Nix seeks to provide friendly bindings to various *nix platform APIs (Linux, Darwin, ...). The goal is to not provide a 100% unified interface, but to unify what can be while still providing platform specific APIs.
For many system APIs, Nix provides a safe alternative to the unsafe APIs exposed by the libc crate. This is done by wrapping the libc functionality with types/abstractions that enforce legal/safe usage.
As an example of what Nix provides, examine the differences between what is exposed by libc and nix for the gethostname system call:
// libc api (unsafe, requires handling return code/errno)
pub unsafe extern fn gethostname(name: *mut c_char, len: size_t) -> c_int;
// nix api (returns a nix::Result<CStr>)
pub fn gethostname<'a>(buffer: &'a mut [u8]) -> Result<&'a CStr>;nix target support consists of two tiers. While nix attempts to support all platforms supported by libc, only some platforms are actively supported due to either technical or manpower limitations. Support for platforms is split into three tiers:
- Tier 1 - Builds and tests for this target are run in CI. Failures of either block the inclusion of new code.
- Tier 2 - Builds for this target are run in CI. Failures during the build blocks the inclusion of new code. Tests may be run, but failures in tests don't block the inclusion of new code.
- Tier 3 - Builds for this target are run in CI. Failures during the build do not block the inclusion of new code. Testing may be run, but failures in tests don't block the inclusion of new code.
The following targets are supported by nix:
Tier 1:
- aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
- arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi
- armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf
- i686-apple-darwin
- i686-unknown-freebsd
- i686-unknown-linux-gnu
- i686-unknown-linux-musl
- mips-unknown-linux-gnu
- mips64-unknown-linux-gnuabi64
- mips64el-unknown-linux-gnuabi64
- mipsel-unknown-linux-gnu
- powerpc64le-unknown-linux-gnu
- x86_64-apple-darwin
- x86_64-unknown-freebsd
- x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
- x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
Tier 2:
- aarch64-apple-ios
- aarch64-linux-android
- arm-linux-androideabi
- arm-unknown-linux-musleabi
- armv7-apple-ios
- armv7-linux-androideabi
- armv7s-apple-ios
- i386-apple-ios
- i686-linux-android
- powerpc-unknown-linux-gnu
- s390x-unknown-linux-gnu
- x86_64-apple-ios
- x86_64-linux-android
- x86_64-unknown-netbsd
Tier 3:
- x86_64-unknown-redox
nix requires Rust 1.36.0 or newer.
To use nix, add this to your Cargo.toml:
[dependencies]
nix = "0.19.0"Contributions are very welcome. Please See CONTRIBUTING for additional details.
Feel free to join us in the nix-rust/nix channel on Gitter to
discuss nix development.
Nix is licensed under the MIT license. See LICENSE for more details.