix expressions. `writeTextFile` takes an attribute set and expects two arguments, `name` and `text`. `name` corresponds to the name used in the Nix store path. `text` will be the contents of the file. You can also set `executable` to true to make this file have the executable bit set.

Many more commands wrap `writeTextFile` including `writeText`, `writeTextDir`, `writeScript`, and `writeScriptBin`. These are convenience functions over `writeTextFile`.

Here are a few examples:
```nix
# Writes my-file to /nix/store/<store path>
writeTextFile {
  name = "my-file";
  text = ''
    Contents of File
  '';
}
# See also the `writeText` helper function below.

# Writes executable my-file to /nix/store/<store path>/bin/my-file
writeTextFile {
  name = "my-file";
  text = ''
    Contents of File
  '';
  executable = true;
  destination = "/bin/my-file";
}
# Writes contents of file to /nix/store/<store path>
writeText "my-file"
  ''
  Contents of File
  '';
# Writes contents of file to /nix/store/<store path>/share/my-file
writeTextDir "share/my-file"
  ''
  Contents of File
  '';
# Writes my-file to /nix/store/<store path> and makes executable
writeScript "my-file"
  ''
  Contents of File
  '';
# Writes my-file to /nix/store/<store path>/bin/my-file and makes executable.
writeScriptBin "my-file"
  ''
  Contents of File
  '';
# Writes my-file to /nix/store/<store path> and makes executable.
writeShellScript "my-file"
  ''
  Contents of File
  '';
# Writes my-file to /nix/store/<store path>/bin/my-file and makes executable.
writeShellScriptBin "my-file"
  ''
  Contents of File
  '';

```

## `concatTextFile`, `concatText`, `concatScript` {#trivial-builder-concatText}

These functions concatenate `files` to the Nix store in a single file. This is useful for configuration files structured in lines of text. `concatTextFile` takes an attribute set and expects two arguments, `name` and `files`. `name` corresponds to the name used in the Nix store path. `files` will be the files to be concatenated. You can also set `executable` to true to make this file have the executable bit set.
`concatText` and`concatScript` are simple wrappers over `concatTextFile`.

Here are a few examples:
```nix

# Writes my-file to /nix/store/<store path>
concatTextFile {
  name = "my-file";
  files = [ drv1 "${drv2}/path/to/file" ];
}
# See also the `concatText` helper function below.

# Writes executable my-file to /nix/store/<store path>/bin/my-file
concatTextFile {
  name = "my-file";
  files = [ drv1 "${drv2}/path/to/file" ];
  executable = true;
  destination = "/bin/my-file";
}
# Writes contents of files to /nix/store/<store path>
concatText "my-file" [ file1 file2 ]

# Writes contents of files to /nix/store/<store path>
concatScript "my-file" [ file1 file2 ]
```

## `writeShellApplication` {#trivial-builder-writeShellApplication}

This can be used to easily produce a shell script that has some dependencies (`runtimeInputs`). It automatically sets the `PATH` of the script to contain all of the listed inputs, sets some sanity shellopts (`errexit`, `nounset`, `pipefail`), and checks the resulting script with [`shellcheck`](https://github.com/koalaman/shellcheck).

For example, look at the following code:

```nix
writeShellApplication {
  name = "show-nixos-org";

  runtimeInputs = [ curl w3m ];

  text = ''
    curl -s 'https://nixos.org' | w3m -dump -T text/html
  '';
}
```

Unlike with normal `writeShellScriptBin`, there is no need to manually write out `${curl}/bin/curl`, setting the PATH
was handled by `writeShellApplication`. Moreover, the script is being checked with `shellcheck` for more strict
validation.

## `symlinkJoin` {#trivial-builder-symlinkJoin}

This can be used to put many derivations into the same directory structure. It works by creating a new derivation and adding symlinks to each of the paths listed. It expects two arguments, `name`, and `paths`. `name` is the name used in the Nix store path for the created derivation. `paths` is a list of paths that will be symlinked. These paths can be to Nix store derivations or any other subdirectory contained within.
Here is an example:
```nix
# adds symlinks of hello and stack to current build and prints "links added"
symlinkJoin { name = "myexample"; paths = [ pkgs.hello pkgs.stack ]; postBuild = "echo links added"; }
```
This creates a derivation with a directory structure like the following:
```
/nix/store/sglsr5g079a5235hy29da3mq3hv8sjmm-myexample
|-- bin
|   |-- hello -> /nix/store/qy93dp4a3rqyn2mz63fbxjg228hffwyw-hello-2.10/bin/hello
|   `-- stack -> /nix/store/6lzdpxshx78281vy056lbk553ijsdr44-stack-2.1.3.1/bin/stack
`-- share
    |-- bash-completion
    |   `-- completions
    |       `-- stack -> /nix/store/6lzdpxshx78281vy056lbk553ijsdr44-stack-2.1.3.1/share/bash-completion/completions/stack
    |-- fish
    |   `-- vendor_completions.d
    |       `-- stack.fish -> /nix/store/6lzdpxshx78281vy056lbk553ijsdr44-stack-2.1.3.1/share/fish/vendor_completions.d/stack.fish
...
```

## `writeReferencesToFile` {#trivial-builder-writeReferencesToFile}

Writes the closure of transitive dependencies to a file.

This produces the equivalent of `nix-store -q --requisites`.

For example,

```nix
writeReferencesToFile (writeScriptBin "hi" ''${hello}/bin/hello'')
```

produces an output path `/nix/store/<hash>-runtime-deps` containing

```nix
/nix/store/<hash>-hello-2.10
/nix/store/<hash>-hi
/nix/store/<hash>-libidn2-2.3.0
/nix/store/<hash>-libunistring-0.9.10
/nix/store/<hash>-glibc-2.32-40
```

You can see that this includes `hi`, the original input path,
`hello`, which is a direct reference, but also
the other paths that are indirectly required to run `hello`.

## `writeDirectReferencesToFile` {#trivial-builder-writeDirectReferencesToFile}

Writes the set of references to the output file, that is, their immediate dependencies.

This produces the equivalent of `nix-store -q --references`.

For example,

```nix
writeDirectReferencesToFile (writeScriptBin "hi" ''${hello}/bin/hello'')
```

produces an output path `/nix/store/<hash>-runtime-references` containing

```nix
/nix/store/<hash>-hello-2.10
```

but none of `hello`'s dependencies because those are not referenced directly
by `hi`'s output.