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Markdown
55 lines
No EOL
2.2 KiB
Markdown
# Nix Archive (NAR) format
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This is the complete specification of the [Nix Archive] format.
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The Nix Archive format closely follows the abstract specification of a [file system object] tree,
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because it is designed to serialize exactly that data structure.
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[Nix Archive]: @docroot@/store/file-system-object/content-address.md#serial-nix-archive
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[file system object]: @docroot@/store/file-system-object.md
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The format of this specification is close to [Extended Backus–Naur form](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Backus%E2%80%93Naur_form), with the exception of the `str(..)` function / parameterized rule, which length-prefixes and pads strings.
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This makes the resulting binary format easier to parse.
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Regular users do *not* need to know this information.
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But for those interested in exactly how Nix works, e.g. if they are reimplementing it, this information can be useful.
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```ebnf
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nar = str("nix-archive-1"), nar-obj;
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nar-obj = str("("), nar-obj-inner, str(")");
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nar-obj-inner
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= str("type"), str("regular") regular
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| str("type"), str("symlink") symlink
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| str("type"), str("directory") directory
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;
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regular = [ str("executable") ], str("contents"), str(contents);
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symlink = str("target"), str(target);
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(* side condition: directory entries must be ordered by their names *)
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directory = { directory-entry };
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directory-entry = str("entry"), str("("), str("name"), str(name), str("node"), nar-obj, str(")");
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```
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The `str` function / parameterized rule is defined as follows:
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- `str(s)` = `int(|s|), pad(s);`
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- `int(n)` = the 64-bit little endian representation of the number `n`
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- `pad(s)` = the byte sequence `s`, padded with 0s to a multiple of 8 byte
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## Kaitai Struct Specification
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The Nix Archive (NAR) format is also formally described using [Kaitai Struct](https://kaitai.io/), an Interface Description Language (IDL) for defining binary data structures.
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> Kaitai Struct provides a language-agnostic, machine-readable specification that can be compiled into parsers for various programming languages (e.g., C++, Python, Java, Rust).
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```yaml
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{{#include nar.ksy}}
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```
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The source of the spec can be found [here](https://github.com/nixos/nix/blob/master/src/nix-manual/source/protocols/nix-archive/nar.ksy). Contributions and improvements to the spec are welcomed. |