rnix-parser

rnix is a parser for the Nix language written in Rust.

This can be used to manipulate the Nix AST and can for example be used for:

• Interactively render Nix on a GUI
• Formatting Nix code
• Rename identifiers

and a lot more!

rnix nowadays uses @matklad's rowan crate to ensure:

• all span information is preserved, meaning you can use the AST to for example apply highlighting
• printing out the AST prints out 100% the original code. This is not an over-exaggeration, even completely invalid nix code such as this README can be intact after a parsing session (though the AST will mark errnous nodes)
• easy ways to walk the tree without resorting to recursion

Demo

Examples can be found in the examples/ directory.

You may also want to see nix-explorer: An example that highlights AST nodes in Nix code. This demonstrates how whitespaces and commands are preserved.

Hacking

Tests can be run with cargo test.

In order to update all .expect-files to the currently expected results, you may run UPDATE_TESTS=1 cargo test.

You can parse Nix expressions from standard input using the from-stdin example. To try that, run the following in your shell:

echo "[hello nix]" | cargo run --quiet --example from-stdin

Release Checklist

• Ensure that all PRs that were scheduled for the release are merged (or optionally move them to another milestone).

• Close the milestone for the release (if any).

• Run cargo test on master (or the branch to release from) with all changes being pulled in.

• Apply the following patch to nixpkgs-fmt:

  diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
  index 0891350..edad471 100644
  --- a/Cargo.toml
  +++ b/Cargo.toml
  @@ -13,6 +13,9 @@ repository = "https://github.com/nix-community/nixpkgs-fmt"
   [workspace]
   members = [ "./wasm" ]
   
  +[patch.crates-io]
  +rnix = { path = "/home/ma27/Projects/rnix-parser" }
  +
   [dependencies]
   rnix = "0.9.0"
   smol_str = "0.1.17"

  and run cargo test.

  While it's planned to add fuzzing to rnix-parser as well, nixpkgs-fmt has a decent test-suite that would've helped to catch regressions in the past.

  Note: API changes are OK (and fixes should be contributed to nixpkgs-fmt), behavioral changes are not unless explicitly discussed before.

• Update the CHANGELOG.md.

• Bump the version number in Cargo.toml & re-run cargo build to refresh the lockfile.

• Commit & run nix build.

• Tag the release and push everything.

• As soon as the CI has completed, run cargo publish.

RIP jd91mzm2

Sadly, the original author of this project, @jD91mZM2 has passed away. His online presence was anonymous and what we have left is his code. This is but one of his many repos that he contributed to.