Prerequisites:
FS.md
The IX package manager can be used standalone on any supported OS or as the base package manager in the stal/IX Linux distribution.
This document describes the use of IX as part of stal/IX.
You can read the installation guide for stal/IX on-disk at INSTALL.md.
A package is the contents of a single folder in the /ix/store directory.
For example, here are the contents of the bzip2 package:
ix# find /ix/store/0GsKotnAh74LIcvO-bin-bzip2/
/ix/store/0GsKotnAh74LIcvO-bin-bzip2/
/ix/store/0GsKotnAh74LIcvO-bin-bzip2/bin
/ix/store/0GsKotnAh74LIcvO-bin-bzip2/bin/bzip2
/ix/store/0GsKotnAh74LIcvO-bin-bzip2/bin/bunzip2
/ix/store/0GsKotnAh74LIcvO-bin-bzip2/bin/bzcat
/ix/store/0GsKotnAh74LIcvO-bin-bzip2/bin/bzip2recover
/ix/store/0GsKotnAh74LIcvO-bin-bzip2/bin/bzgrep
/ix/store/0GsKotnAh74LIcvO-bin-bzip2/bin/bzegrep
/ix/store/0GsKotnAh74LIcvO-bin-bzip2/bin/bzfgrep
/ix/store/0GsKotnAh74LIcvO-bin-bzip2/bin/bzmore
/ix/store/0GsKotnAh74LIcvO-bin-bzip2/bin/bzless
/ix/store/0GsKotnAh74LIcvO-bin-bzip2/bin/bzdiff
/ix/store/0GsKotnAh74LIcvO-bin-bzip2/bin/bzcmp
/ix/store/0GsKotnAh74LIcvO-bin-bzip2/env
/ix/store/0GsKotnAh74LIcvO-bin-bzip2/touch
All packages form a content-addressable store, essentially similar to the same structure in NixOS and Guix.
A realm is also a package that contains symbolic links to other packages:
ix# find /ix/store/0Q4rkMy8J8D1WTVn-rlm-system
...
/ix/store/0Q4rkMy8J8D1WTVn-rlm-system/bin/runit
/ix/store/0Q4rkMy8J8D1WTVn-rlm-system/bin/runit-init
/ix/store/0Q4rkMy8J8D1WTVn-rlm-system/bin/runsvchdir
/ix/store/0Q4rkMy8J8D1WTVn-rlm-system/bin/utmpset
/ix/store/0Q4rkMy8J8D1WTVn-rlm-system/bin/iwctl
/ix/store/0Q4rkMy8J8D1WTVn-rlm-system/bin/iwd
/ix/store/0Q4rkMy8J8D1WTVn-rlm-system/bin/sud_client
/ix/store/0Q4rkMy8J8D1WTVn-rlm-system/bin/sud_server
/ix/store/0Q4rkMy8J8D1WTVn-rlm-system/bin/doas
/ix/store/0Q4rkMy8J8D1WTVn-rlm-system/bin/sudo
/ix/store/0Q4rkMy8J8D1WTVn-rlm-system/bin/setcwd
/ix/store/0Q4rkMy8J8D1WTVn-rlm-system/bin/mdevd
/ix/store/0Q4rkMy8J8D1WTVn-rlm-system/bin/mdevd-coldplug
/ix/store/0Q4rkMy8J8D1WTVn-rlm-system/meta.json
/ix/store/0Q4rkMy8J8D1WTVn-rlm-system/env
/ix/store/0Q4rkMy8J8D1WTVn-rlm-system/touch
Some realms have anchor links that mark the current (used) version of a certain realm:
ix# ls -la /ix/realm/
total 0
drwxrwxrwx .
drwxr-xr-x ..
lrwxrwxrwx boot -> /ix/store/RCa2L8DHZs71ArSI-rlm-boot
lrwxrwxrwx kernel -> /ix/store/m3K7uWjZLVDshLNq-rlm-kernel
lrwxrwxrwx pg -> /ix/store/QC6vXQZNfLfhT4t1-rlm-pg
lrwxrwxrwx system -> /ix/store/PIYCjYiLy1AIxVVl-rlm-system
To use the contents of a realm, simply add that realm to your PATH:
ix# export PATH="/ix/realm/boot/bin:${PATH}"
To make this setting happen automatically, in the first line of your session script, add:
. /etc/session
To start using IX, clone it from GitHub.
ix# git clone https://github.com/stal-ix/ix
ix# export PATH=${PWD}/ix:${PATH}
Any user with sudo configured can install packages on the system. Using a content-addressable store, different versions of packages will not overlap. Different users can use different versions of the IX repository. The recommended way to customize the system is to clone the repository on GitHub and make the necessary changes to your branch. Perhaps someday there will be support for overlays.
The basic command when using IX is ix mut.
Install Sway in the gui realm:
ix# ix mut gui bin/sway
Install Sway in the gui realm, specifying that it should use the 3D acceleration driver for AMD GPU:
ix# ix mut gui bin/sway --mesa_driver=radv
For a more detailed introduction to 3D acceleration in stal/IX, see ACCEL.md.
Let’s assume that all programs in the gui realm should use AMD GPU:
ix# ix mut gui --mesa_driver=radv
And remove the mesa_driver flag for software 3D:
ix# ix mut system --mesa_driver=-
Add a browser to the gui realm:
ix# ix mut gui bin/epiphany
We are tired of Sway and want to use Wayfire:
ix# ix mut gui -bin/sway bin/wayfire
Update all installed programs in the gui realm:
ix# ix mut gui
By the way, to control your named realm, you can simply exclude its name from the IX CLI:
ix# ix mut bin/telegram/desktop
ix# ix mut -bin/epiphany +bin/links
The command can manipulate any number of realms simultaneously. The ambiguity is eliminated by the fact that realm names cannot contain /, but package names always do:
ix# ix mut gui +bin/dosbox -bin/qemu tui +bin/links
Flags you specify with -- apply to the realm if a package has not previously been specified in that realm, otherwise to the package:
ix# ix mut --mesa_driver=radv +bin/sway --mesa_driver=iris
With this command we specified that we need to add a flag in the user realm to use AMD GPU, but we want to use Sway with Intel GPU.
Important!
Within a single command, all changes to a single realm occur atomically, but the anchoring of pointers to the realm itself can occur in any order.
Exercise
Explain to yourself what the following commands do:
ix# ix mut A bin/P --X=Y bin/P --X=Z -bin/P
ix# ix mut A -bin/P B +bin/P C +bin/P --X=Y
ix run
This command prepares a new realm and runs an arbitrary command in it:
ix# ix run \
bin/qemu --for_target=aarch64-linux-user \
bin/convert --target=linux-aarch64 \
-- qemu-aarch64 '$(command -v convert)'
READY /ix/store/uFlUrE6DQMb3SC2l-rlm-ephemeral/touch
Version: ImageMagick 7.1.0-58 Q16-HDRI aarch64
https://imagemagick.org
The example shows how to run a program built for aarch64 on x86_64 using QEMU.
ix let
This command does the same as ix mut, but does not switch the anchor link. The command is useful for checking the contents of the resulting realm before switching.
ix build
This is ix let over a temporary (ephemeral) realm. The command is useful for seeing how some set of packages (maybe just one) would look in a freshly created realm, without flags and other environments.
ix gc
The command finds all unused packages in /ix/store/ and moves them to the /ix/trash/ folder for asynchronous removal. A package is considered unused if there is no path to it from the anchor realms in /ix/realm/.
ix list
View a list of all realms or installed packages (with flags) in a specific realm.
A list of all available packages can be found at https://github.com/stal-ix/ix/tree/main/pkgs or in the pkgs/ folder in your clone of the main repository.
ix mut $(ix list)
This command is used to update all realms.
There are a number of commands in IX that are implemented as separate scripts and are not part of the core. For example, because they are not well implemented as a whole or their semantics are not well developed.
These commands are available through ix tool:
ix tool list - show all available commands.
Search for a wanted package by name:
ix# ix tool listall | grep ssh
lib/ssh/2
lib/ssh
bin/openssh
bin/openssh/client
bin/openssh/d
bin/openssh/d/ix
bin/tinyssh
Show all packages that need to be updated (uses repology.org and fuzzy search):
ix# ix tool upver
libmpc 1.3.1
courier-mta 1.2.1
sh 3.6.0
mpv-git 20221218
klipper-estimator 3.1.0
vcpkg 2022.12.14
steamos-compositor-plus 1.10.6
clipboard 0.1.3
yambar 1.9.0
libdispatch 5.7.2