Restructuring the Nix manual

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+<chapter 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-0.11">
+
+<title>Release 0.11 (December 31, 2007)</title>
+
+<para>Nix 0.11 has many improvements over the previous stable release.
+The most important improvement is secure multi-user support.  It also
+features many usability enhancements and language extensions, many of
+them prompted by NixOS, the purely functional Linux distribution based
+on Nix.  Here is an (incomplete) list:</para>
+
+
+<itemizedlist>
+
+
+  <listitem><para>Secure multi-user support.  A single Nix store can
+  now be shared between multiple (possible untrusted) users.  This is
+  an important feature for NixOS, where it allows non-root users to
+  install software.  The old setuid method for sharing a store between
+  multiple users has been removed.  Details for setting up a
+  multi-user store can be found in the manual.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para>The new command <command>nix-copy-closure</command>
+  gives you an easy and efficient way to exchange software between
+  machines.  It copies the missing parts of the closure of a set of
+  store path to or from a remote machine via
+  <command>ssh</command>.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para>A new kind of string literal: strings between double
+  single-quotes (<literal>''</literal>) have indentation
+  “intelligently” removed.  This allows large strings (such as shell
+  scripts or configuration file fragments in NixOS) to cleanly follow
+  the indentation of the surrounding expression.  It also requires
+  much less escaping, since <literal>''</literal> is less common in
+  most languages than <literal>"</literal>.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para><command>nix-env</command> <option>--set</option>
+  modifies the current generation of a profile so that it contains
+  exactly the specified derivation, and nothing else.  For example,
+  <literal>nix-env -p /nix/var/nix/profiles/browser --set
+  firefox</literal> lets the profile named
+  <filename>browser</filename> contain just Firefox.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para><command>nix-env</command> now maintains
+  meta-information about installed packages in profiles.  The
+  meta-information is the contents of the <varname>meta</varname>
+  attribute of derivations, such as <varname>description</varname> or
+  <varname>homepage</varname>.  The command <literal>nix-env -q --xml
+  --meta</literal> shows all meta-information.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para><command>nix-env</command> now uses the
+  <varname>meta.priority</varname> attribute of derivations to resolve
+  filename collisions between packages.  Lower priority values denote
+  a higher priority.  For instance, the GCC wrapper package and the
+  Binutils package in Nixpkgs both have a file
+  <filename>bin/ld</filename>, so previously if you tried to install
+  both you would get a collision.  Now, on the other hand, the GCC
+  wrapper declares a higher priority than Binutils, so the former’s
+  <filename>bin/ld</filename> is symlinked in the user
+  environment.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para><command>nix-env -i / -u</command>: instead of
+  breaking package ties by version, break them by priority and version
+  number.  That is, if there are multiple packages with the same name,
+  then pick the package with the highest priority, and only use the
+  version if there are multiple packages with the same
+  priority.</para>
+
+  <para>This makes it possible to mark specific versions/variant in
+  Nixpkgs more or less desirable than others.  A typical example would
+  be a beta version of some package (e.g.,
+  <literal>gcc-4.2.0rc1</literal>) which should not be installed even
+  though it is the highest version, except when it is explicitly
+  selected (e.g., <literal>nix-env -i
+  gcc-4.2.0rc1</literal>).</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para><command>nix-env --set-flag</command> allows meta
+  attributes of installed packages to be modified.  There are several
+  attributes that can be usefully modified, because they affect the
+  behaviour of <command>nix-env</command> or the user environment
+  build script:
+
+    <itemizedlist>
+
+      <listitem><para><varname>meta.priority</varname> can be changed
+      to resolve filename clashes (see above).</para></listitem>
+
+      <listitem><para><varname>meta.keep</varname> can be set to
+      <literal>true</literal> to prevent the package from being
+      upgraded or replaced.  Useful if you want to hang on to an older
+      version of a package.</para></listitem>
+
+      <listitem><para><varname>meta.active</varname> can be set to
+      <literal>false</literal> to “disable” the package.  That is, no
+      symlinks will be generated to the files of the package, but it
+      remains part of the profile (so it won’t be garbage-collected).
+      Set it back to <literal>true</literal> to re-enable the
+      package.</para></listitem>
+
+    </itemizedlist>
+
+  </para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para><command>nix-env -q</command> now has a flag
+  <option>--prebuilt-only</option> (<option>-b</option>) that causes
+  <command>nix-env</command> to show only those derivations whose
+  output is already in the Nix store or that can be substituted (i.e.,
+  downloaded from somewhere).  In other words, it shows the packages
+  that can be installed “quickly”, i.e., don’t need to be built from
+  source.  The <option>-b</option> flag is also available in
+  <command>nix-env -i</command> and <command>nix-env -u</command> to
+  filter out derivations for which no pre-built binary is
+  available.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para>The new option <option>--argstr</option> (in
+  <command>nix-env</command>, <command>nix-instantiate</command> and
+  <command>nix-build</command>) is like <option>--arg</option>, except
+  that the value is a string.  For example, <literal>--argstr system
+  i686-linux</literal> is equivalent to <literal>--arg system
+  \"i686-linux\"</literal> (note that <option>--argstr</option>
+  prevents annoying quoting around shell arguments).</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para><command>nix-store</command> has a new operation
+  <option>--read-log</option> (<option>-l</option>)
+  <parameter>paths</parameter> that shows the build log of the given
+  paths.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <!--
+  <listitem><para>TODO: semantic cleanups of string concatenation
+  etc. (mostly in r6740).</para></listitem>
+  -->
+
+
+  <listitem><para>Nix now uses Berkeley DB 4.5.  The database is
+  upgraded automatically, but you should be careful not to use old
+  versions of Nix that still use Berkeley DB 4.4.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <!-- foo
+  <listitem><para>TODO: option <option>- -reregister</option> in
+  <command>nix-store - -register-validity</command>.</para></listitem>
+  -->
+
+
+  <listitem><para>The option <option>--max-silent-time</option>
+  (corresponding to the configuration setting
+  <literal>build-max-silent-time</literal>) allows you to set a
+  timeout on builds — if a build produces no output on
+  <literal>stdout</literal> or <literal>stderr</literal> for the given
+  number of seconds, it is terminated.  This is useful for recovering
+  automatically from builds that are stuck in an infinite
+  loop.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para><command>nix-channel</command>: each subscribed
+  channel is its own attribute in the top-level expression generated
+  for the channel.  This allows disambiguation (e.g. <literal>nix-env
+  -i -A nixpkgs_unstable.firefox</literal>).</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para>The substitutes table has been removed from the
+  database.  This makes operations such as <command>nix-pull</command>
+  and <command>nix-channel --update</command> much, much
+  faster.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para><command>nix-pull</command> now supports
+  bzip2-compressed manifests.  This speeds up
+  channels.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para><command>nix-prefetch-url</command> now has a
+  limited form of caching.  This is used by
+  <command>nix-channel</command> to prevent unnecessary downloads when
+  the channel hasn’t changed.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para><command>nix-prefetch-url</command> now by default
+  computes the SHA-256 hash of the file instead of the MD5 hash.  In
+  calls to <function>fetchurl</function> you should pass the
+  <literal>sha256</literal> attribute instead of
+  <literal>md5</literal>.  You can pass either a hexadecimal or a
+  base-32 encoding of the hash.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para>Nix can now perform builds in an automatically
+  generated “chroot”.  This prevents a builder from accessing stuff
+  outside of the Nix store, and thus helps ensure purity.  This is an
+  experimental feature.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para>The new command <command>nix-store
+  --optimise</command> reduces Nix store disk space usage by finding
+  identical files in the store and hard-linking them to each other.
+  It typically reduces the size of the store by something like
+  25-35%.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para><filename>~/.nix-defexpr</filename> can now be a
+  directory, in which case the Nix expressions in that directory are
+  combined into an attribute set, with the file names used as the
+  names of the attributes.  The command <command>nix-env
+  --import</command> (which set the
+  <filename>~/.nix-defexpr</filename> symlink) is
+  removed.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para>Derivations can specify the new special attribute
+  <varname>allowedReferences</varname> to enforce that the references
+  in the output of a derivation are a subset of a declared set of
+  paths.  For example, if <varname>allowedReferences</varname> is an
+  empty list, then the output must not have any references.  This is
+  used in NixOS to check that generated files such as initial ramdisks
+  for booting Linux don’t have any dependencies.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para>The new attribute
+  <varname>exportReferencesGraph</varname> allows builders access to
+  the references graph of their inputs.  This is used in NixOS for
+  tasks such as generating ISO-9660 images that contain a Nix store
+  populated with the closure of certain paths.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para>Fixed-output derivations (like
+  <function>fetchurl</function>) can define the attribute
+  <varname>impureEnvVars</varname> to allow external environment
+  variables to be passed to builders.  This is used in Nixpkgs to
+  support proxy configuration, among other things.</para></listitem>
+
+
+  <listitem><para>Several new built-in functions:
+  <function>builtins.attrNames</function>,
+  <function>builtins.filterSource</function>,
+  <function>builtins.isAttrs</function>,
+  <function>builtins.isFunction</function>,
+  <function>builtins.listToAttrs</function>,
+  <function>builtins.stringLength</function>,
+  <function>builtins.sub</function>,
+  <function>builtins.substring</function>,
+  <function>throw</function>,
+  <function>builtins.trace</function>,
+  <function>builtins.readFile</function>.</para></listitem>
+
+
+</itemizedlist>
+
+</chapter>
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