summary refs log tree commit diff
path: root/lib/fixed-points.nix
blob: a63f349b713d0cd50815ac03ff3e9293e2679b43 (plain) (blame)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
{ lib, ... }:
rec {
  /*
    Compute the fixed point of the given function `f`, which is usually an
    attribute set that expects its final, non-recursive representation as an
    argument:

    ```
    f = self: { foo = "foo"; bar = "bar"; foobar = self.foo + self.bar; }
    ```

    Nix evaluates this recursion until all references to `self` have been
    resolved. At that point, the final result is returned and `f x = x` holds:

    ```
    nix-repl> fix f
    { bar = "bar"; foo = "foo"; foobar = "foobar"; }
    ```

    Type: fix :: (a -> a) -> a

    See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-point_combinator for further
    details.
  */
  fix = f: let x = f x; in x;

  /*
    A variant of `fix` that records the original recursive attribute set in the
    result, in an attribute named `__unfix__`.

    This is useful in combination with the `extends` function to
    implement deep overriding.
  */
  fix' = f: let x = f x // { __unfix__ = f; }; in x;

  /*
    Return the fixpoint that `f` converges to when called iteratively, starting
    with the input `x`.

    ```
    nix-repl> converge (x: x / 2) 16
    0
    ```

    Type: (a -> a) -> a -> a
  */
  converge = f: x:
    let
      x' = f x;
    in
      if x' == x
      then x
      else converge f x';

  /*
    Modify the contents of an explicitly recursive attribute set in a way that
    honors `self`-references. This is accomplished with a function

    ```nix
    g = self: super: { foo = super.foo + " + "; }
    ```

    that has access to the unmodified input (`super`) as well as the final
    non-recursive representation of the attribute set (`self`). `extends`
    differs from the native `//` operator insofar as that it's applied *before*
    references to `self` are resolved:

    ```
    nix-repl> fix (extends g f)
    { bar = "bar"; foo = "foo + "; foobar = "foo + bar"; }
    ```

    The name of the function is inspired by object-oriented inheritance, i.e.
    think of it as an infix operator `g extends f` that mimics the syntax from
    Java. It may seem counter-intuitive to have the "base class" as the second
    argument, but it's nice this way if several uses of `extends` are cascaded.

    To get a better understanding how `extends` turns a function with a fix
    point (the package set we start with) into a new function with a different fix
    point (the desired packages set) lets just see, how `extends g f`
    unfolds with `g` and `f` defined above:

    ```
    extends g f = self: let super = f self; in super // g self super;
                = self: let super = { foo = "foo"; bar = "bar"; foobar = self.foo + self.bar; }; in super // g self super
                = self: { foo = "foo"; bar = "bar"; foobar = self.foo + self.bar; } // g self { foo = "foo"; bar = "bar"; foobar = self.foo + self.bar; }
                = self: { foo = "foo"; bar = "bar"; foobar = self.foo + self.bar; } // { foo = "foo" + " + "; }
                = self: { foo = "foo + "; bar = "bar"; foobar = self.foo + self.bar; }
    ```
  */
  extends = f: rattrs: self: let super = rattrs self; in super // f self super;

  /*
    Compose two extending functions of the type expected by 'extends'
    into one where changes made in the first are available in the
    'super' of the second
  */
  composeExtensions =
    f: g: final: prev:
      let fApplied = f final prev;
          prev' = prev // fApplied;
      in fApplied // g final prev';

  /*
    Compose several extending functions of the type expected by 'extends' into
    one where changes made in preceding functions are made available to
    subsequent ones.

    ```
    composeManyExtensions : [packageSet -> packageSet -> packageSet] -> packageSet -> packageSet -> packageSet
                              ^final        ^prev         ^overrides     ^final        ^prev         ^overrides
    ```
  */
  composeManyExtensions =
    lib.foldr (x: y: composeExtensions x y) (final: prev: {});

  /*
    Create an overridable, recursive attribute set. For example:

    ```
    nix-repl> obj = makeExtensible (self: { })

    nix-repl> obj
    { __unfix__ = «lambda»; extend = «lambda»; }

    nix-repl> obj = obj.extend (self: super: { foo = "foo"; })

    nix-repl> obj
    { __unfix__ = «lambda»; extend = «lambda»; foo = "foo"; }

    nix-repl> obj = obj.extend (self: super: { foo = super.foo + " + "; bar = "bar"; foobar = self.foo + self.bar; })

    nix-repl> obj
    { __unfix__ = «lambda»; bar = "bar"; extend = «lambda»; foo = "foo + "; foobar = "foo + bar"; }
    ```
  */
  makeExtensible = makeExtensibleWithCustomName "extend";

  /*
    Same as `makeExtensible` but the name of the extending attribute is
    customized.
  */
  makeExtensibleWithCustomName = extenderName: rattrs:
    fix' (self: (rattrs self) // {
      ${extenderName} = f: makeExtensibleWithCustomName extenderName (extends f rattrs);
    });
}