processing: Move to gradle-based build by neobrain · Pull Request #466611 · NixOS/nixpkgs

neobrain · 2025-11-30T16:22:29Z

This drops use of upstream's deprecated ant build system in favor of the Gradle build scripts introduced in Processing 4.4.

Doing so has the nice side effect of enabling some previously broken functionality such as examples not being bundled.

Things done

Built on platform:
- x86_64-linux
- aarch64-linux
- x86_64-darwin
- aarch64-darwin
Tested, as applicable:
- ~~[ ] NixOS tests in nixos/tests.~~
- ~~[ ] Package tests at passthru.tests.~~
- ~~[ ] Tests in lib/tests or pkgs/test for functions and "core" functionality.~~
Ran nixpkgs-review on this PR. See nixpkgs-review usage.
Tested basic functionality of all binary files, usually in ./result/bin/.
Nixpkgs Release Notes
- ~~[ ] Package update: when the change is major or breaking.~~
NixOS Release Notes
- ~~[ ] Module addition: when adding a new NixOS module.~~
- ~~[ ] Module update: when the change is significant.~~
Fits CONTRIBUTING.md, pkgs/README.md, maintainers/README.md and other READMEs.

Add a 👍 reaction to pull requests you find important.

neobrain · 2025-11-30T16:25:44Z

    ln -sf ${batik}/* java/libraries/svg/library/
    cp java/libraries/svg/library/share/java/batik-all-${batik.version}.jar java/libraries/svg/library/batik.jar
-    echo "tarring ffmpeg"
-    tar --checkpoint=10000 -czf build/shared/tools/MovieMaker/ffmpeg-5.0.1.gz ${ffmpeg}


Note: I wasn't sure why this was needed before. Is it still required?

We unbundled the moviemaker tool

neobrain · 2025-11-30T17:27:47Z

Upstream generates a binary called Processing instead of processing now, which breaks nix run nixpkgs#processing (since that case-sensitively looks for bin/processing). How does one typically resolve this? Is there an attribute I can override, or should we just rename the binary back to processing (overriding upstream)?

fxzzi · 2025-11-30T22:25:25Z

Upstream generates a binary called Processing instead of processing now, which breaks nix run nixpkgs#processing (since that case-sensitively looks for bin/processing). How does one typically resolve this? Is there an attribute I can override, or should we just rename the binary back to processing (overriding upstream)?

set meta.mainProgram to Processing

evan-goode · 2025-11-30T22:26:52Z

Upstream generates a binary called Processing instead of processing now

Unfortunate, this is a script-breaking and confusing change. Could we ship a processing symlink?

neobrain · 2025-12-01T13:33:08Z

set meta.mainProgram to Processing

Thanks, done!

Unfortunate, this is a script-breaking and confusing change. Could we ship a processing symlink?

Presumably this would put both processing and Processing into my environment if I were to use nix profile install nixpkgs#processing, so not sure this is desirable either. I don't have a strong opinion on this either way, but for now I just went with the meta attribute.

Stefterv · 2026-02-02T14:03:33Z

Does it make sense to upstream any of the patches @neobrain?

neobrain · 2026-02-02T14:44:22Z

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+diff --git a/app/build.gradle.kts b/app/build.gradle.kts


@Stefterv Without this patch, the build fails since it somehow doesn't find the createDistributable task. Does this make any sense to you?

processing> Running phase: buildPhase processing> +++ gradle createDistributable ... processing> FAILURE: Build failed with an exception. processing> processing> * Where: processing> Build file '/build/source/app/build.gradle.kts' line: 536 processing> processing> * What went wrong: processing> Could not create task ':app:zipDistributable'. processing> > Task with name 'createDistributable' not found in project ':app'.

We don't need the zip distributable either way, but its built automatically as part of "gradle assemble/createDistributable". Here are some options:

Figure out where that error comes from and fix it (and then build the zip distributable and throw it away)

Use another command than gradle assemble/createDistributable that only builds required files (if that exists?)

Keep this ugly patch in nixpkgs to skip the target

I have had issues before that the tasks generated by the Compose Packager are unavailable until later in the evaluation of the gradle files

Just also noticed that on the latest commit this has been refactored a bit. Could you check if it happens to be working rn

Is 4.5.2 recent enough or would I have to try latest git?

4.5.2 still has the same error.

Ah latest git, merged it in today

Same error with 735bfa6 :(

I have had issues before that the tasks generated by the Compose Packager are unavailable until later in the evaluation of the gradle files

Is there a way to eagerly trigger generation of these CP tasks?

Just cleaned up the existing approach and added a comment about it for now.

neobrain · 2026-02-02T14:54:33Z

Does it make sense to upstream any of the patches @neobrain?

It would be nice if we found a way to make the skip-distributable.patch unnecessary (see my other comment)
Processing's gradle build pulls the "latest main" from processing-website and processing-examples, which is not compatible with nix's reproducibility requirements. But we need to maintain pins in deps.json anyway, and the substituteInPlace line added in 5af181b isn't the worst thing to have. No action needed from upstream.
fix-permissions.patch could be merged upstream, at least I don't see any downside in doing so

(btw, quick reminder that the nixpkgs review queue is prioritized by number of upvotes on the PR description 😇 )

Stefterv · 2026-02-02T15:02:26Z

+    cp -dpr app/build/compose/binaries/main/app/Processing/bin $out/unwrapped
+
    mkdir -p $out/share/applications/
    cp -dp build/linux/${pname}.desktop $out/share/applications/


this .desktop file is old and will be deleted soon

Is there a replacement? Remember Linux apps don't typically get taskbar/tabswitcher icons without desktop files.

Yes, but it is in the .deb file 🫠

https://github.com/processing/processing4/blob/735bfa637f288b151ecf08b5c08195a6596c6f21/app/linux/flathub.yml#L19-L22 here I grab it for flathub

Where does the deb come from? Does gradle generate it automatically for you?

Nix can write its own desktop file if need be, though it still needs to know where to find official icons etc.

Run gradle packageDeb

Stefterv · 2026-02-02T15:16:56Z

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+diff --git a/app/build.gradle.kts b/app/build.gradle.kts


processing/processing4#1400

This PR is merged so the patch can be removed no?

nixpkgs pins package versions, so it still builds processing 4.4.10. We can trivially update in a follow-up once my PR is merged though. (That being said, dropping the patch from nixpkgs also requires upstream/you to ship the PR in a release, which I think hasn't happened yet?)

neobrain · 2026-02-03T18:21:51Z

`nixpkgs-review` result

Generated using nixpkgs-review.

Command: nixpkgs-review pr 466611
Commit: 0dd7ec2d9b9b77915559ff487eeee039c357123c

`aarch64-linux`

✅ 1 package built:

processing

neobrain · 2026-02-09T14:03:32Z

@Stefterv @evan-goode Could we move forward with this? The deprecated ant build is not a robust base for future Processing version updates, and once this PR is in we can easily update from 4.4.10 to the current 4.5.2.

Stefterv · 2026-02-09T14:06:32Z

All good with me, would just mention that a 4.5.3 is incoming...

evan-goode · 2026-02-13T20:43:35Z

Works great in my testing! My only lingering complaint is the Processing binary...

Presumably this would put both processing and Processing into my environment if I were to use nix profile install nixpkgs#processing, so not sure this is desirable either. I don't have a strong opinion on this either way, but for now I just went with the meta attribute.

I would prefer having both Processing and processing. Primarily to avoid breaking existing scripts, but also since lowercase binary names are easier to type and more idiomatic. The freecad derivation in nixpkgs has both; the binary is bin/FreeCAD but there is a bin/freecad symlink to bin/FreeCAD.

neobrain · 2026-02-13T22:23:28Z

Works great in my testing!

Thanks for giving it a spin!

My only lingering complaint is the Processing binary...
I would prefer having both Processing and processing. Primarily to avoid breaking existing scripts, but also since lowercase binary names are easier to type and more idiomatic. The freecad derivation in nixpkgs has both; the binary is bin/FreeCAD but there is a bin/freecad symlink to bin/FreeCAD.

Fair enough, I adopted the symlink approach from the FreeCAD derivation so that we get both Processing and processing now.

neobrain · 2026-02-21T14:52:07Z

I would prefer having both Processing and processing. Primarily to avoid breaking existing scripts, but also since lowercase binary names are easier to type and more idiomatic. The freecad derivation in nixpkgs has both; the binary is bin/FreeCAD but there is a bin/freecad symlink to bin/FreeCAD.

Gentle ping now that there's both, is there anything more to do here? :)

evan-goode

LGTM, thank you!

neobrain · 2026-02-25T14:59:00Z

@uninsane Apologies for the ping, but any chance this could be queued for merging? The change enables future package updates (while also fixing functionality that was broken before) and has approval by upstream & by the nixpkgs maintainer.

uninsane · 2026-02-25T17:37:00Z

Suggested change

(fetchurl {

# Remove after next release

name = "dir-permissions";

url = "https://github.com/processing/processing4/commit/9156f46974be1ff69ee3d1b6c5457e09477ea751.patch?full_index=1";

hash = "sha256-jc6KWhal9zLHU7QWT26XUmIIF+2C3itiaflxUEazqBQ=";

})

& remove the vendored fix-permissions.patch file

Good one, thanks!

Oof, bad news: The upstream patch doesn't actually work for me. So I reverted back to the vendored patch for now :/

@Stefterv Did you intentionally patch the includeJavaMode step upstream instead of the includeJdk one? That seems to be the main difference between the two changes.

…repos

Upstream changed the executable name to uppercase. Creating a symlink with the old name prevents breaking existing scripts.

uninsane · 2026-02-26T01:48:01Z

`nixpkgs-review` result

Generated using nixpkgs-review.

Command: nixpkgs-review pr 466611
Commit: 65cc689085e0841a2e5583b4db31f23afd7eb003

`x86_64-linux`

✅ 2 packages built:

nixpkgs-manual
processing

uninsane · 2026-02-26T01:49:10Z

it's fine to sort out the patch/upstream discrepancies after merging / in a separate PR.

neobrain · 2026-02-26T09:18:42Z

Great, thanks again for the reviews everyone :)

Resolves #501949. Following #466611, JOGL from Maven was being used instead of JOGL in nixpkgs. The nixpkgs JOGL contains a patch to nixify a reference to /bin/true. Assisted-by: GLM-5

Resolves NixOS#501949. Following NixOS#466611, JOGL from Maven was being used instead of JOGL in nixpkgs. The nixpkgs JOGL contains a patch to nixify a reference to /bin/true. Assisted-by: GLM-5

neobrain mentioned this pull request Nov 30, 2025

processing: 4.3.2 -> 4.4.10 #464235

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neobrain commented Nov 30, 2025

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nixpkgs-ci Bot requested a review from evan-goode November 30, 2025 16:27

nixpkgs-ci Bot added 10.rebuild-linux: 1-10 This PR causes between 1 and 10 packages to rebuild on Linux. 10.rebuild-darwin: 0 This PR does not cause any packages to rebuild on Darwin. 10.rebuild-linux: 1 This PR causes 1 package to rebuild on Linux. labels Nov 30, 2025

nixpkgs-ci Bot added the 2.status: merge conflict This PR has merge conflicts with the target branch label Dec 13, 2025

neobrain force-pushed the processing-gradle branch from d523975 to c722d08 Compare February 2, 2026 09:37

nixpkgs-ci Bot removed the 2.status: merge conflict This PR has merge conflicts with the target branch label Feb 2, 2026

neobrain commented Feb 2, 2026

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Stefterv reviewed Feb 2, 2026

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neobrain force-pushed the processing-gradle branch 3 times, most recently from d1ecaca to 0dd7ec2 Compare February 3, 2026 18:12

Stefterv approved these changes Feb 9, 2026

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nixpkgs-ci Bot added the 12.approvals: 1 This PR was reviewed and approved by one person. label Feb 9, 2026

neobrain force-pushed the processing-gradle branch from 0dd7ec2 to 339fcf8 Compare February 13, 2026 22:21

Stefterv mentioned this pull request Feb 21, 2026

Add an install.sh for easy install processing/processing4#1425

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evan-goode approved these changes Feb 21, 2026

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uninsane reviewed Feb 25, 2026

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neobrain force-pushed the processing-gradle branch from 339fcf8 to adcb339 Compare February 25, 2026 22:32

neobrain added 4 commits February 25, 2026 23:43

processing: move to gradle-based build

a7a968c

processing: set meta.mainProgram

e472148

processing: pin version of processing-website and processing-example …

b0cf912

…repos

processing: symlink uppercase executable name to lowercase

65cc689

Upstream changed the executable name to uppercase. Creating a symlink with the old name prevents breaking existing scripts.

neobrain force-pushed the processing-gradle branch from adcb339 to 65cc689 Compare February 25, 2026 22:43

uninsane added this pull request to the merge queue Feb 26, 2026

Merged via the queue into NixOS:master with commit 2c78d8e Feb 26, 2026
28 of 32 checks passed

neobrain deleted the processing-gradle branch February 26, 2026 09:18

neobrain mentioned this pull request Mar 5, 2026

Use lazy evaluation for dependencies of the zipDistributable task processing/processing4#1474

Open

This was referenced Mar 21, 2026

processing: 3D sketch can no longer run on x86_64-linux #501949

Closed

processing: Use jogl from nixpkgs #502018

Merged

		@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
		diff --git a/app/build.gradle.kts b/app/build.gradle.kts

+    (fetchurl {
+      # Remove after next release
+      name = "dir-permissions";
+      url = "https://github.com/processing/processing4/commit/9156f46974be1ff69ee3d1b6c5457e09477ea751.patch?full_index=1";
+      hash = "sha256-jc6KWhal9zLHU7QWT26XUmIIF+2C3itiaflxUEazqBQ=";
+    })

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neobrain commented Feb 3, 2026

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