From 19d48a925778a524a970ca06cabc45ade3f82474 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Adam Joseph Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2023 00:33:11 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] doc/stdenv/meta.chapter.md: explain difference between broken and badPlatforms There has been a longstanding ambiguity between `broken` and `badPlatforms`, which seem to serve overlapping purposes. This commit adds to the documentation two examples of constraints which cannot be expressed by `platforms` and `badPlatforms`. This commit also mentions `NIXPKGS_ALLOW_BROKEN=1` for overriding `broken`. --- doc/stdenv/meta.chapter.md | 4 +++- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/doc/stdenv/meta.chapter.md b/doc/stdenv/meta.chapter.md index 0b4777efdb8c..f4e9a5d4f9b1 100644 --- a/doc/stdenv/meta.chapter.md +++ b/doc/stdenv/meta.chapter.md @@ -182,7 +182,9 @@ meta.hydraPlatforms = []; ### `broken` {#var-meta-broken} -If set to `true`, the package is marked as "broken", meaning that it won’t show up in `nix-env -qa`, and cannot be built or installed. Such packages should be removed from Nixpkgs eventually unless they are fixed. +If set to `true`, the package is marked as "broken", meaning that it won’t show up in `nix-env -qa`, and cannot be built or installed unless the environment variable `NIXPKGS_ALLOW_BROKEN` is set. Such unconditionally-broken packages should be removed from Nixpkgs eventually unless they are fixed. + +The value of this attribute can depend on a package's arguments, including `stdenv`. This means that `broken` can be used to express constraints such as "does not cross compile" (`meta.broken = !(stdenv.buildPlatform.canExecute stdenv.hostPlatform)`) or "broken if all of a certain set of its dependencies are broken". This makes `broken` strictly more powerful than `meta.badPlatforms`. However `meta.availableOn` currently examines only `meta.platforms` and `meta.badPlatforms`, so `meta.broken` does not influence the default values for optional dependencies. ## Licenses {#sec-meta-license}