<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" version="5.0" xml:id="ssec-relnotes-1.12"> <title>Release 1.12 (TBA)</title> <para>This release has the following new features:</para> <itemizedlist> <listitem> <para>Start of new <command>nix</command> command line interface. This is a work in progress and the interface is subject to change.</para> <itemizedlist> <listitem><para>Self-documenting: <option>--help</option> shows all available command-line arguments.</para></listitem> <listitem><para><option>--help-config</option> shows all configuration options.</para></listitem> <listitem><para><command>nix build</command>: Replacement for <command>nix-build</command>.</para></listitem> <listitem><para><command>nix ls-store</command> and <command>nix ls-nar</command> allow listing the contents of a store path or NAR file.</para></listitem> <listitem><para><command>nix cat-store</command> and <command>nix cat-nar</command> allow extracting a file from a store path or NAR file.</para></listitem> <listitem><para><command>nix verify</command> checks whether a store path is unmodified and/or is trusted.</para></listitem> <listitem><para><command>nix copy-sigs</command> copies signatures from one store to another.</para></listitem> <listitem><para><command>nix sign-paths</command> signs store paths.</para></listitem> <listitem><para><command>nix copy</command> copies paths between arbitrary Nix stores, generalising <command>nix-copy-closure</command> and <command>nix-push</command>.</para></listitem> <listitem><para><command>nix path-info</command> shows information about store paths.</para></listitem> <listitem><para><command>nix run</command> starts a shell in which the specified packages are available.</para></listitem> <listitem><para><command>nix log</command> shows the build log of a package or path. If the build log is not available locally, it will try to obtain it from a binary cache.</para></listitem> <listitem><para><command>nix eval</command> replaces <command>nix-instantiate --eval</command>.</para></listitem> <listitem><para><command>nix dump-path</command> to get a NAR from a store path.</para></listitem> <listitem><para><command>nix edit</command> opens the source code of a package in an editor.</para></listitem> <listitem><para><command>nix search</command> replaces <command>nix-env -qa</command>. It searches the available packages for occurences of a search string in the attribute name, package name or description. It caches available packages to speed up searches.</para></listitem> <listitem><para><command>nix why-depends</command> (d41c5eb13f4f3a37d80dbc6d3888644170c3b44a).</para></listitem> <listitem><para><command>nix show-derivation</command> (e8d6ee7c1b90a2fe6d824f1a875acc56799ae6e2).</para></listitem> <listitem><para><command>nix add-to-store</command> (970366266b8df712f5f9cedb45af183ef5a8357f).</para></listitem> <listitem><para>Progress indicator.</para></listitem> <listitem><para>All options are available as flags now (b8283773bd64d7da6859ed520ee19867742a03ba).</para></listitem> </itemizedlist> </listitem> <listitem> <para>The external program <command>nix-repl</command> has been integrated into Nix as <command>nix repl</command>.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>New build mode <command>nix-build --hash</command> that builds a derivation, computes the hash of the output, and moves the output to the store path corresponding to what a fixed-output derivation with that hash would produce. (Add docs and examples; see d367b8e7875161e655deaa96bf8a5dd0bcf8229e)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>It is no longer necessary to set the <envar>NIX_REMOTE</envar> environment variable if you need to use the Nix daemon. Nix will use the daemon automatically if you don’t have write access to the Nix database.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>The Nix language now supports floating point numbers. They are based on regular C++ <literal>float</literal> and compatible with existing integers and number-related operations. Export and import to and from JSON and XML works, too.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para><command>nix-shell</command> now sets the <varname>IN_NIX_SHELL</varname> environment variable during evaluation and in the shell itself. This can be used to perform different actions depending on whether you’re in a Nix shell or in a regular build. Nixpkgs provides <varname>lib.inNixShell</varname> to check this variable during evaluation. (bb36a1a3cf3fbe6bc9d0afcc5fa0f928bed03170)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Internal: all <classname>Store</classname> classes are now thread-safe. <classname>RemoteStore</classname> supports multiple concurrent connections to the daemon. This is primarily useful in multi-threaded programs such as <command>hydra-queue-runner</command>.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>The dependency on Perl has been removed. As a result, some (obsolete) programs have been removed: <command>nix-push</command> (replaced by <command>nix copy</command>), <command>nix-pull</command> (obsoleted by binary caches), <command>nix-generate-patches</command>, <command>bsdiff</command>, <command>bspatch</command>.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Improved store abstraction. Substituters eliminated. BinaryCacheStore, LocalBinaryCacheStore, HttpBinaryCacheStore, S3BinaryCacheStore (compile-time optional), SSHStore. Add docs + examples? </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Nix now stores signatures for local store paths. Locally-built paths are now signed automatically using the secret keys specified by the <option>secret-key-files</option> store option.</para> <para>In addition, store paths that have been built locally are marked as “ultimately trusted”, and content-addressable store paths carry a “content-addressability assertion” that allow them to be trusted without any signatures.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para><envar>NIX_PATH</envar> is now lazy, so URIs in the path are only downloaded if they are needed for evaluation.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>You can now use <uri>channel:<replaceable>channel-name</replaceable></uri> as a short-hand for <uri>https://nixos.org/channels/<replaceable>channel-name</replaceable>/nixexprs.tar.xz</uri>. For example, <literal>nix-build channel:nixos-15.09 -A hello</literal> will build the GNU Hello package from the <literal>nixos-15.09</literal> channel.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>When <option>--no-build-output</option> is given, the last 10 lines of the build log will be shown if a build fails.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para><function>builtins.fetchGit</function>. (38539b943a060d9cdfc24d6e5d997c0885b8aa2f)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para><literal><nix/fetchurl.nix></literal> now uses the content-addressable tarball cache at <uri>http://tarballs.nixos.org/</uri>, just like <function>fetchurl</function> in Nixpkgs. (f2682e6e18a76ecbfb8a12c17e3a0ca15c084197)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Chroot Nix stores: allow the “physical” location of the Nix store (e.g. <filename>/home/alice/nix/store</filename>) to differ from its “logical” location (typically <filename>/nix/store</filename>). This allows non-root users to use Nix while still getting the benefits from prebuilt binaries from <uri>cache.nixos.org</uri>. (4494000e04122f24558e1436e66d20d89028b4bd, 3eb621750848e0e6b30e5a79f76afbb096bb6c8a)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>On Linux, builds are now executed in a user namespace with uid 1000 and gid 100.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para><function>builtins.fetchurl</function> and <function>builtins.fetchTarball</function> now support <varname>sha256</varname> and <varname>name</varname> attributes.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para><literal>HttpBinaryCacheStore</literal> (the replacement of <command>download-from-binary-cache</command>) now retries automatically on certain HTTP error codes.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Derivation attributes can now reference the outputs of the derivation using the <function>placeholder</function> builtin function. For example, the attribute <programlisting> configureFlags = "--prefix=${placeholder "out"} --includedir=${placeholder "dev"}"; </programlisting> will cause the <envar>configureFlags</envar> environment variable to contain the actual store paths corresponding to the <literal>out</literal> and <literal>dev</literal> outputs. TODO: add docs.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Support for HTTP/2. This makes binary cache lookups much more efficient. (90ad02bf626b885a5dd8967894e2eafc953bdf92)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>The <option>build-sandbox-paths</option> configuration option can now specify optional paths by appending a <literal>?</literal>, e.g. <literal>/dev/nvidiactl?</literal> will bind-mount <varname>/dev/nvidiactl</varname> only if it exists.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>More support for testing build reproducibility: when <option>enforce-determinism</option> is set to <literal>false</literal>, it’s no longer a fatal error build rounds produce different output (8bdf83f936adae6f2c907a6d2541e80d4120f051); add a hook to run diffoscope when build rounds produce different output (9a313469a4bdea2d1e8df24d16289dc2a172a169w).</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Kill builds as soon as stdout/stderr is closed. This fixes a bug that allowed builds to hang Nix indefinitely (regardless of timeouts). (21948deed99a3295e4d5666e027a6ca42dc00b40)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Add support for passing structured data to builders. TODO: document. (6de33a9c675b187437a2e1abbcb290981a89ecb1)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para><varname>exportReferencesGraph</varname>: Export more complete info in JSON format. (c2b0d8749f7e77afc1c4b3e8dd36b7ee9720af4a)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Support for netrc. (e6e74f987f0fa284d220432d426eb965269a97d6, 302386f775eea309679654e5ea7c972fb6e7b9af)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Support <uri>s3://</uri> URIs in all places where Nix allows URIs. (9ff9c3f2f80ba4108e9c945bbfda2c64735f987b)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>The <option>build-max-jobs</option> option can be set to <literal>auto</literal> to use the number of CPUs in the system. (7251d048fa812d2551b7003bc9f13a8f5d4c95a5)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Add support for Brotli compression. <uri>cache.nixos.org</uri> compresses build logs using Brotli.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Substitutions from binary caches now require signatures by default. This was already the case on NixOS. (ecbc3fedd3d5bdc5a0e1a0a51b29062f2874ac8b)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para><command>nix-env</command> now ignores packages with bad derivation names (in particular those starting with a digit or containing a dot). (b0cb11722626e906a73f10dd9a0c9eea29faf43a)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Renamed various configuration options. (TODO: in progress)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Remote machines can now be specified on the command line. TODO: document. (1a68710d4dff609bbaf61db3e17a2573f0aadf17)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>In Linux sandbox builds, we now use <filename>/build</filename> instead of <filename>/tmp</filename> as the temporary build directory. This fixes potential security problems when a build accidentally stores its <envar>TMPDIR</envar> in some critical place, such as an RPATH. (eba840c8a13b465ace90172ff76a0db2899ab11b)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>In Linux sandbox builds, we now provide a default <filename>/bin/sh</filename> (namely <filename>ash</filename> from BusyBox). (a2d92bb20e82a0957067ede60e91fab256948b41)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Make all configuration options available as command line flags (b8283773bd64d7da6859ed520ee19867742a03ba).</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Support base-64 hashes. (c0015e87af70f539f24d2aa2bc224a9d8b84276b)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para><command>nix-shell</command> now uses <varname>bashInteractive</varname> from Nixpkgs, rather than the <command>bash</command> command that happens to be in the caller’s <envar>PATH</envar>. This is especially important on macOS where the <command>bash</command> provided by the system is seriously outdated and cannot execute <literal>stdenv</literal>’s setup script.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>New builtin functions: <function>builtins.split</function> (b8867a0239b1930a16f9ef3f7f3e864b01416dff), <function>builtins.partition</function>.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Automatic garbage collection.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para><command>nix-store -q --roots</command> and <command>nix-store --gc --print-roots</command> now show temporary and in-memory roots.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Builders can now communicate what build phase they are in by writing messages to the file descriptor specified in <envar>NIX_LOG_FD</envar>. (88e6bb76de5564b3217be9688677d1c89101b2a3) </para> </listitem> </itemizedlist> <para>Some features were removed:</para> <itemizedlist> <listitem> <para>“Nested” log output. As a result, <command>nix-log2xml</command> was also removed.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>OpenSSL-based signing. (f435f8247553656774dd1b2c88e9de5d59cab203)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Caching of failed builds. (8cffec84859cec8b610a2a22ab0c4d462a9351ff)</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para><filename>nix-mode.el</filename> has been removed from Nix. It is now a separate repository in <uri>https://github.com/NixOS/nix-mode</uri> and can be installed through the MELPA package repository.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>In restricted evaluation mode (<option>--restrict-eval</option>), builtin functions that download from the network (such as <function>fetchGit</function>) are permitted to fetch underneath the list of URI prefixes specified in the option <option>allowed-uris</option>.</para> </listitem> </itemizedlist> <para>This release has contributions from TBD.</para> </section>