genodepkgs/README.md

```
       ______                     __           __
      / ____/__  ____  ____  ____/ /__  ____  / / ____ ______
     / / __/ _ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __  / _ \/ __ \/ / / __ `/ ___/
    / /_/ /  __/ / / / /_/ / /_/ /  __/ /_/ / , \ /_/ (__  )
    \____/\___/_/ /_/\____/\__,_/\___/ .___/_/ \_\_, /____/
                                    /_/        /____/
```

[Genodepkgs](https://git.sr.ht/~ehmry/genodepkgs) is nexus of
[Nix](https://nixos.org/nix/) expressions related to the
[Genode OS framework](https://genode.org).

**IRC:** irc://oftc.net/#genodepkgs

**Mailing List:** https://lists.sr.ht/~ehmry/genodepkgs

# Contributing

At the moment every user needs to also act as distro developer, designing how
packaging works needs to be done before packages can be submitted at will.
Patches can be submitted and issues reported via the
[mailing list](https://lists.sr.ht/~ehmry/genodepkgs). The mailing list is the
minimum viable mechanism for community development, and may be replaced later.

The worksites at the moment are:

 - Generation of documentation on internal types and functions. By generating a
   comprehensive single document early, we should be able to refactor and prune
   the internals faster.

 - Port tests to the NixOS test harness.

 - Patching standard Nixpkgs packages via an overlay. Workflow and tooling
   needs to be explored for building emulated UNIX environments.

 - LLVM testing and upstreaming patches.

 - Formalizing Dhall configuration types.

 - Configuration validation via a service routing prover.


# Packaging

Packaging is done using standard Nixpkgs methods, a `stdenv` is available for
cross-compilation. See [Solo5](./packages/solo5/default.nix) as an example.


# System description format

The high-level interface to system building are boot descriptions. These Dhall
documents describe the configuration of an [Init](https://genode.org/documentation/genode-foundations/19.05/system_configuration/The_init_component.html)
instance and a store of ROM (Read-Only Memory) modules. These description can be
used to build firmware-like binary images or merged and nested within other
descriptions. In theory these descriptions can arrange file-systems, but those
functions are missing.

The description schema is documented as code:
https://git.sr.ht/~ehmry/dhall-genode/tree/master/Boot/package.dhall


# Nix Flakes

This repository is structured as a Nix flake, which is an experimental extension
of Nix tooling. The flakes capable Nix frontend is available from Nixpkgs as
`nixFlakes`.

## Switching to flakes

All users regardless of distro must add the following to
*~/.config/nix/nix.conf* to enable flakes:

```
experimental-features = nix-command flakes ca-references
```

NixOS users may switch to flakes using the following configuration:

```nix
{ pkgs, ... }:
{
  nix.package = pkgs.nixFlakes;

  # The following enables the use of a binary cache
  nix.binaryCaches = [ "https://cache.server7.hq.c3d2.de" ];
  nix.binaryCachePublicKeys = [
    "cache.server7.hq.c3d2.de:x8JLRG26zRZ8ysYZLEkPxuAYuK1VSJi/aMAEIs2Lv+U="
  ];
}
```

Non-NixOS users may install flakes using the following shell commands:

```sh
$ curl https://nixos.org/nix/install | sh
$ nix-env -iA nixpkgs.nixFlakes
```

Add will want to add this to their */etc/nix/nix.conf* file:

```
substituters = https://cache.nixos.org/ https://cache.server7.hq.c3d2.de/
trusted-public-keys = cache.nixos.org-1:6NCHdD59X431o0gWypbMrAURkbJ16ZPMQFGspcDShjY= cache.server7.hq.c3d2.de:x8JLRG26zRZ8ysYZLEkPxuAYuK1VSJi/aMAEIs2Lv+U=
```


## Building from flakes

### As a user

```sh
$ nix flake add genodepkgs git+https://git.sr.ht/~ehmry/genodepkgs
$ nix build genodepkgs#checks.x86_64-linux-x86_64-genode.nova-pci

# View the log if the result is already cached:
$ nix log genodepkgs#checks.x86_64-linux-x86_64-genode.nova-pci
```

### As a hacker

```sh
$ git clone https://git.sr.ht/~ehmry/genodepkgs
$ cd genodepkgs
$ nix build .#checks.x86_64-linux-x86_64-genode.nova-pci

# View the log if the result is already cached:
$ nix log .#checks.x86_64-linux-x86_64-genode.nova-pci
```

# Toolchain

The Genode Labs toolchain is available here only for Linux and in binary form.
However, an experimental LLVM cross-compiler is provided here. Bootstrapping GCC
has not been practical due to its recursive autotools build system.

# Building

Bootstrapping the build tooling can take several hours on a laptop, therefore it
is recommended enable the binary caches and to farm massive rebuilds to large
multicore machines. The Nix flake is prepared for continuous builds with a
[Hydra](https://nixos.org/hydra/), but only the experimental flakes capable
Hydra.

# Testing

Tests are performed using QEMU and a test driver similiar to what is used by
NixOS (ours has not been ported to Python however). The test artifacts are built
as follows:

```shell
# Build a test log from a QEMU test run:
nix build .#checks.x86_64-linux-x86_64-genode.nova-solo5-net

# Build an ISO of the test run:
nix build .#checks.x86_64-linux-x86_64-genode.nova-solo5-net.iso

# Build the [SOTEST](https://opensource.sotest.io/) artifacts of a test run.
nix build .#checks.x86_64-linux-x86_64-genode.nova-solo5-net.sotest
```

# Tips and tricks

## Render a Dhall Init configuration to XML

```shell
echo ./config.dhall | nix app genodepkgs#render-init > config.xml
```

## Build a Genode Labs Make target

```shell
nix app genodepkgs#genode-make "test/bomb"
```

## Enter an environment compatible with the Genode Labs build scripts

```shell
nix dev-shell genodepkgs
cd $GENODE_DIR
make -C build/x86_64 run/bomb
```

# Glossary

Some of terms that follow are necessary for understanding packaging methodology,
Others are simply introduced as an aid to the reader:

 - *Upstream* - repositories packaged by expressions in this repository

 - *Downstream* - repositories depending on this repository

 - *OS ABI* - The binary interface to an operating system. In the case of Genode
   this does not include kernel interfaces, as system calls are abstracted via
   dynamically linked procedures.

 - `localSystem` - the CPU and OS ABI pair used to evaluate and compile
   packages. Genode cannot natively instantiate Nix derivations, therefore it
   cannot be a `localSystem` ABI.

 - `crossSystem` - the target CPU and OS ABI pair for packages. In the common
   case the ABI will be Genode. In the case of tooling it may be the same as
   `localSystem`. For software that runs bare-metal the CPU is significant but
   ABI is irrelevant.

 - `buildPlatform` - equivalent to `localSystem`.

 - `hostPlatform` - the platform on which a package will execute.

 - `targetPlatform` - the platform for which a package will produce artifacts.
   This is only significant for software such as compilers. The respective
   build, host, and target platform of a compiler that was built on a Solaris,
   executes on Genode, and produces only Haiku binaries would be Solaris,
   Genode, and Haiku.

 - *Flake* - a code repository containing a `flake.nix` file describing
   dependency repositories. The evaluation of flakes may only form ascyclic
   graphs. Repositories packaged here may themselves contain a `flake.nix`
   file that refers to this repository, but these repositories cannot be inputs
   to the Genodepkgs flake.

 - *Genode core* - Genode component of highest privilege. The core is located
   conceptually at the bottom and root of the component tree. Core might be
   directly above the kernel, or acting as the kernel. The role of core is a
   subset of the role of the kernel in a monolithic system.

 - *Lower* - lowering a subsystem is moving it closer to the Genode core
   and increasing privilege.

 - *Raise* - raising a subsystem is moving it further away from the Genode core
   and decreasing privilege.

 - *Package* - *undefined*

# Legal

This repository is for trivial packaging algebra and metadata that exists only
for the sake of richer and more meaningful code in external repositories. All
works committed to this repository, unless otherwise noted, shall be implicitly
licensed under a [CC0 1.0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed)
public domain dedication.

![CC0 PUBLIC DOMAIN](.CC0-1.0.png)