commit	2ba47c94b3d357cd9fd1cc272b12660f30516ea6	[log] [tgz]
author	Android Build Coastguard Worker <[email protected]>	Sun Mar 27 09:04:37 2022 +0000
committer	Android Build Coastguard Worker <[email protected]>	Sun Mar 27 09:04:37 2022 +0000
tree	fb2abcd53c7bec252defd92f2b61bb3ddff8949d
parent	e533733bd9dcccbade192b6f48153af152dd2a22 [diff]
parent	d1a942bdc440f245e373c350a2bc7b2a88099600 [diff]

tree: fb2abcd53c7bec252defd92f2b61bb3ddff8949d

README.md

Rust bindings to *nix APIs

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>;

Supported Platforms

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-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-linux-androideabi
i686-linux-android
powerpc-unknown-linux-gnu
s390x-unknown-linux-gnu
x86_64-apple-ios
x86_64-linux-android
x86_64-unknown-illumos
x86_64-unknown-netbsd

Tier 3:

x86_64-fuchsia
x86_64-unknown-dragonfly
x86_64-unknown-linux-gnux32
x86_64-unknown-openbsd
x86_64-unknown-redox

Minimum Supported Rust Version (MSRV)

nix is supported on Rust 1.46.0 and higher. It's MSRV will not be changed in the future without bumping the major or minor version.

Contributing

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.

License

Nix is licensed under the MIT license. See LICENSE for more details.