[CI] Add a README

Author: proux01

dev/doc/README-CI.md

@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+# Stdlib CI
+
+The CI is mostly implemented using Nix on top of packages of the
+nixpkgs repository https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs through the
+coq-nix-toolbox https://github.com/coq-community/coq-nix-toolbox .
+Binary results are cached using Cachix.
+
+### Local Installation and Nix Usage
+
+See this wiki page
+https://github.com/math-comp/math-comp/wiki/Using-nix for how to
+install and setup Nix and Cachix.
+
+### Rerunning a CI Task Locally
+
+You can take example of the files `.github/workflows/nix-action-coq-*.yml`
+For instance, to rerun iris for Coq master :
+```shell
+% nix-build --argstr bundle "coq-master" --argstr job iris
+```
+The list of bundles can be found in `.nix/config.nix`.
+
+### Test CI Configurations with Overlays
+
+For simple overlays, it's enough to add a line in the .nix/config.nix
+file (look for "overlay" there).
+
+For more elaborate overlays (for instance editing package dependencies
+or build process), a simple way to test modifications of the CI
+configuration (new version or configuration change of some package for
+instance) is through overlays, see the corresponding paragraph at
+https://github.com/coq-community/coq-nix-toolbox#overlays (for sha256
+hashes, one can just put an empty string, run the `nix-build` command
+above and an error will give the correct value).
+
+### Updating coq-nix-toolbox
+
+Once overlays are satisfactory, they should eventually be merged into
+the nixpkgs package repository.
+
+The file `.nix/coq-nix-toolbox.nix` contains the git commit hash of
+the version of coq-nix-toolbox used (c.f.,
+https://github.com/coq-community/coq-nix-toolbox ). Coq-nix-toolbox
+itself contains the git commit hash of the version of nixpkgs it uses
+(c.f. https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/ ). So in order to add or
+remove a Nix derivation (package), one needs to first update nixpkgs,
+then coq-nix-toolbox and finally the `.nix/coq-nix-toolbox.nix` file
+here. See the [coq-nix-toolbox README](https://github.com/coq-community/coq-nix-toolbox#testing-coqpackages-updates-in-nixpkgs)
+for details of the process.
+
+The most common maintenance action on the CI is currently to update
+the version of the coq-nix-toolbox and regenerate the github action
+workflows, see the last command of [this
+paragraph](https://github.com/coq-community/coq-nix-toolbox?tab=readme-ov-file#standalone).
+
+### Learning Nix basics
+
+Basic concepts of the Nix package manager:
+https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/ (I particularly recommend
+[Part I. introduction](https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/#chap-introduction) and
+[Chapter 9. Basic Package Management](https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/#ch-basic-package-mgmt))
+
+Nix is based on its own functional language:
+[Part IV. Writing Nix Expressions](https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/#chap-writing-nix-expressions)
+
+Specifics for Coq packages: [15.5. Coq and coq packages](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/unstable/#sec-language-coq)
+
+### Caching
+
+The CI uses caching provided by https://www.cachix.org/ and there is a
+token in the coq-community organization to authenticate and store the
+results. Any CI build is stored globally and can be used on one's own
+computer as described in
+https://github.com/math-comp/math-comp/wiki/Using-nix
+
+### Specific CI jobs
+
+#### stdlib-subcomponents
+
+Checks that the dependencies between stdlib subcomponents (as
+documented in [doc/stdlib/index.html](../../doc/stdlib/index.html)) is
+not broken.
+
+#### Other non-Nix jobs
+
+##### basic-checks
+
+Checks that the theories/Make.all and other theories/Make.* files are
+consistent. Also checks that no two sources files in the stdlib (+ Coq
+prelude) have the same name (which could lead to conflict when doing
+`From Stdlib Require File.`).
+