Nim/tools/atlas/atlas.md

Atlas Package Cloner

Atlas is a simple package cloner tool that automates some of the workflows and needs for Nim's stdlib evolution.

Atlas is compatible with Nimble in the sense that it supports the Nimble file format.

How it works

Atlas uses git commits internally; version requirements are translated to git commits via git show-ref --tags.

Atlas uses URLs internally; Nimble package names are translated to URLs via Nimble's packages.json file.

Atlas does not call the Nim compiler for a build, instead it creates/patches a nim.cfg file for the compiler. For example:

############# begin Atlas config section ##########
--noNimblePath
--path:"../nimx"
--path:"../sdl2/src"
--path:"../opengl/src"
############# end Atlas config section   ##########

The version selection is deterministic, it picks up the minimum required version. Thanks to this design, lock files are much less important.

Dependencies

Dependencies are neither installed globally, nor locally into the current project. Instead a "workspace" is used. The workspace is the nearest parent directory of the current directory that does not contain a .git subdirectory. Dependencies are managed as siblings, not as children. Dependencies are kept as git repositories.

Thanks to this setup, it's easy to develop multiple projects at the same time.

A project plus its dependencies are stored in a workspace:

$workspace / main project $workspace / dependency A $workspace / dependency B

No attempts are being made at keeping directory hygiene inside the workspace, you're supposed to create appropriate $workspace directories at your own leisure.

Commands

Atlas supports the following commands:

Clone

Clones a URL and all of its dependencies (recursively) into the workspace. Creates or patches a nim.cfg file with the required --path entries.

Clone

The <package name> is translated into an URL via packages.json and then clone <url> is performed.

Search

Search the package index packages.json for a package that the given terms in its description (or name or list of tags).

Install

Use the .nimble file to setup the project's dependencies.