Impure derivations are derivations that can produce a different result
every time they're built. Example:
stdenv.mkDerivation {
name = "impure";
__impure = true; # marks this derivation as impure
outputHashAlgo = "sha256";
outputHashMode = "recursive";
buildCommand = "date > $out";
};
Some important characteristics:
* This requires the 'impure-derivations' experimental feature.
* Impure derivations are not "cached". Thus, running "nix-build" on
the example above multiple times will cause a rebuild every time.
* They are implemented similar to CA derivations, i.e. the output is
moved to a content-addressed path in the store. The difference is
that we don't register a realisation in the Nix database.
* Pure derivations are not allowed to depend on impure derivations. In
the future fixed-output derivations will be allowed to depend on
impure derivations, thus forming an "impurity barrier" in the
dependency graph.
* When sandboxing is enabled, impure derivations can access the
network in the same way as fixed-output derivations. In relaxed
sandboxing mode, they can access the local filesystem.
1. `DerivationOutput` now as the `std::variant` as a base class. And the
variants are given hierarchical names under `DerivationOutput`.
In 8e0d0689be @matthewbauer and I
didn't know a better idiom, and so we made it a field. But this sort
of "newtype" is anoying for literals downstream.
Since then we leaned the base class, inherit the constructors trick,
e.g. used in `DerivedPath`. Switching to use that makes this more
ergonomic, and consistent.
2. `store-api.hh` and `derivations.hh` are now independent.
In bcde5456cc I swapped the dependency,
but I now know it is better to just keep on using incomplete types as
much as possible for faster compilation and good separation of
concerns.
I had started the trend of doing `std::visit` by value (because a type
error once mislead me into thinking that was the only form that
existed). While the optomizer in principle should be able to deal with
extra coppying or extra indirection once the lambdas inlined, sticking
with by reference is the conventional default. I hope this might even
improve performance.
We've added the variant to `DerivationOutput` to support them, but made
`DerivationOutput::path` partial to avoid actually implementing them.
With this chage, we can all collaborate on "just" removing
`DerivationOutput::path` calls to implement CA derivations.
Most functions now take a StorePath argument rather than a Path (which
is just an alias for std::string). The StorePath constructor ensures
that the path is syntactically correct (i.e. it looks like
<store-dir>/<base32-hash>-<name>). Similarly, functions like
buildPaths() now take a StorePathWithOutputs, rather than abusing Path
by adding a '!<outputs>' suffix.
Note that the StorePath type is implemented in Rust. This involves
some hackery to allow Rust values to be used directly in C++, via a
helper type whose destructor calls the Rust type's drop()
function. The main issue is the dynamic nature of C++ move semantics:
after we have moved a Rust value, we should not call the drop function
on the original value. So when we move a value, we set the original
value to bitwise zero, and the destructor only calls drop() if the
value is not bitwise zero. This should be sufficient for most types.
Also lots of minor cleanups to the C++ API to make it more modern
(e.g. using std::optional and std::string_view in some places).
