1e910209ae
When I designed `mkShell`, I didn't have a good idea of what the output should look like and so decided to make the build fail. In practice, this causes quite a bit of confusion and complications because now the shell cannot be part of a normal package set without failing the CI as well. This commit changes that build phase to record all the build inputs in a file. That way it becomes possible to build it, makes sure that all the build inputs get built as well, and also can be used as a GC root. (by applying the same trick as #95536). The documentation has also been improved to better describe what mkShell does and how to use it.
38 lines
1.1 KiB
Markdown
38 lines
1.1 KiB
Markdown
# pkgs.mkShell {#sec-pkgs-mkShell}
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`pkgs.mkShell` is a specialized `stdenv.mkDerivation` that removes some
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repetition when using it with `nix-shell` (or `nix develop`).
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## Usage {#sec-pkgs-mkShell-usage}
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Here is a common usage example:
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```nix
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{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:
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pkgs.mkShell {
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packages = [ pkgs.gnumake ];
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inputsFrom = [ pkgs.hello pkgs.gnutar ];
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shellHook = ''
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export DEBUG=1
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'';
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}
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```
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## Attributes
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* `name` (default: `nix-shell`). Set the name of the derivation.
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* `packages` (default: `[]`). Add executable packages to the `nix-shell` environment.
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* `inputsFrom` (default: `[]`). Add build dependencies of the listed derivations to the `nix-shell` environment.
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* `shellHook` (default: `""`). Bash statements that are executed by `nix-shell`.
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... all the attributes of `stdenv.mkDerivation`.
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## Building the shell
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This derivation output will contain a text file that contains a reference to
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all the build inputs. This is useful in CI where we want to make sure that
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every derivation, and its dependencies, build properly. Or when creating a GC
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root so that the build dependencies don't get garbage-collected.
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