GNU Guix Reference Manual

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GNU Guix

This document describes GNU Guix version 1.3.0.8543-039c3-dirty, a functional package management tool written for the GNU system.

This manual is also available in Simplified Chinese (see GNU Guix参考手册), French (see Manuel de référence de GNU Guix), German (see Referenzhandbuch zu GNU Guix), Spanish (see Manual de referencia de GNU Guix), and Russian (see Руководство GNU Guix). If you would like to translate it in your native language, consider joining Weblate (see Translating Guix).

• Introduction  What is Guix about?
• Installation  Installing Guix.
• System Installation  Installing the whole operating system.
• Getting Started  Your first steps.
• Package Management  Package installation, upgrade, etc.
• Channels  Customizing the package collection.
• Development  Guix-aided software development.
• Programming Interface  Using Guix in Scheme.
• Utilities  Package management commands.
• System Configuration  Configuring the operating system.
• Home Configuration  Configuring the home environment.
• Documentation  Browsing software user manuals.
• Installing Debugging Files  Feeding the debugger.
• Security Updates  Deploying security fixes quickly.
• Bootstrapping  GNU/Linux built from scratch.
• Porting  Targeting another platform or kernel.
• Contributing  Your help needed!
• Acknowledgments  Thanks!
• GNU Free Documentation License  The license of this manual.
• Concept Index  Concepts.
• Programming Index  Data types, functions, and variables. 


 — The Detailed Node Listing —

Introduction
• Managing Software the Guix Way  What’s special.
• GNU Distribution  The packages and tools. 

Installation
• Binary Installation  Getting Guix running in no time!
• Requirements  Software needed to build and run Guix.
• Running the Test Suite  Testing Guix.
• Setting Up the Daemon  Preparing the build daemon’s environment.
• Invoking guix-daemon  Running the build daemon.
• Application Setup  Application-specific setup.
• Upgrading Guix  Upgrading Guix and its build daemon. 

Setting Up the Daemon
• Build Environment Setup  Preparing the isolated build environment.
• Daemon Offload Setup  Offloading builds to remote machines.
• SELinux Support  Using an SELinux policy for the daemon. 

System Installation
• Limitations  What you can expect.
• Hardware Considerations  Supported hardware.
• USB Stick and DVD Installation  Preparing the installation medium.
• Preparing for Installation  Networking, partitioning, etc.
• Guided Graphical Installation  Easy graphical installation.
• Manual Installation  Manual installation for wizards.
• After System Installation  When installation succeeded.
• Installing Guix in a VM  Guix System playground.
• Building the Installation Image  How this comes to be. 

Manual Installation
• Keyboard Layout and Networking and Partitioning  Initial setup.
• Proceeding with the Installation  Installing. 

Package Management
• Features  How Guix will make your life brighter.
• Invoking guix package  Package installation, removal, etc.
• Substitutes  Downloading pre-built binaries.
• Packages with Multiple Outputs  Single source package, multiple outputs.
• Invoking guix gc  Running the garbage collector.
• Invoking guix pull  Fetching the latest Guix and distribution.
• Invoking guix time-machine  Running an older revision of Guix.
• Inferiors  Interacting with another revision of Guix.
• Invoking guix describe  Display information about your Guix revision.
• Invoking guix archive  Exporting and importing store files. 

Substitutes
• Official Substitute Servers  One particular source of substitutes.
• Substitute Server Authorization  How to enable or disable substitutes.
• Getting Substitutes from Other Servers  Substitute diversity.
• Substitute Authentication  How Guix verifies substitutes.
• Proxy Settings  How to get substitutes via proxy.
• Substitution Failure  What happens when substitution fails.
• On Trusting Binaries  How can you trust that binary blob? 

Channels
• Specifying Additional Channels  Extending the package collection.
• Using a Custom Guix Channel  Using a customized Guix.
• Replicating Guix  Running the exact same Guix.
• Channel Authentication  How Guix verifies what it fetches.
• Channels with Substitutes  Using channels with available substitutes.
• Creating a Channel  How to write your custom channel.
• Package Modules in a Sub-directory  Specifying the channel’s package modules location.
• Declaring Channel Dependencies  How to depend on other channels.
• Specifying Channel Authorizations  Defining channel authors authorizations.
• Primary URL  Distinguishing mirror to original.
• Writing Channel News  Communicating information to channel’s users. 

Development
• Invoking guix shell  Spawning one-off software environments.
• Invoking guix environment  Setting up development environments.
• Invoking guix pack  Creating software bundles.
• The GCC toolchain  Working with languages supported by GCC.
• Invoking guix git authenticate  Authenticating Git repositories. 

Programming Interface
• Package Modules  Packages from the programmer’s viewpoint.
• Defining Packages  Defining new packages.
• Defining Package Variants  Customizing packages.
• Build Systems  Specifying how packages are built.
• Build Phases  Phases of the build process of a package.
• Build Utilities  Helpers for your package definitions and more.
• The Store  Manipulating the package store.
• Derivations  Low-level interface to package derivations.
• The Store Monad  Purely functional interface to the store.
• G-Expressions  Manipulating build expressions.
• Invoking guix repl  Programming Guix in Guile. 

Defining Packages
• package Reference  The package data type.
• origin Reference  The origin data type. 

Utilities
• Invoking guix build  Building packages from the command line.
• Invoking guix edit  Editing package definitions.
• Invoking guix download  Downloading a file and printing its hash.
• Invoking guix hash  Computing the cryptographic hash of a file.
• Invoking guix import  Importing package definitions.
• Invoking guix refresh  Updating package definitions.
• Invoking guix lint  Finding errors in package definitions.
• Invoking guix size  Profiling disk usage.
• Invoking guix graph  Visualizing the graph of packages.
• Invoking guix publish  Sharing substitutes.
• Invoking guix challenge  Challenging substitute servers.
• Invoking guix copy  Copying to and from a remote store.
• Invoking guix container  Process isolation.
• Invoking guix weather  Assessing substitute availability.
• Invoking guix processes  Listing client processes. 

Invoking guix build
• Common Build Options  Build options for most commands.
• Package Transformation Options  Creating variants of packages.
• Additional Build Options  Options specific to ’guix build’.
• Debugging Build Failures  Real life packaging experience. 

System Configuration
• Using the Configuration System  Customizing your GNU system.
• operating-system Reference  Detail of operating-system declarations.
• File Systems  Configuring file system mounts.
• Mapped Devices  Block device extra processing.
• User Accounts  Specifying user accounts.
• Keyboard Layout  How the system interprets key strokes.
• Locales  Language and cultural convention settings.
• Services  Specifying system services.
• Setuid Programs  Programs running with root privileges.
• X.509 Certificates  Authenticating HTTPS servers.
• Name Service Switch  Configuring libc’s name service switch.
• Initial RAM Disk  Linux-Libre bootstrapping.
• Bootloader Configuration  Configuring the boot loader.
• Invoking guix system  Instantiating a system configuration.
• Invoking guix deploy  Deploying a system configuration to a remote host.
• Running Guix in a VM  How to run Guix System in a virtual machine.
• Defining Services  Adding new service definitions. 

Home Environment Configuration
• Invoking guix home  Instantiating a home environment configuration. 

Services
• Base Services  Essential system services.
• Scheduled Job Execution  The mcron service.
• Log Rotation  The rottlog service.
• Networking Services  Network setup, SSH daemon, etc.
• Unattended Upgrades  Automated system upgrades.
• X Window  Graphical display.
• Printing Services  Local and remote printer support.
• Desktop Services  D-Bus and desktop services.
• Sound Services  ALSA and Pulseaudio services.
• Database Services  SQL databases, key-value stores, etc.
• Mail Services  IMAP, POP3, SMTP, and all that.
• Messaging Services  Messaging services.
• Telephony Services  Telephony services.
• Monitoring Services  Monitoring services.
• Kerberos Services  Kerberos services.
• LDAP Services  LDAP services.
• Web Services  Web servers.
• Certificate Services  TLS certificates via Let’s Encrypt.
• DNS Services  DNS daemons.
• VPN Services  VPN daemons.
• Network File System  NFS related services.
• Continuous Integration  Cuirass and Laminar services.
• Power Management Services  Extending battery life.
• Audio Services  The MPD.
• Virtualization Services  Virtualization services.
• Version Control Services  Providing remote access to Git repositories.
• Game Services  Game servers.
• PAM Mount Service  Service to mount volumes when logging in.
• Guix Services  Services relating specifically to Guix.
• Linux Services  Services tied to the Linux kernel.
• Hurd Services  Services specific for a Hurd System.
• Miscellaneous Services  Other services. 

Defining Services
• Service Composition  The model for composing services.
• Service Types and Services  Types and services.
• Service Reference  API reference.
• Shepherd Services  A particular type of service. 

Installing Debugging Files
• Separate Debug Info  Installing ’debug’ outputs.
• Rebuilding Debug Info  Building missing debug info. 

Bootstrapping
• Reduced Binary Seed Bootstrap  A Bootstrap worthy of GNU.
• Preparing to Use the Bootstrap Binaries  Building that what matters most.

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