nixpkgs/doc/functions/generators.xml

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<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
xml:id="sec-generators">
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<title>Generators</title>
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<para>
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Generators are functions that create file formats from nix data structures, e.g. for configuration files. There are generators available for: <literal>INI</literal>, <literal>JSON</literal> and <literal>YAML</literal>
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</para>
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<para>
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All generators follow a similar call interface: <code>generatorName configFunctions data</code>, where <literal>configFunctions</literal> is an attrset of user-defined functions that format nested parts of the content. They each have common defaults, so often they do not need to be set manually. An example is <code>mkSectionName ? (name: libStr.escape [ "[" "]" ] name)</code> from the <literal>INI</literal> generator. It receives the name of a section and sanitizes it. The default <literal>mkSectionName</literal> escapes <literal>[</literal> and <literal>]</literal> with a backslash.
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</para>
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<para>
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Generators can be fine-tuned to produce exactly the file format required by your application/service. One example is an INI-file format which uses <literal>: </literal> as separator, the strings <literal>"yes"</literal>/<literal>"no"</literal> as boolean values and requires all string values to be quoted:
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</para>
<programlisting>
with lib;
let
customToINI = generators.toINI {
# specifies how to format a key/value pair
mkKeyValue = generators.mkKeyValueDefault {
# specifies the generated string for a subset of nix values
mkValueString = v:
if v == true then ''"yes"''
else if v == false then ''"no"''
else if isString v then ''"${v}"''
# and delegats all other values to the default generator
else generators.mkValueStringDefault {} v;
} ":";
};
# the INI file can now be given as plain old nix values
in customToINI {
main = {
pushinfo = true;
autopush = false;
host = "localhost";
port = 42;
};
mergetool = {
merge = "diff3";
};
}
</programlisting>
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<para>
This will produce the following INI file as nix string:
</para>
<programlisting>
[main]
autopush:"no"
host:"localhost"
port:42
pushinfo:"yes"
str\:ange:"very::strange"
[mergetool]
merge:"diff3"
</programlisting>
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<note>
<para>
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Nix store paths can be converted to strings by enclosing a derivation attribute like so: <code>"${drv}"</code>.
</para>
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</note>
<para>
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Detailed documentation for each generator can be found in <literal>lib/generators.nix</literal>.
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</para>
</section>