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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-apple-ios
armv7-linux-androideabi
armv7s-apple-ios
i386-apple-ios
i686-apple-darwin
i686-linux-android
powerpc-unknown-linux-gnu
s390x-unknown-linux-gnu
x86_64-apple-ios
x86_64-linux-android
x86_64-unknown-netbsd

Tier 3:

x86_64-fuchsia
x86_64-unknown-redox
x86_64-unknown-linux-gnux32

Usage

nix requires Rust 1.40.0 or newer.

To use nix, add this to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
nix = "0.20.0"

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.