Noob Building Derivation

youraveragenixuser · December 10, 2023, 1:03pm

so i wanted to learn nix flakes but then i learned that nix derivations is the core of nix os and started learning it . i went through the nix os basic tutorials and also the nix pills to learn as much as i can about nix derivations.

i built the first derivation of icat from the nix documentation and after that i want to build a software of swi prolog derivation so i wrote the derivation in swipl.nix file llike following

{lib,
  stdenv,
  fetchzip,
  cmake,
  ninja,
  zlib,
  libarchive
}:

stdenv.mkDerivation {
  name = "swipl";

  src = fetchzip {
    url = "https://www.swi-prolog.org/download/stable/src/swipl-9.0.4.tar.gz";
    sha256 = "sha256-xsh2gJCpQiAbhjs6ZV9Zra8nXxaexaFrFilMvZBMjF4=" ;
  };
  nativeBuildInputs = [cmake ninja zlib];
  cmakeFlags = [
    "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$out -G Ninja"
  ];
  buildPhase = ''
   cmake
   ninja
'';
  installPhase = ''
   ninja install
'';
}

i am getting an error when building this deravation it goes something like this

-- Could NOT find Qt5Widgets (missing: Qt5Widgets_DIR)
-- Could NOT find X11 (missing: X11_X11_INCLUDE_PATH X11_X11_LIB) 
-- Could NOT find Libedit (missing: LIBEDIT_LIBRARIES LIBEDIT_INCLUDE_DIR) 
-- Could NOT find Curses (missing: CURSES_LIBRARY CURSES_INCLUDE_PATH) 
-- Could NOT find Readline (missing: Readline_INCLUDE_DIR Readline_LIBRARY) 
-- Finding default package generator
-- Found both apt and dnf.  Setting DEB generator
-- Setup for packaging with DEB
-- Configuring done (13.7s)
-- Generating done (0.1s)
CMake Warning:
  Manually-specified variables were not used by the project:

    CMAKE_EXPORT_NO_PACKAGE_REGISTRY
    CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR
    CMAKE_INSTALL_DOCDIR
    CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR
    CMAKE_INSTALL_INFODIR
    CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR
    CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBEXECDIR
    CMAKE_INSTALL_LOCALEDIR
    CMAKE_INSTALL_MANDIR
    CMAKE_INSTALL_OLDINCLUDEDIR
    CMAKE_INSTALL_SBINDIR
    CMAKE_POLICY_DEFAULT_CMP0025


-- Build files have been written to: /build/source/build
cmake: enabled parallel building
cmake: enabled parallel installing
building
ninja: error: 'man/ssl', needed by 'man/lib/prologpack.tex', missing and no known rule to make it
error: builder for '/nix/store/qfwzwpxnmhswczbwn5md2y2pxa1lpfrh-swipl.drv' failed with exit code 1;
       last 10 log lines:
       >     CMAKE_INSTALL_OLDINCLUDEDIR
       >     CMAKE_INSTALL_SBINDIR
       >     CMAKE_POLICY_DEFAULT_CMP0025
       >
       > 
       > -- Build files have been written to: /build/source/build
       > cmake: enabled parallel building
       > cmake: enabled parallel installing
       > building
       > ninja: error: 'man/ssl', needed by 'man/lib/prologpack.tex', missing and no known rule to make it
       For full logs, run 'nix log /nix/store/qfwzwpxnmhswczbwn5md2y2pxa1lpfrh-swipl.drv'.

what do i do now
to build this derivation i am using callpackage in the default.nix file any help would be appreciated.

APCodes · December 10, 2023, 1:10pm

The error would seem to indicate that you are missing libssl. Maybe add openssl to the nativeBuildInputs? But I am just guessing here…

jtojnar · December 10, 2023, 1:30pm

We already have swi-prolog packaged. And yes, it requires openssl:

github.com

NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/552570aa7d4e3fab84e19df726f3a4ef188ba8db/pkgs/development/compilers/swi-prolog/default.nix#L61


      
            fetchSubmodules = true;
          };
          
          
# Add the packInstall path to the swipl pack search path
          postPatch = ''
            echo "user:file_search_path(pack, '$out/lib/swipl/pack')." >> boot/init.pl
          '';
          
          
nativeBuildInputs = [ cmake pkg-config ];
          
          
buildInputs = [ gmp readline openssl
            libarchive libyaml db pcre2 libedit libossp_uuid libxcrypt
            zlib ]
          ++ lib.optionals (withGui && !stdenv.isDarwin) [ libXpm libX11 libXext libXft libXinerama libjpeg ]
          ++ extraLibraries
          ++ lib.optional stdenv.isDarwin Security;
          
          
hardeningDisable = [ "format" ];
          
          
cmakeFlags = [ "-DSWIPL_INSTALL_IN_LIB=ON" ];

Note that cmake is already executed as a part of configurePhase (automatically added when you add cmake to nativeBuildInputs):

github.com

NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/552570aa7d4e3fab84e19df726f3a4ef188ba8db/pkgs/by-name/cm/cmake/setup-hook.sh#L15


      
          fixCmakeFiles() {
              # Replace occurences of /usr and /opt by /var/empty.
              echo "fixing cmake files..."
              find "$1" \( -type f -name "*.cmake" -o -name "*.cmake.in" -o -name CMakeLists.txt \) -print |
                  while read fn; do
                      sed -e 's^/usr\([ /]\|$\)^/var/empty\1^g' -e 's^/opt\([ /]\|$\)^/var/empty\1^g' < "$fn" > "$fn.tmp"
                      mv "$fn.tmp" "$fn"
                  done
          }
          
          
cmakeConfigurePhase() {
              runHook preConfigure
          
          
    # default to CMake defaults if unset
              : ${cmakeBuildDir:=build}
          
          
    export CTEST_OUTPUT_ON_FAILURE=1
              if [ -n "${enableParallelChecking-1}" ]; then
                  export CTEST_PARALLEL_LEVEL=$NIX_BUILD_CORES
              fi

Similarly, ninja will already handle the default buildPhase and installPhase:

github.com

NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/552570aa7d4e3fab84e19df726f3a4ef188ba8db/pkgs/development/tools/build-managers/ninja/setup-hook.sh#L1


      
          ninjaBuildPhase() {
              runHook preBuild
          
          
    local buildCores=1
          
          
    # Parallel building is enabled by default.
              if [ "${enableParallelBuilding-1}" ]; then
                  buildCores="$NIX_BUILD_CORES"
              fi
          
          
    local flagsArray=(

Runtime dependencies like zlib should go to buildInputs, nativeBuildInputs is mainly for software that should run on the build platform (e.g. cmake).

youraveragenixuser · December 10, 2023, 1:59pm

yes we already have the swi prolog packaged but i am trying to use swi-prolog with emacs . so in emacs there is support for prolog. so i wanted to use the sweeprolog package for emacs but the swi prolog that i use from nix store does not have the sweep.h header file in the package to communicate with the sweeprolog package. to avoid this issue i need to build swi prolog from source thats why i cant use the already packaged swiprolog .