Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/pg83/ix/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Every IX package is a directory somewhere under pkgs/ that contains a single file named ix.sh. The directory path relative to pkgs/ is the package name — there is no separate manifest or naming field for the package identifier. The ix.sh file itself is a Jinja2 template that extends one of the base build-system templates under pkgs/die/, inheriting a complete build pipeline for the chosen build system.
Package Name = Directory Path
The directory path doubles as the canonical package identifier throughout the build system. There are no exceptions: the path is the name.
| File path | Package name |
|---|
pkgs/bin/git/unwrap/ix.sh | bin/git/unwrap |
pkgs/lib/openssl/ix.sh | lib/openssl |
pkgs/bld/cmake/ix.sh | bld/cmake |
pkgs/bin/neo/vim/ix.sh | bin/neo/vim |
pkgs/lib/z/ix.sh | lib/z |
neovim → bin/neo/vim, autoconf → bin/auto/conf). Hyphens and underscores become /. Version numbers become path components (autoconf 2.72 → bin/auto/conf/2/72). Well-known single-word names stay as-is (wireshark, openssl, coreutils).
Minimal Package Example
Below is the complete ix.sh for bin/minised — a C program built with plain Make. This is the entire package definition; no Makefile is shipped alongside it.
{% extends '//die/c/make.sh' %}
{% block pkg_name %}
minised
{% endblock %}
{% block version %}
1.16
{% endblock %}
{% block fetch %}
http://dl.exactcode.de/oss/minised/minised-{{self.version().strip()}}.tar.gz
46e072d5d45c9fd3d5b268523501bbea0ad016232b2d3f366a7aad0b1e7b3f71
{% endblock %}
{% block bld_libs %}
lib/c
{% endblock %}
{% extends '//die/c/make.sh' %} — selects the GNU Make build template. // means relative to the pkgs/ root.pkg_name — the human-readable name of the package (used in log output and store paths).version — the upstream version string. Other blocks can reference it with {{self.version().strip()}}.fetch — the source URL followed by its SHA-256 hex digest on the next line. The build system downloads and verifies this before unpacking.bld_libs — static libraries to link against. lib/c is required for virtually every C package.
The template make.sh already knows how to call make -j$(nproc) and make install with the correct PREFIX. You only override what differs from the default.
Key Blocks
Every ix.sh is composed of block overrides. The most important blocks are:
| Block | Purpose |
|---|
pkg_name | Human name of the package (shown in logs and store paths) |
version | Version string; accessible via {{self.version().strip()}} in other blocks |
fetch | URL + SHA-256 for tarball download |
bld_libs | Static libraries linked into the artifact (target architecture) |
bld_tool | Executables available on PATH during the build (host architecture) |
lib_deps | Libraries exported to packages that depend on this one |
run_deps | Runtime packages needed when this package executes |
patch | Shell code to patch sources after unpack (runs in a subshell) |
build | Shell code to compile |
install | Shell code to install artifacts into ${out} |
{{super()}} inside any block to include the parent template’s content at that position, then add to it.
Build Directory Variables
The build environment exposes a fixed set of path variables. All output must go through ${out} — never write to /usr, /lib, or any absolute system path.
| Variable | Meaning |
|---|
${out} | Output directory; this becomes the final content-addressed store path |
${tmp} | Temporary build workspace (discarded after build) |
${src} | Directory where downloaded sources are unpacked |
${bld} | Build workspace inside ${tmp} |
${uid} | Content-addressed UID of this package |
${make_thrs} | Thread count for parallel builds |
${out} during the install step becomes the package artifact. The post-install step then prunes it based on package kind (bin, lib, aux).
The // Prefix
The // prefix in {% extends '//die/c/cmake.sh' %} means “relative to the pkgs/ root directory.” It is the standard way to reference any template or package from any location in the tree.
A bare relative path like t/ix.sh (no leading //) is resolved relative to the current package directory. This is used for shared base templates within a versioned sub-package tree — for example, lib/openssl/3/ix.sh and lib/openssl/1/ix.sh both extend lib/openssl/t/ix.sh via the relative form.
For a complete reference on all available blocks and how they compose, read PKGS.md in the repository root. It documents every block in the inheritance chain from base.sh through die/c/ix.sh down to specific build system templates.