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https://github.com/privatevoid-net/nix-super.git
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323 lines
12 KiB
XML
323 lines
12 KiB
XML
<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
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xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
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xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
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version="5.0"
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xml:id="ch-relnotes-0.10">
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<title>Release 0.10 (2006-10-06)</title>
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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
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to use old versions of Nix that still use Berkeley DB 4.3. In
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particular, if you use a Nix installed through Nix, you should run
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<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>
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<!-- 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>
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(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>
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<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
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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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<emphasis>pkgname</emphasis></literal> will now install
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the highest available version of
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<emphasis>pkgname</emphasis>, 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>
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<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>
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>New language features:
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<itemizedlist>
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<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>
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<listitem><para>String interpolation. Expressions like
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<programlisting>
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"--with-freetype2-library=" + freetype + "/lib"</programlisting>
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can now be written as
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<programlisting>
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"--with-freetype2-library=${freetype}/lib"</programlisting>
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You can write arbitrary expressions within
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<literal>${<emphasis>...</emphasis>}</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
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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
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been deprecated.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Default values of function arguments can now
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refer to other function arguments; that is, all arguments are in
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scope in the default values
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(<literal>NIX-45</literal>).</para></listitem>
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<!--
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<listitem><para>TODO: domain checks (r5895).</para></listitem>
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-->
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<listitem><para>Lots of new built-in primitives, such as
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functions for list manipulation and integer arithmetic. See the
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manual for a complete list. All primops are now available in
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the set <varname>builtins</varname>, allowing one to test for
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the availability of primop in a backwards-compatible
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way.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Real let-expressions: <literal>let x = ...;
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... z = ...; in ...</literal>.</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>New commands <command>nix-pack-closure</command> and
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<command>nix-unpack-closure</command> than can be used to easily
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transfer a store path with all its dependencies to another machine.
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Very convenient whenever you have some package on your machine and
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you want to copy it somewhere else.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>XML support:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para><literal>nix-env -q --xml</literal> prints the
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installed or available packages in an XML representation for
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easy processing by other tools.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para><literal>nix-instantiate --eval-only
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--xml</literal> prints an XML representation of the resulting
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term. (The new flag <option>--strict</option> forces ‘deep’
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evaluation of the result, i.e., list elements and attributes are
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evaluated recursively.)</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>In Nix expressions, the primop
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<function>builtins.toXML</function> converts a term to an XML
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representation. This is primarily useful for passing structured
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information to builders.</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>You can now unambiguously specify which derivation to
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build or install in <command>nix-env</command>,
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<command>nix-instantiate</command> and <command>nix-build</command>
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using the <option>--attr</option> / <option>-A</option> flags, which
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takes an attribute name as argument. (Unlike symbolic package names
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such as <literal>subversion-1.4.0</literal>, attribute names in an
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attribute set are unique.) For instance, a quick way to perform a
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test build of a package in Nixpkgs is <literal>nix-build
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pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix -A
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<emphasis>foo</emphasis></literal>. <literal>nix-env -q
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--attr</literal> shows the attribute names corresponding to each
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derivation.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>If the top-level Nix expression used by
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<command>nix-env</command>, <command>nix-instantiate</command> or
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<command>nix-build</command> evaluates to a function whose arguments
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all have default values, the function will be called automatically.
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Also, the new command-line switch <option>--arg
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<emphasis>name</emphasis>
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<emphasis>value</emphasis></option> can be used to specify
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function arguments on the command line.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para><literal>nix-install-package --url
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<emphasis>URL</emphasis></literal> allows a package to be
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installed directly from the given URL.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Nix now works behind an HTTP proxy server; just set
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the standard environment variables <literal>http_proxy</literal>,
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<literal>https_proxy</literal>, <literal>ftp_proxy</literal> or
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<literal>all_proxy</literal> appropriately. Functions such as
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<function>fetchurl</function> in Nixpkgs also respect these
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variables.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para><literal>nix-build -o
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<emphasis>symlink</emphasis></literal> allows the symlink to
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the build result to be named something other than
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<literal>result</literal>.</para></listitem>
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<!-- Stability / performance / etc. -->
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<listitem><para>Platform support:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>Support for 64-bit platforms, provided a <link
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xlink:href="http://bugzilla.sen.cwi.nl:8080/show_bug.cgi?id=606">suitably
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patched ATerm library</link> is used. Also, files larger than 2
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GiB are now supported.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Added support for Cygwin (Windows,
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<literal>i686-cygwin</literal>), Mac OS X on Intel
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(<literal>i686-darwin</literal>) and Linux on PowerPC
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(<literal>powerpc-linux</literal>).</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Users of SMP and multicore machines will
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appreciate that the number of builds to be performed in parallel
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can now be specified in the configuration file in the
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<literal>build-max-jobs</literal> setting.</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Garbage collector improvements:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>Open files (such as running programs) are now
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used as roots of the garbage collector. This prevents programs
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that have been uninstalled from being garbage collected while
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they are still running. The script that detects these
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additional runtime roots
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(<filename>find-runtime-roots.pl</filename>) is inherently
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system-specific, but it should work on Linux and on all
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platforms that have the <command>lsof</command>
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utility.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para><literal>nix-store --gc</literal>
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(a.k.a. <command>nix-collect-garbage</command>) prints out the
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number of bytes freed on standard output. <literal>nix-store
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--gc --print-dead</literal> shows how many bytes would be freed
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by an actual garbage collection.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para><literal>nix-collect-garbage -d</literal>
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removes all old generations of <emphasis>all</emphasis> profiles
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before calling the actual garbage collector (<literal>nix-store
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--gc</literal>). This is an easy way to get rid of all old
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packages in the Nix store.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para><command>nix-store</command> now has an
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operation <option>--delete</option> to delete specific paths
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from the Nix store. It won’t delete reachable (non-garbage)
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paths unless <option>--ignore-liveness</option> is
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specified.</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Berkeley DB 4.4’s process registry feature is used
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to recover from crashed Nix processes.</para></listitem>
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<!-- <listitem><para>TODO: shared stores.</para></listitem> -->
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<listitem><para>A performance issue has been fixed with the
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<literal>referer</literal> table, which stores the inverse of the
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<literal>references</literal> table (i.e., it tells you what store
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paths refer to a given path). Maintaining this table could take a
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quadratic amount of time, as well as a quadratic amount of Berkeley
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DB log file space (in particular when running the garbage collector)
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(<literal>NIX-23</literal>).</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Nix now catches the <literal>TERM</literal> and
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<literal>HUP</literal> signals in addition to the
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<literal>INT</literal> signal. So you can now do a <literal>killall
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nix-store</literal> without triggering a database
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recovery.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para><command>bsdiff</command> updated to version
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4.3.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Substantial performance improvements in expression
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evaluation and <literal>nix-env -qa</literal>, all thanks to <link
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xlink:href="http://valgrind.org/">Valgrind</link>. Memory use has
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been reduced by a factor 8 or so. Big speedup by memoisation of
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path hashing.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Lots of bug fixes, notably:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>Make sure that the garbage collector can run
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successfully when the disk is full
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(<literal>NIX-18</literal>).</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para><command>nix-env</command> now locks the profile
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to prevent races between concurrent <command>nix-env</command>
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operations on the same profile
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(<literal>NIX-7</literal>).</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Removed misleading messages from
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<literal>nix-env -i</literal> (e.g., <literal>installing
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`foo'</literal> followed by <literal>uninstalling
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`foo'</literal>) (<literal>NIX-17</literal>).</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Nix source distributions are a lot smaller now since
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we no longer include a full copy of the Berkeley DB source
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distribution (but only the bits we need).</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Header files are now installed so that external
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programs can use the Nix libraries.</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</section>
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