pyrox.dev
1# Swift {#swift}
2
3The Swift compiler is provided by the `swift` package:
4
5```sh
6# Compile and link a simple executable.
7nix-shell -p swift --run 'swiftc -' <<< 'print("Hello world!")'
8# Run it!
9./main
10```
11
12The `swift` package also provides the `swift` command, with some caveats:
13
14- Swift Package Manager (SwiftPM) is packaged separately as `swiftpm`. If you
15 need functionality like `swift build`, `swift run`, `swift test`, you must
16 also add the `swiftpm` package to your closure.
17- On Darwin, the `swift repl` command requires an Xcode installation. This is
18 because it uses the system LLDB debugserver, which has special entitlements.
19
20## Module search paths {#ssec-swift-module-search-paths}
21
22Like other toolchains in Nixpkgs, the Swift compiler executables are wrapped
23to help Swift find your application's dependencies in the Nix store. These
24wrappers scan the `buildInputs` of your package derivation for specific
25directories where Swift modules are placed by convention, and automatically
26add those directories to the Swift compiler search paths.
27
28Swift follows different conventions depending on the platform. The wrappers
29look for the following directories:
30
31- On Darwin platforms: `lib/swift/macosx`
32 (If not targeting macOS, replace `macosx` with the Xcode platform name.)
33- On other platforms: `lib/swift/linux/x86_64`
34 (Where `linux` and `x86_64` are from lowercase `uname -sm`.)
35- For convenience, Nixpkgs also adds `lib/swift` to the search path.
36 This can save a bit of work packaging Swift modules, because many Nix builds
37 will produce output for just one target any way.
38
39## Core libraries {#ssec-swift-core-libraries}
40
41In addition to the standard library, the Swift toolchain contains some
42additional 'core libraries' that, on Apple platforms, are normally distributed
43as part of the OS or Xcode. These are packaged separately in Nixpkgs, and can
44be found (for use in `buildInputs`) as:
45
46- `swiftPackages.Dispatch`
47- `swiftPackages.Foundation`
48- `swiftPackages.XCTest`
49
50## Packaging with SwiftPM {#ssec-swift-packaging-with-swiftpm}
51
52Nixpkgs includes a small helper `swiftpm2nix` that can fetch your SwiftPM
53dependencies for you, when you need to write a Nix expression to package your
54application.
55
56The first step is to run the generator:
57
58```sh
59cd /path/to/my/project
60# Enter a Nix shell with the required tools.
61nix-shell -p swift swiftpm swiftpm2nix
62# First, make sure the workspace is up-to-date.
63swift package resolve
64# Now generate the Nix code.
65swiftpm2nix
66```
67
68This produces some files in a directory `nix`, which will be part of your Nix
69expression. The next step is to write that expression:
70
71```nix
72{
73 stdenv,
74 swift,
75 swiftpm,
76 swiftpm2nix,
77 fetchFromGitHub,
78}:
79
80let
81 # Pass the generated files to the helper.
82 generated = swiftpm2nix.helpers ./nix;
83in
84
85stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
86 pname = "myproject";
87 version = "0.0.0";
88
89 src = fetchFromGitHub {
90 owner = "nixos";
91 repo = "myproject";
92 tag = finalAttrs.version;
93 hash = "";
94 };
95
96 # Including SwiftPM as a nativeBuildInput provides a buildPhase for you.
97 # This by default performs a release build using SwiftPM, essentially:
98 # swift build -c release
99 nativeBuildInputs = [
100 swift
101 swiftpm
102 ];
103
104 # The helper provides a configure snippet that will prepare all dependencies
105 # in the correct place, where SwiftPM expects them.
106 configurePhase = generated.configure;
107
108 installPhase = ''
109 runHook preInstall
110
111 # This is a special function that invokes swiftpm to find the location
112 # of the binaries it produced.
113 binPath="$(swiftpmBinPath)"
114 # Now perform any installation steps.
115 mkdir -p $out/bin
116 cp $binPath/myproject $out/bin/
117
118 runHook postInstall
119 '';
120})
121```
122
123### Custom build flags {#ssec-swiftpm-custom-build-flags}
124
125If you'd like to build a different configuration than `release`:
126
127```nix
128{
129 swiftpmBuildConfig = "debug";
130}
131```
132
133It is also possible to provide additional flags to `swift build`:
134
135```nix
136{
137 swiftpmFlags = [ "--disable-dead-strip" ];
138}
139```
140
141The default `buildPhase` already passes `-j` for parallel building.
142
143If these two customization options are insufficient, provide your own
144`buildPhase` that invokes `swift build`.
145
146### Running tests {#ssec-swiftpm-running-tests}
147
148Including `swiftpm` in your `nativeBuildInputs` also provides a default
149`checkPhase`, but it must be enabled with:
150
151```nix
152{
153 doCheck = true;
154}
155```
156
157This essentially runs: `swift test -c release`
158
159### Patching dependencies {#ssec-swiftpm-patching-dependencies}
160
161In some cases, it may be necessary to patch a SwiftPM dependency. SwiftPM
162dependencies are located in `.build/checkouts`, but the `swiftpm2nix` helper
163provides these as symlinks to read-only `/nix/store` paths. In order to patch
164them, we need to make them writable.
165
166A special function `swiftpmMakeMutable` is available to replace the symlink
167with a writable copy:
168
169```nix
170{
171 configurePhase = generated.configure ++ ''
172 # Replace the dependency symlink with a writable copy.
173 swiftpmMakeMutable swift-crypto
174 # Now apply a patch.
175 patch -p1 -d .build/checkouts/swift-crypto -i ${./some-fix.patch}
176 '';
177}
178```
179
180## Considerations for custom build tools {#ssec-swift-considerations-for-custom-build-tools}
181
182### Linking the standard library {#ssec-swift-linking-the-standard-library}
183
184The `swift` package has a separate `lib` output containing just the Swift
185standard library, to prevent Swift applications needing a dependency on the
186full Swift compiler at run-time. Linking with the Nixpkgs Swift toolchain
187already ensures binaries correctly reference the `lib` output.
188
189Sometimes, Swift is used only to compile part of a mixed codebase, and the
190link step is manual. Custom build tools often locate the standard library
191relative to the `swift` compiler executable, and while the result will work,
192when this path ends up in the binary, it will have the Swift compiler as an
193unintended dependency.
194
195In this case, you should investigate how your build process discovers the
196standard library, and override the path. The correct path will be something
197like: `"${swift.swift.lib}/${swift.swiftModuleSubdir}"`