nix-store: make --dump-db take a list of paths to dump

Inside a derivation, exportReferencesGraph already provides a way to
dump the Nix database for a specific closure. On the command line,
--dump-db gave us the same information, but only for the entire Nix
database at once.

With this change, one can now pass a list of paths to --dump-db to get
the Nix database dumped for just those paths. (The user is responsible
for ensuring this is a closure, like for --export).

Among other things, this is useful for deploying a closure to a new
host without using --import/--export; one can use tar to transfer the
store paths, and --dump-db/--load-db to transfer the validity
information. This is useful if the new host doesn't actually have Nix
yet, and the closure that is being deployed itself contains Nix.

1 files changed, 8 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/doc/manual/command-ref/nix-store.xml b/doc/manual/command-ref/nix-store.xml
index 41a04f265d7c..d73cb92ee223 100644
--- a/doc/manual/command-ref/nix-store.xml
+++ b/doc/manual/command-ref/nix-store.xml
@@ -1282,6 +1282,7 @@ ktorrent-2.2.1/NEWS
   <cmdsynopsis>
     <command>nix-store</command>
     <arg choice='plain'><option>--dump-db</option></arg>
+    <arg rep='repeat'><replaceable>paths</replaceable></arg>
   </cmdsynopsis>
 </refsection>
 
@@ -1292,6 +1293,13 @@ Nix database to standard output.  It can be loaded into an empty Nix
 store using <option>--load-db</option>.  This is useful for making
 backups and when migrating to different database schemas.</para>
 
+<para>By default, <option>--dump-db</option> will dump the entire Nix
+database.  When one or more store paths is passed, only the subset of
+the Nix database for those store paths is dumped.  As with
+<option>--export</option>, the user is responsible for passing all the
+store paths for a closure.  See <option>--export</option> for an
+example.</para>
+
 </refsection>
 
 </refsection>