treewide: remove bower (#443594)

# Bower {#sec-bower}

[Bower](https://bower.io) is a package manager for web site front-end components. Bower packages (comprising of build artifacts and sometimes sources) are stored in `git` repositories, typically on Github. The package registry is run by the Bower team with package metadata coming from the `bower.json` file within each package.

The end result of running Bower is a `bower_components` directory which can be included in the web app's build process.

Bower can be run interactively, by installing `nodePackages.bower`. More interestingly, the Bower components can be declared in a Nix derivation, with the help of `bower2nix`.

## bower2nix usage {#ssec-bower2nix-usage}

Suppose you have a `bower.json` with the following contents:

### Example bower.json {#ex-bowerJson}

```json

  "name": "my-web-app",

  "dependencies": {

    "angular": "~1.5.0",

    "bootstrap": "~3.3.6"

  }

```

Running `bower2nix` will produce something like the following output:

```nix

{ fetchbower, buildEnv }:

buildEnv {

  name = "bower-env";

  ignoreCollisions = true;

  paths = [

    (fetchbower "angular" "1.5.3" "~1.5.0" "1749xb0firxdra4rzadm4q9x90v6pzkbd7xmcyjk6qfza09ykk9y")

    (fetchbower "bootstrap" "3.3.6" "~3.3.6" "1vvqlpbfcy0k5pncfjaiskj3y6scwifxygfqnw393sjfxiviwmbv")

    (fetchbower "jquery" "2.2.2" "1.9.1 - 2" "10sp5h98sqwk90y4k6hbdviwqzvzwqf47r3r51pakch5ii2y7js1")

  ];

}

```

Using the `bower2nix` command line arguments, the output can be redirected to a file. A name like `bower-packages.nix` would be fine.

The resulting derivation is a union of all the downloaded Bower packages (and their dependencies). To use it, they still need to be linked together by Bower, which is where `buildBowerComponents` is useful.

## buildBowerComponents function {#ssec-build-bower-components}

The function is implemented in [pkgs/development/bower-modules/generic/default.nix](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/development/bower-modules/generic/default.nix).

### Example buildBowerComponents {#ex-buildBowerComponents}

```nix

{

  bowerComponents = buildBowerComponents {

    name = "my-web-app";

    generated = ./bower-packages.nix; # note 1

    src = myWebApp; # note 2

  };

}

```

In ["buildBowerComponents" example](#ex-buildBowerComponents) the following arguments are of special significance to the function:

1. `generated` specifies the file which was created by {command}`bower2nix`.

2. `src` is your project's sources. It needs to contain a {file}`bower.json` file.

`buildBowerComponents` will run Bower to link together the output of `bower2nix`, resulting in a `bower_components` directory which can be used.

Here is an example of a web frontend build process using `gulp`. You might use `grunt`, or anything else.

### Example build script (gulpfile.js) {#ex-bowerGulpFile}

```javascript

var gulp = require('gulp');

gulp.task('default', [], function () {

  gulp.start('build');

});

gulp.task('build', [], function () {

  console.log("Just a dummy gulp build");

  gulp

    .src(["./bower_components/**/*"])

    .pipe(gulp.dest("./gulpdist/"));

});

```

### Example Full example — default.nix {#ex-buildBowerComponentsDefaultNix}

```nix

{

  myWebApp ? {

    outPath = ./.;

    name = "myWebApp";

  },

  pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> { },

}:

pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation {

  name = "my-web-app-frontend";

  src = myWebApp;

  buildInputs = [ pkgs.nodePackages.gulp ];

  bowerComponents = pkgs.buildBowerComponents {

    # note 1

    name = "my-web-app";

    generated = ./bower-packages.nix;

    src = myWebApp;

  };

  nativeBuildInputs = [

    writableTmpDirAsHomeHook # note 3

  ];

  buildPhase = ''

    runHook preBuild

    cp --reflink=auto --no-preserve=mode -R $bowerComponents/bower_components . # note 2

    ${pkgs.nodePackages.gulp}/bin/gulp build # note 4

    runHook postBuild

  '';

  installPhase = ''

    runHook preInstall

    mv gulpdist $out

    runHook postInstall

  '';

}

```

A few notes about [Full example — `default.nix`](#ex-buildBowerComponentsDefaultNix):

1. The result of `buildBowerComponents` is an input to the frontend build.

2. Whether to symlink or copy the {file}`bower_components` directory depends on the build tool in use.

   In this case, a copy is used to avoid {command}`gulp` silliness with permissions.

3. {command}`gulp` requires `HOME` to refer to a writeable directory.

4. The actual build command in this example is {command}`gulp`. Other tools could be used instead.

## Troubleshooting {#ssec-bower2nix-troubleshooting}

### ENOCACHE errors from buildBowerComponents {#enocache-errors-from-buildbowercomponents}

This means that Bower was looking for a package version which doesn't exist in the generated `bower-packages.nix`.

If `bower.json` has been updated, then run `bower2nix` again.

It could also be a bug in `bower2nix` or `fetchbower`. If possible, try reformulating the version specification in `bower.json`.

android.section.md

astal.section.md

beam.section.md

bower.section.md

chicken.section.md

coq.section.md

cosmic.section.md

    "release-notes.html#sec-nixpkgs-release-25.11-highlights"

  ],

  "sec-nixpkgs-release-25.11-incompatibilities": [

    "release-notes.html#sec-nixpkgs-release-25.11-incompatibilities"

    "release-notes.html#sec-nixpkgs-release-25.11-incompatibilities",

    "index.html#enocache-errors-from-buildbowercomponents",

    "index.html#ex-bowerGulpFile",

    "index.html#ex-bowerJson",

    "index.html#ex-buildBowerComponents",

    "index.html#ex-buildBowerComponentsDefaultNix",

    "index.html#sec-bower",

    "index.html#ssec-bower2nix-troubleshooting",

    "index.html#ssec-bower2nix-usage",

    "index.html#ssec-build-bower-components"

  ],

  "sec-nixpkgs-release-25.11-lib": [

    "release-notes.html#sec-nixpkgs-release-25.11-lib"

  "elixir---phoenix-project": [

    "index.html#elixir---phoenix-project"

  ],

  "sec-bower": [

    "index.html#sec-bower"

  ],

  "ssec-bower2nix-usage": [

    "index.html#ssec-bower2nix-usage"

  ],

  "ex-bowerJson": [

    "index.html#ex-bowerJson"

  ],

  "ssec-build-bower-components": [

    "index.html#ssec-build-bower-components"

  ],

  "ex-buildBowerComponents": [

    "index.html#ex-buildBowerComponents"

  ],

  "ex-bowerGulpFile": [

    "index.html#ex-bowerGulpFile"

  ],

  "ex-buildBowerComponentsDefaultNix": [

    "index.html#ex-buildBowerComponentsDefaultNix"

  ],

  "ssec-bower2nix-troubleshooting": [

    "index.html#ssec-bower2nix-troubleshooting"

  ],

  "enocache-errors-from-buildbowercomponents": [

    "index.html#enocache-errors-from-buildbowercomponents"

  ],

  "sec-chicken": [

    "index.html#sec-chicken"

  ],

- `mono4` and `mono5` have been removed. Use `mono6` or `mono` instead.

- Everything related to `bower` was removed, as it is deprecated and not used by anything in nixpkgs.

- The `offrss` package was removed due to lack of upstream maintenance since 2012. It's recommended for users to migrate to another RSS reader

- `installShellFiles`: Allow installManPage to take a piped input, add the `--name` flag for renaming the file when installed. Can also append `--` to opt-out of all subsequent parsing.

{

  stdenvNoCC,

  lib,

  bower2nix,

  cacert,

}:

let

  bowerVersion =

    version:

    let

      components = lib.splitString "#" version;

      hash = lib.last components;

      ver = if builtins.length components == 1 then (cleanName version) else hash;

    in

    ver;

  cleanName = name: lib.replaceStrings [ "/" ":" ] [ "-" "-" ] name;

  fetchbower =

    name: version: target: outputHash:

    stdenvNoCC.mkDerivation {

      name = "${cleanName name}-${bowerVersion version}";

      buildCommand = ''

        fetch-bower --quiet --out=$PWD/out "${name}" "${target}" "${version}"

        # In some cases, the result of fetchBower is different depending

        # on the output directory (e.g. if the bower package contains

        # symlinks). So use a local output directory before copying to

        # $out.

        cp -R out $out

      '';

      outputHashMode = "recursive";

      outputHashAlgo = "sha256";

      inherit outputHash;

      nativeBuildInputs = [

        bower2nix

        cacert

      ];

    };

in

fetchbower