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arXiv:1709.00833cs.PL

Code Staging in GNU Guix

Ludovic Courtès

Abstract

GNU Guix is a " functional " package manager that builds upon earlier work on Nix. Guix implements high-level abstractions such as packages and operating system services as domain-specic languages (DSLs) embedded in Scheme. It also implements build actions and operating system orchestration in Scheme. This leads to a multi-tier programming environment where embedded code snippets are staged for eventual execution. This paper presents G-expressions or " gexps ", the staging mechanism we devised for Guix. We explain our journey from traditional Lisp S-expressions to G-expressions, which augment the former with contextual information and ensure hygienic code staging. We discuss the implementation of gexps and report on our experience using them in a variety of operating system use cases-from package build processes to system services. Gexps provide a novel way to cover many aspects of OS connguration in a single, multi-tier language, while facilitating code reuse and code sharing .

arXiv comments
16th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Generative Programming: Concepts and Experiences (GPCE'17), Oct 2017, Vancouver, Canada
Journal reference
DOI
doi:10.1145/3136040.3136045
Subjects
cs.PLProgramming Languages cs.SESoftware Engineering

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Linked by 2 identifiable commenters in 2 comments across 2 threads, from Oct 2017 to Jan 2019.

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Discussed in comments2 threads

  1. Guix: An advanced operating system 1 comment

    • I don't think that would be enough. At the end of the article I linked the paper "Code staging in GNU Guix" (https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.00833) which explains why 2 stages of code execution are so central in Guix. In practice, this means that a Turing-complete language (Scheme)…

      AmbrevarView on HNParent context

  2. What is Nix and why you should try it 1 comment

    • But even still you are mixing languages, so the problem remains. The issue is not that Nix uses Bash, but that Nix uses different languages for the host-side and build-side. AFAIK people aren't writing the build-side code in the Nix language, and I'm not sure if it even has the…

      davexunitView on HNParent context

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