Skip to content

Commit

Permalink
doc: document new urxvt plugin system
Browse files Browse the repository at this point in the history
  • Loading branch information
rnhmjoj committed Feb 2, 2020
1 parent 4e15543 commit ef9a029
Show file tree
Hide file tree
Showing 2 changed files with 102 additions and 0 deletions.
1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions doc/builders/packages/index.xml
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
<xi:include href="opengl.xml" />
<xi:include href="shell-helpers.xml" />
<xi:include href="steam.xml" />
<xi:include href="urxvt.xml" />
<xi:include href="weechat.xml" />
<xi:include href="xorg.xml" />
</chapter>
101 changes: 101 additions & 0 deletions doc/builders/packages/urxvt.xml
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xml:id="sec-urxvt">
<title>Urxvt</title>

<para>
Urxvt, also known as rxvt-unicode, is a highly customizable terminal emulator.
</para>

<section xml:id="sec-urxvt-conf">

<title>Configuring urxvt</title>

<para>
In <literal>nixpkgs</literal>, urxvt is provided by the package
<literal>rxvt-unicode</literal>. It can be configured to include your choice
of plugins, reducing its closure size from the default configuration which
includes all available plugins. To make use of this functionality, use an
overlay or directly install an expression that overrides its configuration,
such as
<programlisting>rxvt-unicode.override { configure = { availablePlugins, ... }: {
plugins = with availablePlugins; [ perls resize-font vtwheel ];
}
}</programlisting>
If the <literal>configure</literal> function returns an attrset without the
<literal>plugins</literal> attribute, <literal>availablePlugins</literal>
will be used automatically.
</para>

<para>
In order to add plugins but also keep all default plugins installed, it is
possible to use the following method:
<programlisting>rxvt-unicode.override { configure = { availablePlugins, ... }: {
plugins = (builtins.attrValues availablePlugins) ++ [ custom-plugin ];
};
}</programlisting>
</para>

<para>
To get a list of all the plugins available, open the Nix REPL and run
<programlisting>$ nix repl
:l &lt;nixpkgs&gt;
map (p: p.name) pkgs.rxvt-unicode.plugins
</programlisting>
Alternatively, if your shell is bash or zsh and have completion enabled,
simply type <literal>nixpkgs.rxvt-unicode.plugins.&lt;tab&gt;</literal>.
</para>

<para>
In addition to <literal>plugins</literal> the options
<literal>extraDeps</literal> and <literal>perlDeps</literal> can be used
to install extra packages.
<literal>extraDeps</literal> can be used, for example, to provide
<literal>xsel</literal> (a clipboard manager) to the clipboard plugin,
without installing it globally:
<programlisting>rxvt-unicode.override { configure = { availablePlugins, ... }: {
pluginsDeps = [ xsel ];
}
}</programlisting>

<literal>perlDeps</literal> is a handy way to provide Perl packages to
your custom plugins (in <literal>$HOME/.urxvt/ext</literal>). For example,
if you need <literal>AnyEvent</literal> you can do:
<programlisting>rxvt-unicode.override { configure = { availablePlugins, ... }: {
perlDeps = with perlPackages; [ AnyEvent ];
}
}</programlisting>
</para>

</section>

<section xml:id="sec-urxvt-pkg">

<title>Packaging urxvt plugins</title>

<para>
Urxvt plugins resides in
<literal>pkgs/applications/misc/rxvt-unicode-plugins</literal>.
To add a new plugin create an expression in a subdirectory and add the
package to the set in
<literal>pkgs/applications/misc/rxvt-unicode-plugins/default.nix</literal>.
</para>

<para>
A plugin can be any kind of derivation, the only requirement is that it
should always install perl scripts in <literal>$out/lib/urxvt/perl</literal>.
Look for existing plugins for examples.
</para>

<para>
If the plugin is itself a perl package that needs to be imported from
other plugins or scripts, add the following passthrough:
<programlisting>passthru.perlPackages = [ "self" ];
</programlisting>
This will make the urxvt wrapper pick up the dependency and set up the perl
path accordingly.
</para>

</section>

</section>

0 comments on commit ef9a029

Please sign in to comment.