{
  pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {},
  stdenv ? pkgs.stdenv,
  lib ? pkgs.lib,
  ldc ? null,
  dcompiler ? pkgs.ldc,
  dub ? pkgs.dub,
}:
assert dcompiler != null;
with (
  with lib; let
    filterDub = name: type: let
      baseName = baseNameOf (toString name);
    in
      ! ( # filter function to remove the .dub package folder from src
        type == "directory" && baseName == ".dub"
      );
    targetOf = package: "${package.targetPath or "."}/${package.targetName or package.name}";
    # remove reference to build tools and library sources
    disallowedReferences = deps: [dcompiler dub];
    removeExpr = refs: ''remove-references-to ${lib.concatMapStrings (ref: " -t ${ref}") refs}'';
  in {
    mkDubDerivation = lib.makeOverridable ({
        src,
        nativeBuildInputs ? [],
        dubJSON ? src + "/dub.json",
        passthru ? {},
        package ? lib.importJSON dubJSON,
        ...
      } @ attrs:
        stdenv.mkDerivation (attrs
          // {
            pname = package.name;
            nativeBuildInputs = [dcompiler dub pkgs.removeReferencesTo] ++ nativeBuildInputs;
            disallowedReferences = disallowedReferences deps;
            passthru =
              passthru
              // {
                inherit dub dcompiler pkgs;
              };
            src = lib.cleanSourceWith {
              filter = filterDub;
              src = lib.cleanSource src;
            };
            preFixup = ''
              find $out/bin -type f -exec ${removeExpr (disallowedReferences deps)} '{}' + || true
            '';
            buildPhase = ''
              runHook preBuild
              HOME="$PWD"
              for DC_ in dmd ldmd2 gdmd; do
                echo "- check for D compiler $DC_"
                DC=$(type -P $DC_ || echo "")
                if [ ! "$DC" == "" ]; then
                  break
                fi
              done
              if [ "$DC" == "" ]; then
                exit "Error: could not find D compiler"
              fi
              echo "$DC_ used as D compiler to build $pname"
              dub run --compiler=$DC --build=release --combined --skip-registry=all
              runHook postBuild
            '';
            checkPhase = ''
              runHook preCheck
              HOME="$PWD"
              dub test --combined --skip-registry=all
              runHook postCheck
            '';
            installPhase = ''
              runHook preInstall
              mkdir -p $out/bin
              cp -r "${targetOf package}" $out/bin
              #cp -rv "${targetOf package}" $out/sisudoc-spine-markup-samples/.
              #cp -rv ./markup $out/sisudoc-spine-markup-samples/.
              runHook postInstall
            '';
            #postInstall= ''
            #  cp -rv ./markup $out/sisudoc-spine-markup-samples/.
            #'';
            meta =
              lib.optionalAttrs (package ? description) {
                description = package.description;
              }
              // attrs.meta or {};
          }
          // lib.optionalAttrs (!(attrs ? version)) {
            name = package.name; # use name from dub.json, unless pname and version are specified
          }));
  }
);
  mkDubDerivation rec {
    pname = "spine";
    version = "0.16.0";
    #zipfile = "spine-0.12.0-tag-0.11.2.r107.gf89a107.tar.gz";
    src = fetchTarball {
      url = "file:///home/ralph/grotto/repo/git.repo/projects/doc-reform/code/software/tarball/spine-0.12.0-tag-0.11.2.r107.gf89a107.tar.gz";
      sha256 = "sha256:03dr7dn7kq6arw4ry7qar13iqmi1caw70imfjwi8qr7g2j4mnk2q";
    };
    nativeBuildInputs = with pkgs; [dub ldc];
    buildInputs = with pkgs; [nixVersions.nix_2_21 sqlite];
    meta = with pkgs.lib; {
      description = "A sisu like parser & document generator";
      longDescription = ''
        a sisu like parser & document generator
      '';
      homepage = "https://sisudoc.org";
      license = licenses.agpl3Plus;
      platforms = platforms.linux;
      maintainers = ["RalphAmissah"];
    };
  }