README-nix.md

Building and Running with Nix

Setup

Installing Nix

If you aren't using Nix yet, install it from the Nix download page.

On Linux (or Windows using WSL), this is typically as follows (on macOS, omit the --daemon):

sh <(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install) --daemon

Another option is the Determinate Nix Installer.

Configuring Nix

Once you installed Nix, you can configure it to use our pre-compiled packages instead of recompiling everything from source, by creating or editing your ~/.config/nix/nix.conf and adding these lines:

substituters = https://cache.nixos.org https://cache.nixos.org/ https://mukn.cachix.org
trusted-public-keys = cache.nixos.org-1:6NCHdD59X431o0gWypbMrAURkbJ16ZPMQFGspcDShjY= mukn.cachix.org-1:ujoZLZMpGNQMeZbLBxmOcO7aj+7E5XSnZxwFpuhhsqs=

Building and Running the Software with Nix

Building the Software

You can build the whole software package with:

nix-build

This will create a package under your /nix/store/ and a symlink to it as ./result.

Running the Software as Built

After building the software as above, you can invoke the binaries directly with commands such as:

./result/bin/elements-cli

You can also install the package in your nix profile with either nix-env -i result (if you use nix-env) or nix profile install result (if you use nix profile).

TODO: In the future, we will also make it work with nix flake, and when the project is stable and launched maybe submit it upstream onto Nixpkgs.

Using a Nix shell for Development

To modify the source code and interactively build with all the dependencies that would be used by Nix, you may enter a nix shell as follows:

nix-shell

You may then configure with the following command:

configurePhase

And build with this one:

buildPhase

Finally, you can run the tests with:

checkPhase

The ./src/ directory will have been added to your PATH so you can run commands simply with:

elements-cli -?