* website/posts/dissecting-guix-1-derivations.md: New blog post.
---
Heya,
Here, I've addressed Ludo's criticisms.
I do still think we should use LOWER-OBJECT rather than ,LOWER most of the time,
but there is now a paragraph noting that it exists.
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+title: Dissecting Guix, Part 1: Derivations
+date: TBC
+author: (
+tags: Dissecting Guix, Functional package management, Programming interfaces,
Scheme API
+---
+To a new user, Guix's functional architecture can seem quite alien, and
possibly
+offputting. With a combination of extensive `#guix`-querying, determined
+manual-reading, and plenty of source-perusing, they may eventually figure out
+how everything fits together by themselves, but this can be frustrating and
+often takes a fairly long time.
+
+However, once you peel back the layers, the "Nix way" is actually rather
+elegant, if perhaps not as simple as the mutable, imperative style implemented
+by the likes of [`dpkg`](https://wiki.debian.org/dpkg) and
+[`pacman`](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/pacman).
+This series of blog posts will cover basic Guix concepts, taking a "ground-up"
+approach by dealing with lower-level concepts first, and hopefully make those
+months of information-gathering unnecessary.
+
+Before we dig in to Guix-specific concepts, we'll need to learn about one
+inherited from [Nix](https://nixos.org), the original functional package
manager
+and the inspiration for Guix; the idea of a
+[_derivation_](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/html_node/Derivations.html)
+and its corresponding _store items_.
+
+These concepts were originally described by Eelco Dolstra, the original author
+of Nix, in their [PhD thesis](https://edolstra.github.io/pubs/phd-thesis.pdf);
+see _§ 2.1 The Nix store_ and _§ 2.4 Store Derivations_.
+
+# Store Items
+
+As you probably know, everything that Guix builds is stored in the _store_,
+which is almost always the `/gnu/store` directory. It's the job of the
+[`guix-daemon`](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Invoking-guix_002ddaemon.html)
+to manage the store and build things. If you run
+[`guix build
PKG`](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Invoking-guix-build.html),
+`PKG` will be built or downloaded from a substitute server if available, and a
+path to an item in the store will be displayed.
+
+```
+$ guix build irssi
+/gnu/store/v5pd69j3hjs1fck4b5p9hd91wc8yf5qx-irssi-1.4.3
+```
+
+This item contains the final result of building [`irssi`](https://irssi.org).
+Let's peek inside:
+
+```
+$ ls $(guix build irssi)
+bin/ etc/ include/ lib/ share/
+$ ls $(guix build irssi)/bin
+irssi*
+```
+
+`irssi` is quite a simple package. What about a more complex one, like
+[`glib`](https://docs.gtk.org/glib)?
+
+```
+$ guix build glib
+/gnu/store/bx8qq76idlmjrlqf1faslsq6zjc6f426-glib-2.73.3-bin
+/gnu/store/j65bhqwr7qq7l77nj0ahmk1f1ilnjr3a-glib-2.73.3-debug
+/gnu/store/3pn4ll6qakgfvfpc4mw89qrrbsgj3jf3-glib-2.73.3-doc
+/gnu/store/dvsk6x7d26nmwsqhnzws4iirb6dhhr1d-glib-2.73.3
+/gnu/store/4c8ycz501n2d0xdi4blahvnbjhd5hpa8-glib-2.73.3-static
+```
+
+`glib` produces five `/gnu/store` items, because it's possible for a package to
+produce multiple
[outputs](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Packages-with-Multiple-Outputs.html).
+Each output can be referred to separately, by prefixing a package's name with
+`:OUTPUT` where supported. For example, this
+[`guix
install`](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Invoking-guix-package.html)
+invocation will add `glib`'s `bin` output to your profile:
+
+```
+$ guix install glib:bin
+```
+
+The default output is `out`, so when you pass `glib` by itself to that command,
+it will actually install `glib:out` to the profile.
+
+`guix build` also provides the `--source` flag, which produces the store item
+corresponding to the given package's downloaded source code.
+
+```
+$ guix build --source irssi
+/gnu/store/cflbi4nbak0v9xbyc43lamzl4a539hhb-irssi-1.4.3.tar.xz
+$ guix build --source glib
+/gnu/store/d22wzjq3xm3q8hwnhbgk2xd3ph7lb6ay-glib-2.73.3.tar.xz
+```
+
+But how does Guix know how to build these store outputs in the first place?
+That's where derivations come in.
+
+# `.drv` Files
+
+You've probably seen these being printed by the Guix program now and again.
+Derivations, represented in the daemon's eyes by `.drv` files, contain
+instructions for building store items. We can retrieve the paths of these
+`.drv` files with the `guix build --derivations` command:
+
+```
+$ guix build --derivations irssi
+/gnu/store/zcgmhac8r4kdj2s6bcvcmhh4k35qvihx-irssi-1.4.3.drv
+```
+
+`guix build` can act
