From 26def5392f6f6364aa0939a2d4fc7705e786d38d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Eelco Dolstra Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2010 14:44:02 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] * Document Boehm GC support. --- doc/manual/env-common.xml | 11 +++++++++++ doc/manual/installation.xml | 7 +++++++ doc/manual/release-notes.xml | 21 +++++++++++++++++++++ src/libmain/shared.cc | 2 +- 4 files changed, 40 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/doc/manual/env-common.xml b/doc/manual/env-common.xml index d67ef714d..99acc5949 100644 --- a/doc/manual/env-common.xml +++ b/doc/manual/env-common.xml @@ -271,6 +271,17 @@ $ mount -o bind /mnt/otherdisk/nix /nix + +GC_INITIAL_HEAP_SIZE + + If Nix has been configured to use the Boehm garbage + collector, this variable sets the initial size of the heap in bytes. + It defaults to 384 MiB. Setting it to a low value reduces memory + consumption, but will increase runtime due to the overhead of + garbage collection. + + + diff --git a/doc/manual/installation.xml b/doc/manual/installation.xml index bc5e21f0d..87a6c446a 100644 --- a/doc/manual/installation.xml +++ b/doc/manual/installation.xml @@ -105,6 +105,13 @@ this packages. Alternatively, if you already have it installed, you can use configure's options to point to their respective locations. +Nix can optionally use the Boehm +garbage collector to reduce the evaluator’s memory consumption. +To enable it, install pkgconfig and the Boehm +garbage collector, and pass the flag to +configure. + diff --git a/doc/manual/release-notes.xml b/doc/manual/release-notes.xml index 5b1c30bf8..1e579a37b 100644 --- a/doc/manual/release-notes.xml +++ b/doc/manual/release-notes.xml @@ -6,6 +6,27 @@ + + +
Release 1.0 (TBA) + +This release has the following improvements: + + + + + Nix can now optionally use the Boehm garbage collector. + This significantly reduces the Nix evaluator’s memory footprint, + especially when evaluating large NixOS system configurations. It + can be enabled using the configure + option. + + + + +
+ +
Release 0.16 (August 17, 2010) diff --git a/src/libmain/shared.cc b/src/libmain/shared.cc index 82309544a..29fc13e33 100644 --- a/src/libmain/shared.cc +++ b/src/libmain/shared.cc @@ -364,7 +364,7 @@ int main(int argc, char * * argv) allocated. This might be a problem on systems that don't overcommit. */ if (!getenv("GC_INITIAL_HEAP_SIZE")) - GC_expand_hp(384000000); + GC_expand_hp(384 * 1024 * 1024); #endif try {