It is not inherently tied to `LocalStore`, it could probably even go in
`libnixutil`. Functions not attached to `LocalStore` should not be
declared in `local-store.hh`.
I am moving it to facilitate experimenting for #9344. If
canonicalisation should be done client-side in client-side builds, there
wouldn't be a `LocalStore` at all so having to include that header to
get this freestanding function is cumbersome and wrong.
Perhaps canonicalisation should still be done server-side for security
reasons --- I don't mean to make that judgement call now --- but even if
so, this freestanding function still isn't connected to `LocalStore` so
while less urgent it is still better to move out of this header.
This avoids repeated copying of the same source tree between Nix
invocations. It requires the accessor to have a "fingerprint" (e.g. a
Git revision) that uniquely determines its contents.
getFlake currently calls lstat (via isLink via canonPath) before it
performs the sanity check that a flake.nix exists in the first place.
This commit moves the check to before path canonicalization, so that
failed symlink check operations don't throw before the check does.
Fixes:
warning: destructor called on non-final 'nix::ParseUnquoted' that has virtual functions but non-virtual destructor [-Wdelete-non-abstract-non-virtual-dtor]
**`Value` and `const`**
These two deserve some explanation. We'll get to lists later.
Values can normally be thought of as immutable, except they are
are also the vehicle for call by need, which must be implemented
using mutation.
This circumstance makes a `const Value` a rather useless thing:
- If it's a thunk, you can't evaluate it, except by copying, but
that would not be call by need.
- If it's not a thunk, you know the type, so the method that
acquired it for you should have returned something more specific,
such as a `const Bindings &` (which actually does make sense
because that's an immutable span of pointers to mutable `Value`s.
- If you don't care about the type yet, you might establish the
convention that `const Value` means `deepSeq`-ed data, but
this is hardly useful and not actually as safe as you would
supposedly want to trust it to be - just convention.
**Lists**
`std::span` is a tuple of pointer and size - just what we need.
We don't return them as `const Value`, because considering the
first bullet point we discussed before, we'd have to force all
the list values, which isn't what we want.
So what we end up with is a nice representation of a list in
weak head normal form: the spine is immutable, but the
items may need some evaluation later.
