Gathering nix efforts in one repository.
Nixpkgs already has definitions for firefox <https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/246d2848ff657d56fcf2d8596709e8869ce8616a/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/firefox/packages.nix>,
which is built from source, as well as firefox-bin <https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/ba2fe3c9a626a8fb845c786383b8b23ad8355951/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/firefox-bin/default.nix>,
which is the binary Firefox version built by Mozilla.
The firefox-overlay.nix in this repository adds definitions for
some other firefox-bin variants that Mozilla ships:
firefox-nightly-bin, firefox-beta-bin, and
firefox-esr-bin. All are exposed under a latest attribute,
e.g. latest.firefox-nightly-bin.
Unfortunately, these variants do not auto-update, and you may see some annoying pop-ups complaining about this.
Note that all the -bin packages are "unfree" (because of the
Firefox trademark, held by Mozilla), so you will need to set
nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree in order to use them. More info here <https://nixos.wiki/wiki/FAQ#How_can_I_install_a_proprietary_or_unfree_package.3F>_.
NOTE: Nix overlays only works on up-to-date versions of NixOS/nixpkgs, starting from 17.03.
A nixpkgs overlay is provided to contain all of the latest rust releases.
To use the rust overlay run the ./rust-overlay-install.sh command. It will
link the current ./rust-overlay.nix into your ~/.config/nixpkgs/overlays folder.
Once this is done, use nix-env -iA nixpkgs.latest.rustChannels.nightly.rust for
example. Replace the nixpkgs. prefix with nixos. on NixOS.
Example of using in shell.nix:
.. code:: nix
let
moz_overlay = import (builtins.fetchTarball https://github.com/mozilla/nixpkgs-mozilla/archive/master.tar.gz);
nixpkgs = import
nixpkgs.latest.rustChannels.nightly.rust
# to use a specific nighly:
(nixpkgs.rustChannelOf { date = "2018-04-11"; channel = "nightly"; }).rust
# to use the project's rust-toolchain file:
(nixpkgs.rustChannelOf { rustToolchain = ./rust-toolchain; }).rust
];}
This repository contains a minimal flake interface for the various
overlays in this repository. To use it in your own flake, add it as
an input to your flake.nix:
.. code:: nix { inputs.nixpkgs.url = github:NixOS/nixpkgs; inputs.nixpkgs-mozilla.url = github:mozilla/nixpkgs-mozilla;
outputs = { self, nixpkgs, nixpkgs-mozilla }: {
devShell."x86_64-linux" = let
pkgs = import nixpkgs { system = "x86_64-linux"; overlays = [ nixpkgs-mozilla.overlay ]; };
in pkgs.mkShell {
buildInputs = [ pkgs.latest.rustChannels.nightly.rust ];
};
};
}
The available overlays are nixpkgs-mozilla.overlay for the
default overlay containing everything, and
nixpkgs-mozilla.overlays.{lib, rust, rr, firefox, git-cinnabar}
respectively. Depending on your use case, you might need to set the
--impure flag when invoking the nix command. This is because
this repository fetches resources from non-pinned URLs
non-reproducibly.
This repository provides several tools to facilitate development on Firefox. Firefox is built on an engine called Gecko, which lends its name to some of the files and derivations in this repo.
Checking out Firefox
To build Firefox from source, it is best to have a local checkout of
``mozilla-central``. ``mozilla-central`` is hosted in Mercurial, but
some people prefer to access it using ``git`` and
``git-cinnabar``. The tools in this repo support either using
mercurial or git.
This repository provides a ``git-cinnabar-overlay.nix`` which defines
a ``git-cinnabar`` derivation. This overlay can be used to install
``git-cinnabar``, either using ``nix-env`` or as part of a system-wide
``configuration.nix``.
Building FirefoxThe firefox-overlay.nix provides an environment to build Firefox
from its sources, once you have finished the checkout of
mozilla-central. You can use nix-shell to enter this
environment to launch mach commands to build Firefox and test your
build.
Some debugging tools are available in this environment as well, but other development tools (such as those used to submit changes for review) are outside the scope of this environment.
The nix-shell environment is available in the
gecko.<arch>.<cc> attribute of the release.nix file provided
in this repository.
The <arch> attribute is either x86_64-linux or i686-linux. The first
one would create a native toolchain for compiling on x64, while the second one
would give a native toolchain for compiling on x86. Note that due to the size of
the compilation units on x86, the compilation might not be able to complete, but
some sub part of Gecko, such as SpiderMonkey would compile fine.
The <cc> attribute is either gcc or clang, or any specific version
of the compiler available in the compiler-overlay.nix file which is repeated
in release.nix. This compiler would only be used for compiling Gecko, and
the rest of the toolchain is compiled against the default stdenv of the
architecture.
When first entering the nix-shell, the toolchain will pull and build all
the dependencies necessary to build Gecko, this includes might take some time.
This work will not be necessary the second time, unless you use a different
toolchain or architecture.
.. code:: sh
~/$ cd mozilla-central ~/mozilla-central$ nix-shell ../nixpkgs-mozilla/release.nix -A gecko.x86_64-linux.gcc --pure ... pull the rust compiler ... compile the toolchain
[~/mozilla-central] python ./mach create-mach-environment ... create .mozbuild/_virtualenvs/mach [~/mozilla-central] python ./mach build ... build firefox desktop [~/mozilla-central] python ./mach run ... run firefox
When entering the nix-shell, the MOZCONFIG environment variable is set
to a local file, named .mozconfig.nix-shell, created each time you enter the
nix-shell. You can create your own .mozconfig file which extends the
default one, with your own options.
.. code:: sh
~/mozilla-central$ nix-shell ../nixpkgs-mozilla/release.nix -A gecko.x86_64-linux.gcc --pure [~/mozilla-central] cat .mozconfig
. .mozconfig.nix-shell
ac_add_options --enable-js-shell ac_add_options --disable-tests [~/mozilla-central] export MOZCONFIG="$(pwd)/.mozconfig" [~/mozilla-central] python ./mach build
To avoid repeating yourself, you can also rely on the NIX_SHELL_HOOK
environment variable, to reset the MOZCONFIG environment variable for you.
.. code:: sh
~/mozilla-central$ export NIX_SHELL_HOOK="export MOZCONFIG=$(pwd)/.mozconfig;" ~/mozilla-central$ nix-shell ../nixpkgs-mozilla/release.nix -A gecko.x86_64-linux.gcc --pure [~/mozilla-central] python ./mach build
Submitting Firefox patches
Firefox development happens in `Mozilla Phabricator
<https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/>`_. Mozilla Phabricator
docs are `here
<https://moz-conduit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/phabricator-user.html>`_.
To get your commits into Phabricator, some options include:
- Arcanist, the upstream tool for interacting with
Phabricator. Arcanist is packaged in nixpkgs already; you can find
it in `nixos.arcanist`. Unfortunately, as of this writing, upstream
Arcanist does not support ``git-cinnabar`` (according to `the
"Setting up Arcanist"
<https://moz-conduit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/phabricator-user.html#setting-up-arcanist>`_
documentation). `Mozilla maintains a fork of Arcanist
<https://github.com/mozilla-conduit/arcanist>`_ but it isn't yet
packaged. (PRs welcome.)
- `moz-phab <https://github.com/mozilla-conduit/review>`_, an in-house
CLI for Phabricator. It's available in nix packages (unstable channel).
- `phlay <https://github.com/mystor/phlay>`_, a small Python script
that speaks to the Phabricator API directly. This repository ships a
``phlay-overlay.nix`` that you can use to make ``phlay`` available
in a nix-shell or nix-env.
Note: although the ``nix-shell`` from the previous section may have
all the tools you would normally use to do Firefox development, it
isn't recommended that you use that shell for anything besides tasks
that involve running ``mach``. Other development tasks such as
committing code and submitting patches to code review are best handled
in a separate nix-shell.
TODO
----
- setup hydra to have binary channels
- make sure pinned revisions get updated automatically (if build passes we
should update revisions in default.nix)
- pin to specific (working) nixpkgs revision (as we do for other sources)
- can we make this work on darwin as well?
- assign maintainers for our packages that will montior that it "always" builds
- hook it with vulnix report to monitor CVEs (once vulnix is ready, it must be
ready soon :P)