mirror of
https://github.com/privatevoid-net/nix-super.git
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1040 lines
35 KiB
XML
1040 lines
35 KiB
XML
<article xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
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||
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
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xml:id="sec-relnotes">
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||
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<title>Nix Release Notes</title>
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!--==================================================================-->
|
||
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<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-0.11"><title>Release 0.11 (TBA)</title>
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<itemizedlist>
|
||
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||
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<listitem><para>TODO: multi-user support. The old setuid method for
|
||
sharing a store between multiple users has been
|
||
removed.</para></listitem>
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||
|
||
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<listitem><para>The new command <command>nix-copy-closure</command>
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||
gives you an easy and efficient way to exchange software between
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||
machines. It copies the missing parts of the closure of a set of
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||
store path to or from a remote machine.</para></listitem>
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||
|
||
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<listitem><para><command>nix-prefetch-url</command> now by default
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||
computes the SHA-256 hash of the file instead of the MD5 hash. In
|
||
calls to <function>fetchurl</function> you should pass an
|
||
<literal>sha256</literal> attribute instead of
|
||
<literal>md5</literal>. You can pass either a hexadecimal or a
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||
base-32 encoding of the hash.</para></listitem>
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||
|
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<listitem><para><command>nix-store</command> has a new operation
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||
<option>--read-log</option> (<option>-l</option>)
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<parameter>paths</parameter> that shows the build log of the given
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||
paths.</para></listitem>
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||
|
||
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||
<listitem><para>Derivations can specify the new special attribute
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||
<varname>allowedReferences</varname> to enforce that the references
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||
in the output of a derivation are a subset of a declared set of
|
||
paths. For example, if <varname>allowedReferences</varname> is an
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||
empty list, then the output must not have any references. This is
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||
used in NixOS to check that generated files such as initial ramdisks
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||
for booting Linux don’t have any dependencies.</para></listitem>
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||
|
||
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<listitem><para>TODO: semantic cleanups of string concatenation
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||
etc. (mostly in r6740).</para></listitem>
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||
|
||
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<listitem><para>TODO: now using Berkeley DB 4.5.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>TODO: option <option>--reregister</option> in
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||
<command>nix-store --register-validity</command>.</para></listitem>
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||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>The new attribute
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||
<varname>exportReferencesGraph</varname> allows builders access to
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||
the references graph of their inputs. This is used in NixOS for
|
||
tasks such as generating ISO-9660 images that contain a Nix store
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||
populated with the closure of certain paths.</para></listitem>
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||
|
||
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||
<listitem><para>TODO: option <option>--max-silent-time</option>,
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||
configuration setting
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||
<literal>build-max-silent-time</literal>.</para></listitem>
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||
|
||
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||
<listitem><para>TODO: <command>nix-env</command>
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||
<option>--set</option>.</para></listitem>
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||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>TODO: <option>--argstr</option>.</para></listitem>
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||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>TODO: <command>nix-env</command> now maintains meta
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||
info about installed packages in user environments. <option>-q
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||
--xml --meta</option> to show all meta info.</para></listitem>
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||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>TODO: <command>nix-env</command>
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||
<option>--set-flag</option>. Specific flags:
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||
<literal>active</literal>, <literal>priority</literal>,
|
||
<literal>keep</literal>.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>TODO: <command>nix-env</command> <option>-i</option>
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||
/ <option>-u</option> take package priorities into
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||
account.</para></listitem>
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||
|
||
|
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<listitem><para><command>nix-env -q</command> now has a flag
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||
<option>--prebuilt-only</option> (<option>-b</option>) that causes
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||
<command>nix-env</command> to show only those derivations whose
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||
output is already in the Nix store or that can be substituted (i.e.,
|
||
downloaded from somewhere). In other words, it shows the packages
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||
that can be installed “quickly”, i.e., don’t need to be built from
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||
source. TODO: flag is also available in nix-env -i /
|
||
-u.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>TODO: new built-ins
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||
<function>builtins.attrNames</function>,
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||
<function>builtins.filterSource</function>,
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||
<function>builtins.sub</function>,
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||
<function>builtins.stringLength</function>,
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||
<function>builtins.substring</function>.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>TODO: each subscribed channel is its own attribute
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||
in the top-level expression generated for the channel, this allows
|
||
disambiguation (<command>nix-env -qaA</command>).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>The substitutes table has been removed from the
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||
database. This makes operations such as <command>nix-pull</command>
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||
and <command>nix-channel --update</command>
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||
<emphasis>much</emphasis> faster.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><command>nix-prefetch-url</command> now has a
|
||
limited form of caching. This is used by
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||
<command>nix-channel</command> to prevent unnecessary downloads when
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||
the channel hasn’t changed.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>TODO: chroot support.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</section>
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||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!--==================================================================-->
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||
|
||
<section><title>Release 0.10.1 (October 11, 2006)</title>
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||
|
||
<para>This release fixes two somewhat obscure bugs that occur when
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||
evaluating Nix expressions that are stored inside the Nix store
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||
(<literal>NIX-67</literal>). These do not affect most users.</para>
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||
|
||
</section>
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||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!--==================================================================-->
|
||
|
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<section><title>Release 0.10 (October 6, 2006)</title>
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||
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||
<note><para>This version of Nix uses Berkeley DB 4.4 instead of 4.3.
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||
The database is upgraded automatically, but you should be careful not
|
||
to use old versions of Nix that still use Berkeley DB 4.3. In
|
||
particular, if you use a Nix installed through Nix, you should run
|
||
|
||
<screen>
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||
$ nix-store --clear-substitutes</screen>
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||
|
||
first.</para></note>
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||
|
||
<warning><para>Also, the database schema has changed slighted to fix a
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||
performance issue (see below). When you run any Nix 0.10 command for
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||
the first time, the database will be upgraded automatically. This is
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||
irreversible.</para></warning>
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||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- Usability / features -->
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||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><command>nix-env</command> usability improvements:
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||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
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||
|
||
<listitem><para>An option <option>--compare-versions</option>
|
||
(or <option>-c</option>) has been added to <command>nix-env
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||
--query</command> to allow you to compare installed versions of
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||
packages to available versions, or vice versa. An easy way to
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||
see if you are up to date with what’s in your subscribed
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||
channels is <literal>nix-env -qc \*</literal>.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><literal>nix-env --query</literal> now takes as
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||
arguments a list of package names about which to show
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||
information, just like <option>--install</option>, etc.: for
|
||
example, <literal>nix-env -q gcc</literal>. Note that to show
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||
all derivations, you need to specify
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||
<literal>\*</literal>.</para></listitem>
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||
|
||
<listitem><para><literal>nix-env -i
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||
<replaceable>pkgname</replaceable></literal> will now install
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||
the highest available version of
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||
<replaceable>pkgname</replaceable>, rather than installing all
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||
available versions (which would probably give collisions)
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||
(<literal>NIX-31</literal>).</para></listitem>
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||
|
||
<listitem><para><literal>nix-env (-i|-u) --dry-run</literal> now
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||
shows exactly which missing paths will be built or
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||
substituted.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><literal>nix-env -qa --description</literal>
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||
shows human-readable descriptions of packages, provided that
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||
they have a <literal>meta.description</literal> attribute (which
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||
most packages in Nixpkgs don’t have yet).</para></listitem>
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||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>New language features:
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||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Reference scanning (which happens after each
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||
build) is much faster and takes a constant amount of
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||
memory.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>String interpolation. Expressions like
|
||
|
||
<programlisting>
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||
"--with-freetype2-library=" + freetype + "/lib"</programlisting>
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||
|
||
can now be written as
|
||
|
||
<programlisting>
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||
"--with-freetype2-library=${freetype}/lib"</programlisting>
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||
|
||
You can write arbitrary expressions within
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||
<literal>${<replaceable>...</replaceable>}</literal>, not just
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||
identifiers.</para></listitem>
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||
|
||
<listitem><para>Multi-line string literals.</para></listitem>
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||
|
||
<listitem><para>String concatenations can now involve
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||
derivations, as in the example <code>"--with-freetype2-library="
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||
+ freetype + "/lib"</code>. This was not previously possible
|
||
because we need to register that a derivation that uses such a
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||
string is dependent on <literal>freetype</literal>. The
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||
evaluator now properly propagates this information.
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||
Consequently, the subpath operator (<literal>~</literal>) has
|
||
been deprecated.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Default values of function arguments can now
|
||
refer to other function arguments; that is, all arguments are in
|
||
scope in the default values
|
||
(<literal>NIX-45</literal>).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<!--
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||
<listitem><para>TODO: domain checks (r5895).</para></listitem>
|
||
-->
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Lots of new built-in primitives, such as
|
||
functions for list manipulation and integer arithmetic. See the
|
||
manual for a complete list. All primops are now available in
|
||
the set <varname>builtins</varname>, allowing one to test for
|
||
the availability of primop in a backwards-compatible
|
||
way.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Real let-expressions: <literal>let x = ...;
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||
... z = ...; in ...</literal>.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>New commands <command>nix-pack-closure</command> and
|
||
<command>nix-unpack-closure</command> than can be used to easily
|
||
transfer a store path with all its dependencies to another machine.
|
||
Very convenient whenever you have some package on your machine and
|
||
you want to copy it somewhere else.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>XML support:
|
||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><literal>nix-env -q --xml</literal> prints the
|
||
installed or available packages in an XML representation for
|
||
easy processing by other tools.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><literal>nix-instantiate --eval-only
|
||
--xml</literal> prints an XML representation of the resulting
|
||
term. (The new flag <option>--strict</option> forces ‘deep’
|
||
evaluation of the result, i.e., list elements and attributes are
|
||
evaluated recursively.)</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>In Nix expressions, the primop
|
||
<function>builtins.toXML</function> converts a term to an XML
|
||
representation. This is primarily useful for passing structured
|
||
information to builders.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>You can now unambigously specify which derivation to
|
||
build or install in <command>nix-env</command>,
|
||
<command>nix-instantiate</command> and <command>nix-build</command>
|
||
using the <option>--attr</option> / <option>-A</option> flags, which
|
||
takes an attribute name as argument. (Unlike symbolic package names
|
||
such as <literal>subversion-1.4.0</literal>, attribute names in an
|
||
attribute set are unique.) For instance, a quick way to perform a
|
||
test build of a package in Nixpkgs is <literal>nix-build
|
||
pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix -A
|
||
<replaceable>foo</replaceable></literal>. <literal>nix-env -q
|
||
--attr</literal> shows the attribute names corresponding to each
|
||
derivation.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>If the top-level Nix expression used by
|
||
<command>nix-env</command>, <command>nix-instantiate</command> or
|
||
<command>nix-build</command> evaluates to a function whose arguments
|
||
all have default values, the function will be called automatically.
|
||
Also, the new command-line switch <option>--arg
|
||
<replaceable>name</replaceable>
|
||
<replaceable>value</replaceable></option> can be used to specify
|
||
function arguments on the command line.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><literal>nix-install-package --url
|
||
<replaceable>URL</replaceable></literal> allows a package to be
|
||
installed directly from the given URL.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Nix now works behind an HTTP proxy server; just set
|
||
the standard environment variables <envar>http_proxy</envar>,
|
||
<envar>https_proxy</envar>, <envar>ftp_proxy</envar> or
|
||
<envar>all_proxy</envar> appropriately. Functions such as
|
||
<function>fetchurl</function> in Nixpkgs also respect these
|
||
variables.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><literal>nix-build -o
|
||
<replaceable>symlink</replaceable></literal> allows the symlink to
|
||
the build result to be named something other than
|
||
<literal>result</literal>.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- Stability / performance / etc. -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Platform support:
|
||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Support for 64-bit platforms, provided a <link
|
||
xlink:href="http://bugzilla.sen.cwi.nl:8080/show_bug.cgi?id=606">suitably
|
||
patched ATerm library</link> is used. Also, files larger than 2
|
||
GiB are now supported.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Added support for Cygwin (Windows,
|
||
<literal>i686-cygwin</literal>), Mac OS X on Intel
|
||
(<literal>i686-darwin</literal>) and Linux on PowerPC
|
||
(<literal>powerpc-linux</literal>).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Users of SMP and multicore machines will
|
||
appreciate that the number of builds to be performed in parallel
|
||
can now be specified in the configuration file in the
|
||
<literal>build-max-jobs</literal> setting.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Garbage collector improvements:
|
||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Open files (such as running programs) are now
|
||
used as roots of the garbage collector. This prevents programs
|
||
that have been uninstalled from being garbage collected while
|
||
they are still running. The script that detects these
|
||
additional runtime roots
|
||
(<filename>find-runtime-roots.pl</filename>) is inherently
|
||
system-specific, but it should work on Linux and on all
|
||
platforms that have the <command>lsof</command>
|
||
utility.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><literal>nix-store --gc</literal>
|
||
(a.k.a. <command>nix-collect-garbage</command>) prints out the
|
||
number of bytes freed on standard output. <literal>nix-store
|
||
--gc --print-dead</literal> shows how many bytes would be freed
|
||
by an actual garbage collection.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><literal>nix-collect-garbage -d</literal>
|
||
removes all old generations of <emphasis>all</emphasis> profiles
|
||
before calling the actual garbage collector (<literal>nix-store
|
||
--gc</literal>). This is an easy way to get rid of all old
|
||
packages in the Nix store.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><command>nix-store</command> now has an
|
||
operation <option>--delete</option> to delete specific paths
|
||
from the Nix store. It won’t delete reachable (non-garbage)
|
||
paths unless <option>--ignore-liveness</option> is
|
||
specified.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Berkeley DB 4.4’s process registry feature is used
|
||
to recover from crashed Nix processes.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<!-- <listitem><para>TODO: shared stores.</para></listitem> -->
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>A performance issue has been fixed with the
|
||
<literal>referer</literal> table, which stores the inverse of the
|
||
<literal>references</literal> table (i.e., it tells you what store
|
||
paths refer to a given path). Maintaining this table could take a
|
||
quadratic amount of time, as well as a quadratic amount of Berkeley
|
||
DB log file space (in particular when running the garbage collector)
|
||
(<literal>NIX-23</literal>).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Nix now catches the <literal>TERM</literal> and
|
||
<literal>HUP</literal> signals in addition to the
|
||
<literal>INT</literal> signal. So you can now do a <literal>killall
|
||
nix-store</literal> without triggering a database
|
||
recovery.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><command>bsdiff</command> updated to version
|
||
4.3.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Substantial performance improvements in expression
|
||
evaluation and <literal>nix-env -qa</literal>, all thanks to <link
|
||
xlink:href="http://valgrind.org/">Valgrind</link>. Memory use has
|
||
been reduced by a factor 8 or so. Big speedup by memoisation of
|
||
path hashing.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Lots of bug fixes, notably:
|
||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Make sure that the garbage collector can run
|
||
succesfully when the disk is full
|
||
(<literal>NIX-18</literal>).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><command>nix-env</command> now locks the profile
|
||
to prevent races between concurrent <command>nix-env</command>
|
||
operations on the same profile
|
||
(<literal>NIX-7</literal>).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Removed misleading messages from
|
||
<literal>nix-env -i</literal> (e.g., <literal>installing
|
||
`foo'</literal> followed by <literal>uninstalling
|
||
`foo'</literal>) (<literal>NIX-17</literal>).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Nix source distributions are a lot smaller now since
|
||
we no longer include a full copy of the Berkeley DB source
|
||
distribution (but only the bits we need).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Header files are now installed so that external
|
||
programs can use the Nix libraries.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</section>
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!--==================================================================-->
|
||
|
||
<section><title>Release 0.9.2 (September 21, 2005)</title>
|
||
|
||
<para>This bug fix release fixes two problems on Mac OS X:
|
||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>If Nix was linked against statically linked versions
|
||
of the ATerm or Berkeley DB library, there would be dynamic link
|
||
errors at runtime.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><command>nix-pull</command> and
|
||
<command>nix-push</command> intermittently failed due to race
|
||
conditions involving pipes and child processes with error messages
|
||
such as <literal>open2: open(GLOB(0x180b2e4), >&=9) failed: Bad
|
||
file descriptor at /nix/bin/nix-pull line 77</literal> (issue
|
||
<literal>NIX-14</literal>).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</para>
|
||
|
||
</section>
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!--==================================================================-->
|
||
|
||
<section><title>Release 0.9.1 (September 20, 2005)</title>
|
||
|
||
<para>This bug fix release addresses a problem with the ATerm library
|
||
when the <option>--with-aterm</option> flag in
|
||
<command>configure</command> was <emphasis>not</emphasis> used.</para>
|
||
|
||
</section>
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!--==================================================================-->
|
||
|
||
<section><title>Release 0.9 (September 16, 2005)</title>
|
||
|
||
<para>NOTE: this version of Nix uses Berkeley DB 4.3 instead of 4.2.
|
||
The database is upgraded automatically, but you should be careful not
|
||
to use old versions of Nix that still use Berkeley DB 4.2. In
|
||
particular, if you use a Nix installed through Nix, you should run
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
$ nix-store --clear-substitutes</screen>
|
||
|
||
first.</para>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Unpacking of patch sequences is much faster now
|
||
since we no longer do redundant unpacking and repacking of
|
||
intermediate paths.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Nix now uses Berkeley DB 4.3.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>The <function>derivation</function> primitive is
|
||
lazier. Attributes of dependent derivations can mutually refer to
|
||
each other (as long as there are no data dependencies on the
|
||
<varname>outPath</varname> and <varname>drvPath</varname> attributes
|
||
computed by <function>derivation</function>).</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>For example, the expression <literal>derivation
|
||
attrs</literal> now evaluates to (essentially)
|
||
|
||
<programlisting>
|
||
attrs // {
|
||
type = "derivation";
|
||
outPath = derivation! attrs;
|
||
drvPath = derivation! attrs;
|
||
}</programlisting>
|
||
|
||
where <function>derivation!</function> is a primop that does the
|
||
actual derivation instantiation (i.e., it does what
|
||
<function>derivation</function> used to do). The advantage is that
|
||
it allows commands such as <command>nix-env -qa</command> and
|
||
<command>nix-env -i</command> to be much faster since they no longer
|
||
need to instantiate all derivations, just the
|
||
<varname>name</varname> attribute.</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>Also, it allows derivations to cyclically reference each
|
||
other, for example,
|
||
|
||
<programlisting>
|
||
webServer = derivation {
|
||
...
|
||
hostName = "svn.cs.uu.nl";
|
||
services = [svnService];
|
||
};
|
||
 
|
||
svnService = derivation {
|
||
...
|
||
hostName = webServer.hostName;
|
||
};</programlisting>
|
||
|
||
Previously, this would yield a black hole (infinite recursion).</para>
|
||
|
||
</listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><command>nix-build</command> now defaults to using
|
||
<filename>./default.nix</filename> if no Nix expression is
|
||
specified.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><command>nix-instantiate</command>, when applied to
|
||
a Nix expression that evaluates to a function, will call the
|
||
function automatically if all its arguments have
|
||
defaults.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Nix now uses libtool to build dynamic libraries.
|
||
This reduces the size of executables.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>A new list concatenation operator
|
||
<literal>++</literal>. For example, <literal>[1 2 3] ++ [4 5
|
||
6]</literal> evaluates to <literal>[1 2 3 4 5
|
||
6]</literal>.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Some currently undocumented primops to support
|
||
low-level build management using Nix (i.e., using Nix as a Make
|
||
replacement). See the commit messages for <literal>r3578</literal>
|
||
and <literal>r3580</literal>.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Various bug fixes and performance
|
||
improvements.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</section>
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!--==================================================================-->
|
||
|
||
<section><title>Release 0.8.1 (April 13, 2005)</title>
|
||
|
||
<para>This is a bug fix release.</para>
|
||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Patch downloading was broken.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>The garbage collector would not delete paths that
|
||
had references from invalid (but substitutable)
|
||
paths.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</section>
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!--==================================================================-->
|
||
|
||
<section><title>Release 0.8 (April 11, 2005)</title>
|
||
|
||
<para>NOTE: the hashing scheme in Nix 0.8 changed (as detailed below).
|
||
As a result, <command>nix-pull</command> manifests and channels built
|
||
for Nix 0.7 and below will now work anymore. However, the Nix
|
||
expression language has not changed, so you can still build from
|
||
source. Also, existing user environments continue to work. Nix 0.8
|
||
will automatically upgrade the database schema of previous
|
||
installations when it is first run.</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>If you get the error message
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
you have an old-style manifest `/nix/var/nix/manifests/[...]'; please
|
||
delete it</screen>
|
||
|
||
you should delete previously downloaded manifests:
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
$ rm /nix/var/nix/manifests/*</screen>
|
||
|
||
If <command>nix-channel</command> gives the error message
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
manifest `http://catamaran.labs.cs.uu.nl/dist/nix/channels/[channel]/MANIFEST'
|
||
is too old (i.e., for Nix <= 0.7)</screen>
|
||
|
||
then you should unsubscribe from the offending channel
|
||
(<command>nix-channel --remove
|
||
<replaceable>URL</replaceable></command>; leave out
|
||
<literal>/MANIFEST</literal>), and subscribe to the same URL, with
|
||
<literal>channels</literal> replaced by <literal>channels-v3</literal>
|
||
(e.g., <link
|
||
xlink:href='http://catamaran.labs.cs.uu.nl/dist/nix/channels-v3/nixpkgs-unstable'
|
||
/>).</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>Nix 0.8 has the following improvements:
|
||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>The cryptographic hashes used in store paths are now
|
||
160 bits long, but encoded in base-32 so that they are still only 32
|
||
characters long (e.g.,
|
||
<filename>/nix/store/csw87wag8bqlqk7ipllbwypb14xainap-atk-1.9.0</filename>).
|
||
(This is actually a 160 bit truncation of a SHA-256
|
||
hash.)</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Big cleanups and simplifications of the basic store
|
||
semantics. The notion of “closure store expressions” is gone (and
|
||
so is the notion of “successors”); the file system references of a
|
||
store path are now just stored in the database.</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>For instance, given any store path, you can query its closure:
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
$ nix-store -qR $(which firefox)
|
||
... lots of paths ...</screen>
|
||
|
||
Also, Nix now remembers for each store path the derivation that
|
||
built it (the “deriver”):
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
$ nix-store -qR $(which firefox)
|
||
/nix/store/4b0jx7vq80l9aqcnkszxhymsf1ffa5jd-firefox-1.0.1.drv</screen>
|
||
|
||
So to see the build-time dependencies, you can do
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
$ nix-store -qR $(nix-store -qd $(which firefox))</screen>
|
||
|
||
or, in a nicer format:
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
$ nix-store -q --tree $(nix-store -qd $(which firefox))</screen>
|
||
|
||
</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>File system references are also stored in reverse. For
|
||
instance, you can query all paths that directly or indirectly use a
|
||
certain Glibc:
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
$ nix-store -q --referrers-closure \
|
||
/nix/store/8lz9yc6zgmc0vlqmn2ipcpkjlmbi51vv-glibc-2.3.4</screen>
|
||
|
||
</para>
|
||
|
||
</listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>The concept of fixed-output derivations has been
|
||
formalised. Previously, functions such as
|
||
<function>fetchurl</function> in Nixpkgs used a hack (namely,
|
||
explicitly specifying a store path hash) to prevent changes to, say,
|
||
the URL of the file from propagating upwards through the dependency
|
||
graph, causing rebuilds of everything. This can now be done cleanly
|
||
by specifying the <varname>outputHash</varname> and
|
||
<varname>outputHashAlgo</varname> attributes. Nix itself checks
|
||
that the content of the output has the specified hash. (This is
|
||
important for maintaining certain invariants necessary for future
|
||
work on secure shared stores.)</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>One-click installation :-) It is now possible to
|
||
install any top-level component in Nixpkgs directly, through the web
|
||
— see, e.g., <link
|
||
xlink:href='http://catamaran.labs.cs.uu.nl/dist/nixpkgs-0.8/' />.
|
||
All you have to do is associate
|
||
<filename>/nix/bin/nix-install-package</filename> with the MIME type
|
||
<literal>application/nix-package</literal> (or the extension
|
||
<filename>.nixpkg</filename>), and clicking on a package link will
|
||
cause it to be installed, with all appropriate dependencies. If you
|
||
just want to install some specific application, this is easier than
|
||
subscribing to a channel.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><command>nix-store -r
|
||
<replaceable>PATHS</replaceable></command> now builds all the
|
||
derivations PATHS in parallel. Previously it did them sequentially
|
||
(though exploiting possible parallelism between subderivations).
|
||
This is nice for build farms.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><command>nix-channel</command> has new operations
|
||
<option>--list</option> and
|
||
<option>--remove</option>.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>New ways of installing components into user
|
||
environments:
|
||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Copy from another user environment:
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
$ nix-env -i --from-profile .../other-profile firefox</screen>
|
||
|
||
</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Install a store derivation directly (bypassing the
|
||
Nix expression language entirely):
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
$ nix-env -i /nix/store/z58v41v21xd3...-aterm-2.3.1.drv</screen>
|
||
|
||
(This is used to implement <command>nix-install-package</command>,
|
||
which is therefore immune to evolution in the Nix expression
|
||
language.)</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Install an already built store path directly:
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
$ nix-env -i /nix/store/hsyj5pbn0d9i...-aterm-2.3.1</screen>
|
||
|
||
</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Install the result of a Nix expression specified
|
||
as a command-line argument:
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
$ nix-env -f .../i686-linux.nix -i -E 'x: x.firefoxWrapper'</screen>
|
||
|
||
The difference with the normal installation mode is that
|
||
<option>-E</option> does not use the <varname>name</varname>
|
||
attributes of derivations. Therefore, this can be used to
|
||
disambiguate multiple derivations with the same
|
||
name.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist></para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>A hash of the contents of a store path is now stored
|
||
in the database after a succesful build. This allows you to check
|
||
whether store paths have been tampered with: <command>nix-store
|
||
--verify --check-contents</command>.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem>
|
||
|
||
<para>Implemented a concurrent garbage collector. It is now
|
||
always safe to run the garbage collector, even if other Nix
|
||
operations are happening simultaneously.</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>However, there can still be GC races if you use
|
||
<command>nix-instantiate</command> and <command>nix-store
|
||
--realise</command> directly to build things. To prevent races,
|
||
use the <option>--add-root</option> flag of those commands.</para>
|
||
|
||
</listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>The garbage collector now finally deletes paths in
|
||
the right order (i.e., topologically sorted under the “references”
|
||
relation), thus making it safe to interrupt the collector without
|
||
risking a store that violates the closure
|
||
invariant.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Likewise, the substitute mechanism now downloads
|
||
files in the right order, thus preserving the closure invariant at
|
||
all times.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>The result of <command>nix-build</command> is now
|
||
registered as a root of the garbage collector. If the
|
||
<filename>./result</filename> link is deleted, the GC root
|
||
disappears automatically.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem>
|
||
|
||
<para>The behaviour of the garbage collector can be changed
|
||
globally by setting options in
|
||
<filename>/nix/etc/nix/nix.conf</filename>.
|
||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><literal>gc-keep-derivations</literal> specifies
|
||
whether deriver links should be followed when searching for live
|
||
paths.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><literal>gc-keep-outputs</literal> specifies
|
||
whether outputs of derivations should be followed when searching
|
||
for live paths.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><literal>env-keep-derivations</literal>
|
||
specifies whether user environments should store the paths of
|
||
derivations when they are added (thus keeping the derivations
|
||
alive).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>New <command>nix-env</command> query flags
|
||
<option>--drv-path</option> and
|
||
<option>--out-path</option>.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><command>fetchurl</command> allows SHA-1 and SHA-256
|
||
in addition to MD5. Just specify the attribute
|
||
<varname>sha1</varname> or <varname>sha256</varname> instead of
|
||
<varname>md5</varname>.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Manual updates.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</para>
|
||
|
||
</section>
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!--==================================================================-->
|
||
|
||
<section><title>Release 0.7 (January 12, 2005)</title>
|
||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Binary patching. When upgrading components using
|
||
pre-built binaries (through nix-pull / nix-channel), Nix can
|
||
automatically download and apply binary patches to already installed
|
||
components instead of full downloads. Patching is “smart”: if there
|
||
is a <emphasis>sequence</emphasis> of patches to an installed
|
||
component, Nix will use it. Patches are currently generated
|
||
automatically between Nixpkgs (pre-)releases.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Simplifications to the substitute
|
||
mechanism.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Nix-pull now stores downloaded manifests in
|
||
<filename>/nix/var/nix/manifests</filename>.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Metadata on files in the Nix store is canonicalised
|
||
after builds: the last-modified timestamp is set to 0 (00:00:00
|
||
1/1/1970), the mode is set to 0444 or 0555 (readable and possibly
|
||
executable by all; setuid/setgid bits are dropped), and the group is
|
||
set to the default. This ensures that the result of a build and an
|
||
installation through a substitute is the same; and that timestamp
|
||
dependencies are revealed.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</section>
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!--==================================================================-->
|
||
|
||
<section><title>Release 0.6 (November 14, 2004)</title>
|
||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
<listitem>
|
||
<para>Rewrite of the normalisation engine.
|
||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Multiple builds can now be performed in parallel
|
||
(option <option>-j</option>).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Distributed builds. Nix can now call a shell
|
||
script to forward builds to Nix installations on remote
|
||
machines, which may or may not be of the same platform
|
||
type.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Option <option>--fallback</option> allows
|
||
recovery from broken substitutes.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Option <option>--keep-going</option> causes
|
||
building of other (unaffected) derivations to continue if one
|
||
failed.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</para>
|
||
|
||
</listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Improvements to the garbage collector (i.e., it
|
||
should actually work now).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Setuid Nix installations allow a Nix store to be
|
||
shared among multiple users.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Substitute registration is much faster
|
||
now.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>A utility <command>nix-build</command> to build a
|
||
Nix expression and create a symlink to the result int the current
|
||
directory; useful for testing Nix derivations.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Manual updates.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem>
|
||
|
||
<para><command>nix-env</command> changes:
|
||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Derivations for other platforms are filtered out
|
||
(which can be overriden using
|
||
<option>--system-filter</option>).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><option>--install</option> by default now
|
||
uninstall previous derivations with the same
|
||
name.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para><option>--upgrade</option> allows upgrading to a
|
||
specific version.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>New operation
|
||
<option>--delete-generations</option> to remove profile
|
||
generations (necessary for effective garbage
|
||
collection).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Nicer output (sorted,
|
||
columnised).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</para>
|
||
|
||
</listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>More sensible verbosity levels all around (builder
|
||
output is now shown always, unless <option>-Q</option> is
|
||
given).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem>
|
||
|
||
<para>Nix expression language changes:
|
||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>New language construct: <literal>with
|
||
<replaceable>E1</replaceable>;
|
||
<replaceable>E2</replaceable></literal> brings all attributes
|
||
defined in the attribute set <replaceable>E1</replaceable> in
|
||
scope in <replaceable>E2</replaceable>.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Added a <function>map</function>
|
||
function.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Various new operators (e.g., string
|
||
concatenation).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</para>
|
||
|
||
</listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Expression evaluation is much
|
||
faster.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>An Emacs mode for editing Nix expressions (with
|
||
syntax highlighting and indentation) has been
|
||
added.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Many bug fixes.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</section>
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!--==================================================================-->
|
||
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<section><title>Release 0.5 and earlier</title>
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<para>Please refer to the Subversion commit log messages.</para>
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</section>
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</article>
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