Nix Demo

# Nix Language Demo

We are going to demo the Nix language using the REPL. Fire up the nix-repl for interactive Nix commands.

    $ nix repl

Some basic syntax and types.

    > 1 + 2
    3
    > true || false
    true
    > if 3 < 4 then "aa" else "bb"
    "a"

There is no floating-point type in Nix.

    > builtins.typeOf 1
    "int"
    > builtins.typeOf { a = 1; }
    "set"
    > { a = 1; b = 2; }.b
    2

Nix has recursive sets.

    > rec { a = 2; b = a; }

Nix has a primitive type for paths.

    > ./hello_world.txt
    /home/wd15/git/nix-presentation/hello_world.txt
    > builtins.typeOf /bin/which
    "path"

Nix is dynamically typed not statically typed (like Haskell). Nix is
strongly typed (not weakly typed like Javascript).

However, Nix is a purely functional language.

    > f = x: x * x
    > f 2
    4
    > (x: y: x + y) 2 3
    5

Functions are first class citizens and you get currying for free. Nix functions only take one argument.

    > g = x: y: x / y
    > h = g 9
    > h 3
    3

Nix functions are automatically curried (like in Haskell).

    > /9
    /9

is a path

Put nix expression in a file

    $ more add.nix
    3 + 1
    > a = import ./add.nix
    > a
    4

Nix is lazy.

    > { a = 1 / 0; }
    { a = error: division by zero, at (string):1:6
    > { a = 1 / 0; b = 2; }.b
    2

Nix is pure and lazy. No loops, but uses recursion for looping. We
don't have time to get into this now.

## Impurity in Nix.

Read from a file

    > data = builtins.readFile ./hello_world.txt
    > data
    "Hello World!\n"

Write to a file

    > builtins.toFile "foo.txt" data
    "/nix/store/mm4fq57cw5gkjgn1c2yysgrq6cd1w6z2-foo.txt"

You can't write to anywhere other than the Nix Store where state
cannot be overwritten.

    > builtins.toFile "foo.txt" (data + "blah")
    "/nix/store/la07gyzhm57f1wxz7v3ypb4gyhnaglaj-foo.txt"

It writes it to a different file.

# Nix at the command line

Start off by making a new profile

    $ nix-env -S $NIX_USER_PROFILE_DIR/demo

What does this do?

    $ ls -altr ~/.nix-profile

This is the equivalent of a new environment with Conda.

    $ nix-env --list-generations

We have no packages installed in this environment. No iterations. Every time we install
something with Nix we get a new iteration of a profile.

    $ nix-env -i hello
    installing ‘hello-2.10’
    ...
    $ hello
    Hello, world!
    $ echo $PATH

How to find the path of what we've installed. Nix uses symlinks to segregate packages, profiles and environments.

    $ which hello
    $ find `which hello` -exec realpath {} +
    $ ls -al /home/wd15/.nix-profile
    $ ls -al /home/wd15/.nix-profile/
    $ ls -al /home/wd15/.nix-profile/bin

To check what we have installed.

    $ nix-env -q
    hello-2.10

To check the generations.

    $ nix-env --list-generations
    1   2018-08-02 17:23:38   (current)

Let's install something else

    $ nix-env -i python
    $ nix-env --list-generations
       1   2018-08-15 10:46:38
       2   2018-08-15 10:47:22   (current)
    $ nix-env -q
    $ which python
    $ ls -al /home/wd15/.nix-profile/bin

Every time we do a new action we get a new environment. Let's install numpy

    $ nix-env -qaP | grep numpy
    ...
    $ nix-env -i python2.7-numpy-1.14.1
    installing ‘python2.7-numpy-1.14.1’
    ...
    $ nix-env -q
    hello-2.10
    python2.7
    python2.7-numpy-1.14.3
    $ nix-env --list-generations
       1   2018-08-02 17:23:38
       2   2018-08-02 17:39:28   (current)
       3   ...
    $ python -c "import numpy"


We have Python but we can't import numpy. Numpy is only installed as a
library. It is not in the Python site-packages directory. Nix installs
Numpy as a regular library not a Python library so it is not accesible
from Python. To use both Numpy, we need to use `nix-shell`.

    $ nix-shell --pure -p python27 -p python27Packages.numpy

Try using it

    $ python -c "import numpy"
    '1.14.3'

the links are set up using `PYTHONPATH`

    $ echo $PYTHONPATH
    $ exit

Let's install something else.

    $ nix-env -i git
    $ nix-env --list-generations
       1   2018-08-02 17:23:38
       2   2018-08-02 17:39:28
       3   ...
       4   2018-08-06 15:19:52   (current)
    $ nix-env -G 1
    $ nix-env -q
    $ nix-env -G 4
    $ nix-env -q

# Building Packages

We have a small script that we'd like to install.

    $ more my-hello

I've also created a build script

    $ more build.sh

First, load all of the nixpkgs

    > :l <nixpkgs>

Then we create something called a "derivation". A "derivation" is a method to generate a new item in the store from other items already in the store.

    > d = builtins.derivation { name = "my-hello"; builder = "${bash}/bin/bash"; args = [ ./build.sh ]; src = ./my-hello; system = builtins.currentSystem; coreutils = coreutils; blah = ./blah; }

    > d
    «derivation /nix/store/fa1vwhhlpwjw2hb4lmv7mz8800w9dk52-my-hello.drv»

    > :b d

All the variables that are passed into the build.sh are only available
from Nix.

    $ cat /nix/store/fa1vwhhlpwjw2hb4lmv7mz8800w9dk52-my-hello.drv

    $ /nix/store/sbqk5hgacg3vm1p52mkk431k1l2q1v8f-my_hello/bin/my-hello

This expression can be written to a Nix script.

    $ more default.nix

Nix build is basically two steps.

    $ nix-instantiate default.nix
    /nix/store/wvmri7vj7ff0rvn0k5gs7nfcg6f8l2d0-my_hello.drv
    $ # Modify build.sh
    $ nix-instantiate default.nix
    /nix/store/wvmri7vj7ff0rvn0k5gs7nfcg6f8l2d0-my_hello.drv
    $ nix-store --realize /nix/store/wvmri7vj7ff0rvn0k5gs7nfcg6f8l2d0-my_hello.drv

This can also be installed in the current environment.

    $ nix-env -if default.nix
    $ my-hello

nix-store -q --graph $(nix-store --realise /nix/store/...-python3.6-pandas-0.22.0.drv) | dot -Tpng

$ pypi2nix -V "3.6" -r requirements.txt
$ nix-shell --pure requirements.nix

{ nixpkgs, pypkgs }:
pypkgs.buildPythonPackage rec {
  pname = "scipy";
  version = "0.19.1";
  src = pypkgs.fetchPypi {
    inherit pname version;
    sha256 = "1rl411bvla6q7qfdb47fpdnyjhfgzl6smpha33n9ar1klykjr6m1";
  };
  buildInputs = [
    pypkgs.numpy
    nixpkgs.pkgs.gcc
    nixpkgs.pkgs.gfortran
  ];
  ignoreCollisions=true;
  catchConflicts=false;
  doCheck = false;
}

{ nixpkgs, pypkgs, pysparse, preshellhook }:
let
  gmsh = import ./gmsh.nix { inherit nixpkgs; };
  skfmm = import ./skfmm.nix { inherit pypkgs; };
in
  pypkgs.buildPythonPackage rec {
     pname = "fipy";
     version = "3.1.3.dev";
     env = nixpkgs.buildEnv { name=pname; paths=buildInputs; };
     buildInputs = [
       pypkgs.pip
       pypkgs.python
       pypkgs.numpy
       pypkgs.scipy
       gmsh
       skfmm
       pysparse
       pypkgs.matplotlib
       pypkgs.tkinter
     ];
     src=./..;
     doCheck=false;
     preShellHook = preshellhook version;
     prePatch = preshellhook version;
     meta = {
       homepage = "https://www.ctcms.nist.gov/fipy/";
       description = "A Finite Volume PDE Solver Using Python";
       version = version;
       license = nixpkgs.stdenv.lib.licenses.free;
     };
     catchConflicts=false;
     postShellHook = ''
       SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=$(date +%s)
       export PYTHONUSERBASE=$PWD/.local
       export USER_SITE=`python -c "import site; print(site.USER_SITE)"`
       export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:$USER_SITE
       export PATH=$PATH:$PYTHONUSERBASE/bin
       #pip install --user package
     '';
  }

{ nixpkgs ? import ./nixpkgs_version.nix }:
let
  pypkgs = nixpkgs.python27Packages;
  pysparse = import ./pysparse.nix { inherit nixpkgs pypkgs; };
  preshellhook = _: '' '';
in
  import ./build.nix { inherit nixpkgs pypkgs pysparse preshellhook; }

{ nixpkgs ? import ./nixpkgs_version.nix }:
let
  pypkgs = nixpkgs.python36Packages;
  pysparse = null;
  preshellhook = version: ''
    2to3 --write . &> /dev/null;
    2to3 --write --doctests_only . &> /dev/null;
    sed -i 's/version = getVersion()/version="${version}"/' setup.py
  '';
in
  import ./build.nix { inherit nixpkgs pypkgs pysparse preshellhook; }

## After running nix-shell
##
## $ find . -type f -name '*.bak' -delete
## $ git checkout .
##
## to return FiPy back to Python 2.

{ nixpkgs }:
let
  pkgs = nixpkgs.pkgs;
  jekyll_env = nixpkgs.bundlerEnv rec {
    name = "jekyll_env";
    ruby = nixpkgs.ruby;
    gemfile = ./Gemfile;
    lockfile = ./Gemfile.lock;
    gemset = ./gemset.nix;
  };
  pypkgs = nixpkgs.python36Packages;
  pypi2nix = import ./requirements.nix { inherit pkgs; };
  nbval = import ./nbval.nix { inherit pkgs; };
  node = import ./node.nix { inherit pkgs; };
in
  [
    jekyll_env
    nbval
    pkgs.python36
    pypkgs.pillow
    pypkgs.numpy
    pypkgs.toolz
    pypkgs.matplotlib
    pypkgs.flake8
    pypkgs.pylint
    pypi2nix.packages."pykwalify"
    pypi2nix.packages."vega"
    pypi2nix.packages."progressbar2"
    python36Packages.pytest
    pkgs.nodejs
    node.mocha
    node.coffeelint
    node."assert"
    node.surge
    node.execjs
  ]

---
language: nix
env:
  global:
    - STORE=$HOME/nix-store
  matrix:
    - PYMKS_USE_FFTW=0
    - PYMKS_USE_FFTW=1
cache:
  directories:
    - $STORE
before_install:
  - sudo mkdir -p /etc/nix
  - echo "binary-caches = https://cache.nixos.org/ file://$STORE" | sudo tee -a /etc/nix/nix.conf > /dev/null
  - echo 'require-sigs = false' | sudo tee -a /etc/nix/nix.conf > /dev/null
before_cache:
  - mkdir -p $STORE
  - nix copy --to file://$STORE -f default.nix buildInputs
install:
  - nix-build -A buildInputs
script:
  - nix-shell --pure --command "export PYMKS_USE_FFTW=$PYMKS_USE_FFTW; py.test"
  - nix-shell --pure --command "pylint --rcfile=.pylintrc pymks/fmks pymks/fmks/tests"
  - nix-shell --pure --command "flake8 pymks/fmks pymkgs/fmks/tests"
  - nix-shell --pure --command "black --check pymks/fmks pymks/fmks/tests"