diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/manual/release-notes.xml')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/manual/release-notes.xml | 2533 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 2533 deletions
diff --git a/doc/manual/release-notes.xml b/doc/manual/release-notes.xml deleted file mode 100644 index f64b6cb1749b..000000000000 --- a/doc/manual/release-notes.xml +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2533 +0,0 @@ -<article xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" - xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" - xml:id="sec-relnotes"> - -<title>Nix Release Notes</title> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-1.8"><title>Release 1.8 (TBA)</title> - -<para>TODO</para> - -<itemizedlist> - - <listitem><para>Derivations can specify the new special attribute - <varname>allowedRequisites</varname>, which has a similar meaning to - <varname>allowedReferences</varname>. But instead of only enforcing - to explicitly specify the immediate references, it requires the - derivation to specify all the dependencies recursively (hence the - name, requisites) that are used by the resulting - output.</para></listitem> - -</itemizedlist> - -</section> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-1.7"><title>Release 1.7 (April 11, 2014)</title> - -<para>In addition to the usual bug fixes, this release has the -following new features:</para> - -<itemizedlist> - - <listitem> - <para>Antiquotation is now allowed inside of quoted attribute - names (e.g. <literal>set."${foo}"</literal>). In the case where - the attribute name is just a single antiquotation, the quotes can - be dropped (e.g. the above example can be written - <literal>set.${foo}</literal>). If an attribute name inside of a - set declaration evaluates to <literal>null</literal> (e.g. - <literal>{ ${null} = false; }</literal>), then that attribute is - not added to the set.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Experimental support for cryptographically signed binary - caches. See <link - xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/0fdf4da0e979f992db75cc17376e455ddc5a96d8">the - commit for details</link>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>An experimental new substituter, - <command>download-via-ssh</command>, that fetches binaries from - remote machines via SSH. Specifying the flags <literal>--option - use-ssh-substituter true --option ssh-substituter-hosts - <replaceable>user@hostname</replaceable></literal> will cause Nix - to download binaries from the specified machine, if it has - them.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para><command>nix-store -r</command> and - <command>nix-build</command> have a new flag, - <option>--check</option>, that builds a previously built - derivation again, and prints an error message if the output is not - exactly the same. This helps to verify whether a derivation is - truly deterministic. For example: - -<screen> -$ nix-build '<nixpkgs>' -A patchelf -<replaceable>…</replaceable> -$ nix-build '<nixpkgs>' -A patchelf --check -<replaceable>…</replaceable> -error: derivation `/nix/store/1ipvxs…-patchelf-0.6' may not be deterministic: - hash mismatch in output `/nix/store/4pc1dm…-patchelf-0.6.drv' -</screen> - - </para> - - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The <command>nix-instantiate</command> flags - <option>--eval-only</option> and <option>--parse-only</option> - have been renamed to <option>--eval</option> and - <option>--parse</option>, respectively.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para><command>nix-instantiate</command>, - <command>nix-build</command> and <command>nix-shell</command> now - have a flag <option>--expr</option> (or <option>-E</option>) that - allows you to specify the expression to be evaluated as a command - line argument. For instance, <literal>nix-instantiate --eval -E - '1 + 2'</literal> will print <literal>3</literal>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para><command>nix-shell</command> improvements:</para> - - <itemizedlist> - - <listitem> - <para>It has a new flag, <option>--packages</option> (or - <option>-p</option>), that sets up a build environment - containing the specified packages from Nixpkgs. For example, - the command - -<screen> -$ nix-shell -p sqlite xorg.libX11 hello -</screen> - - will start a shell in which the given packages are - present.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>It now uses <filename>shell.nix</filename> as the - default expression, falling back to - <filename>default.nix</filename> if the former doesn’t - exist. This makes it convenient to have a - <filename>shell.nix</filename> in your project to set up a - nice development environment.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>It evaluates the derivation attribute - <varname>shellHook</varname>, if set. Since - <literal>stdenv</literal> does not normally execute this hook, - it allows you to do <command>nix-shell</command>-specific - setup.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>It preserves the user’s timezone setting.</para> - </listitem> - - </itemizedlist> - - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>In chroots, Nix now sets up a <filename>/dev</filename> - containing only a minimal set of devices (such as - <filename>/dev/null</filename>). Note that it only does this if - you <emphasis>don’t</emphasis> have <filename>/dev</filename> - listed in your <option>build-chroot-dirs</option> setting; - otherwise, it will bind-mount the <literal>/dev</literal> from - outside the chroot.</para> - - <para>Similarly, if you don’t have <filename>/dev/pts</filename> listed - in <option>build-chroot-dirs</option>, Nix will mount a private - <literal>devpts</literal> filesystem on the chroot’s - <filename>/dev/pts</filename>.</para> - - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>New built-in function: <function>builtins.toJSON</function>, - which returns a JSON representation of a value.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para><command>nix-env -q</command> has a new flag - <option>--json</option> to print a JSON representation of the - installed or available packages.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para><command>nix-env</command> now supports meta attributes with - more complex values, such as attribute sets.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The <option>-A</option> flag now allows attribute names with - dots in them, e.g. - -<screen> -$ nix-instantiate --eval '<nixos>' -A 'config.systemd.units."nscd.service".text' -</screen> - - </para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The <option>--max-freed</option> option to - <command>nix-store --gc</command> now accepts a unit - specifier. For example, <literal>nix-store --gc --max-freed - 1G</literal> will free up to 1 gigabyte of disk space.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para><command>nix-collect-garbage</command> has a new flag - <option>--delete-older-than</option> - <replaceable>N</replaceable><literal>d</literal>, which deletes - all user environment generations older than - <replaceable>N</replaceable> days. Likewise, <command>nix-env - --delete-generations</command> accepts a - <replaceable>N</replaceable><literal>d</literal> age limit.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Nix now heuristically detects whether a build failure was - due to a disk-full condition. In that case, the build is not - flagged as “permanently failed”. This is mostly useful for Hydra, - which needs to distinguish between permanent and transient build - failures.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>There is a new symbol <literal>__curPos</literal> that - expands to an attribute set containing its file name and line and - column numbers, e.g. <literal>{ file = "foo.nix"; line = 10; - column = 5; }</literal>. There also is a new builtin function, - <varname>unsafeGetAttrPos</varname>, that returns the position of - an attribute. This is used by Nixpkgs to provide location - information in error messages, e.g. - -<screen> -$ nix-build '<nixpkgs>' -A libreoffice --argstr system x86_64-darwin -error: the package ‘libreoffice-4.0.5.2’ in ‘.../applications/office/libreoffice/default.nix:263’ - is not supported on ‘x86_64-darwin’ -</screen> - - </para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The garbage collector is now more concurrent with other Nix - processes because it releases certain locks earlier.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The binary tarball installer has been improved. You can now - install Nix by running: - -<screen> -$ bash <(curl https://nixos.org/nix/install) -</screen> - - </para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>More evaluation errors include position information. For - instance, selecting a missing attribute will print something like - -<screen> -error: attribute `nixUnstabl' missing, at /etc/nixos/configurations/misc/eelco/mandark.nix:216:15 -</screen> - - </para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The command <command>nix-setuid-helper</command> is - gone.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Nix no longer uses Automake, but instead has a - non-recursive, GNU Make-based build system.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>All installed libraries now have the prefix - <literal>libnix</literal>. In particular, this gets rid of - <literal>libutil</literal>, which could clash with libraries with - the same name from other packages.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Nix now requires a compiler that supports C++11.</para> - </listitem> - -</itemizedlist> - -<para>This release has contributions from Danny Wilson, Domen Kožar, -Eelco Dolstra, Ian-Woo Kim, Ludovic Courtès, Maxim Ivanov, Petr -Rockai, Ricardo M. Correia and Shea Levy.</para> - -</section> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-1.6.1"><title>Release 1.6.1 (October 28, 2013)</title> - -<para>This is primarily a bug fix release. Changes of interest -are:</para> - -<itemizedlist> - - <listitem> - <para>Nix 1.6 accidentally changed the semantics of antiquoted - paths in strings, such as <literal>"${/foo}/bar"</literal>. This - release reverts to the Nix 1.5.3 behaviour.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Previously, Nix optimised expressions such as - <literal>"${<replaceable>expr</replaceable>}"</literal> to - <replaceable>expr</replaceable>. Thus it neither checked whether - <replaceable>expr</replaceable> could be coerced to a string, nor - applied such coercions. This meant that - <literal>"${123}"</literal> evaluatued to <literal>123</literal>, - and <literal>"${./foo}"</literal> evaluated to - <literal>./foo</literal> (even though - <literal>"${./foo} "</literal> evaluates to - <literal>"/nix/store/<replaceable>hash</replaceable>-foo "</literal>). - Nix now checks the type of antiquoted expressions and - applies coercions.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Nix now shows the exact position of undefined variables. In - particular, undefined variable errors in a <literal>with</literal> - previously didn't show <emphasis>any</emphasis> position - information, so this makes it a lot easier to fix such - errors.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Undefined variables are now treated consistently. - Previously, the <function>tryEval</function> function would catch - undefined variables inside a <literal>with</literal> but not - outside. Now <function>tryEval</function> never catches undefined - variables.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Bash completion in <command>nix-shell</command> now works - correctly.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Stack traces are less verbose: they no longer show calls to - builtin functions and only show a single line for each derivation - on the call stack.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>New built-in function: <function>builtins.typeOf</function>, - which returns the type of its argument as a string.</para> - </listitem> - -</itemizedlist> - -</section> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-1.6.0"><title>Release 1.6 (September 10, 2013)</title> - -<para>In addition to the usual bug fixes, this release has several new -features:</para> - -<itemizedlist> - - <listitem> - <para>The command <command>nix-build --run-env</command> has been - renamed to <command>nix-shell</command>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para><command>nix-shell</command> now sources - <filename>$stdenv/setup</filename> <emphasis>inside</emphasis> the - interactive shell, rather than in a parent shell. This ensures - that shell functions defined by <literal>stdenv</literal> can be - used in the interactive shell.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para><command>nix-shell</command> has a new flag - <option>--pure</option> to clear the environment, so you get an - environment that more closely corresponds to the “real” Nix build. - </para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para><command>nix-shell</command> now sets the shell prompt - (<envar>PS1</envar>) to ensure that Nix shells are distinguishable - from your regular shells.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para><command>nix-env</command> no longer requires a - <literal>*</literal> argument to match all packages, so - <literal>nix-env -qa</literal> is equivalent to <literal>nix-env - -qa '*'</literal>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para><command>nix-env -i</command> has a new flag - <option>--remove-all</option> (<option>-r</option>) to remove all - previous packages from the profile. This makes it easier to do - declarative package management similar to NixOS’s - <option>environment.systemPackages</option>. For instance, if you - have a specification <filename>my-packages.nix</filename> like this: - -<programlisting> -with import <nixpkgs> {}; -[ thunderbird - geeqie - ... -] -</programlisting> - - then after any change to this file, you can run: - -<screen> -$ nix-env -f my-packages.nix -ir -</screen> - - to update your profile to match the specification.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The ‘<literal>with</literal>’ language construct is now more - lazy. It only evaluates its argument if a variable might actually - refer to an attribute in the argument. For instance, this now - works: - -<programlisting> -let - pkgs = with pkgs; { foo = "old"; bar = foo; } // overrides; - overrides = { foo = "new"; }; -in pkgs.bar -</programlisting> - - This evaluates to <literal>"new"</literal>, while previously it - gave an “infinite recursion” error.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Nix now has proper integer arithmetic operators. For - instance, you can write <literal>x + y</literal> instead of - <literal>builtins.add x y</literal>, or <literal>x < - y</literal> instead of <literal>builtins.lessThan x y</literal>. - The comparison operators also work on strings.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>On 64-bit systems, Nix integers are now 64 bits rather than - 32 bits.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>When using the Nix daemon, the <command>nix-daemon</command> - worker process now runs on the same CPU as the client, on systems - that support setting CPU affinity. This gives a significant speedup - on some systems.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>If a stack overflow occurs in the Nix evaluator, you now get - a proper error message (rather than “Segmentation fault”) on some - systems.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>In addition to directories, you can now bind-mount regular - files in chroots through the (now misnamed) option - <option>build-chroot-dirs</option>.</para> - </listitem> - -</itemizedlist> - -<para>This release has contributions from Domen Kožar, Eelco Dolstra, -Florian Friesdorf, Gergely Risko, Ivan Kozik, Ludovic Courtès and Shea -Levy.</para> - -</section> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-1.5.3"><title>Release 1.5.3 (June 17, 2013)</title> - -<para>This is primarily a bug fix release. The following changes are -noteworthy:</para> - -<itemizedlist> - - <listitem> - <para>Yet another security bug involving hard links to files - outside the store was fixed. This bug only affected multi-user - installations that do not have hard link restrictions - enabled. (NixOS is thus not vulnerable.)</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The default binary cache URL has changed from - <uri>http://nixos.org/binary-cache</uri> to - <uri>http://cache.nixos.org</uri>. The latter is hosted on Amazon - CloudFront (courtesy of <link - xlink:href="http://www.logicblox.com/">LogicBlox</link>) and - should provide better performance for users in both Europe and - North America.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The binary cache substituter now prints a warning message if - fetching information from the cache takes more than five seconds. - Thus network or server problems no longer make Nix appear to just - hang.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Stack traces now show function names, e.g. -<screen> -while evaluating `concatMapStrings' at `<replaceable>...</replaceable>/nixpkgs/pkgs/lib/strings.nix:18:25': -</screen> - Also, if a function is called with an unexpected argument, Nix - now shows the name of the argument. - </para> - </listitem> - -</itemizedlist> - -</section> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-1.5.2"><title>Release 1.5.2 (May 13, 2013)</title> - -<para>This is primarily a bug fix release. It has contributions from -Eelco Dolstra, Lluís Batlle i Rossell and Shea Levy.</para> - -</section> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-1.5.1"><title>Release 1.5.1 (February 28, 2013)</title> - -<para>The bug fix to the bug fix had a bug itself, of course. But -this time it will work for sure!</para> - -</section> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-1.5"><title>Release 1.5 (February 27, 2013)</title> - -<para>This is a brown paper bag release to fix a regression introduced -by the hard link security fix in 1.4.</para> - -</section> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-1.4"><title>Release 1.4 (February 26, 2013)</title> - -<para>This release fixes a security bug in multi-user operation. It -was possible for derivations to cause the mode of files outside of the -Nix store to be changed to 444 (read-only but world-readable) by -creating hard links to those files (<link -xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/5526a282b5b44e9296e61e07d7d2626a79141ac4">details</link>).</para> - -<para>There are also the following improvements:</para> - -<itemizedlist> - - <listitem><para>New built-in function: - <function>builtins.hashString</function>.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>Build logs are now stored in - <filename>/nix/var/log/nix/drvs/<replaceable>XX</replaceable>/</filename>, - where <replaceable>XX</replaceable> is the first two characters of - the derivation. This is useful on machines that keep a lot of build - logs (such as Hydra servers).</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>The function <function>corepkgs/fetchurl</function> - can now make the downloaded file executable. This will allow - getting rid of all bootstrap binaries in the Nixpkgs source - tree.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>Language change: The expression <literal>"${./path} - ..."</literal> now evaluates to a string instead of a - path.</para></listitem> - -</itemizedlist> - -</section> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-1.3"><title>Release 1.3 (January 4, 2013)</title> - -<para>This is primarily a bug fix release. When this version is first -run on Linux, it removes any immutable bits from the Nix store and -increases the schema version of the Nix store. (The previous release -removed support for setting the immutable bit; this release clears any -remaining immutable bits to make certain operations more -efficient.)</para> - -<para>This release has contributions from Eelco Dolstra and Stuart -Pernsteiner.</para> - -</section> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-1.2"><title>Release 1.2 (December 6, 2012)</title> - -<para>This release has the following improvements and changes:</para> - -<itemizedlist> - - <listitem> - <para>Nix has a new binary substituter mechanism: the - <emphasis>binary cache</emphasis>. A binary cache contains - pre-built binaries of Nix packages. Whenever Nix wants to build a - missing Nix store path, it will check a set of binary caches to - see if any of them has a pre-built binary of that path. The - configuration setting <option>binary-caches</option> contains a - list of URLs of binary caches. For instance, doing -<screen> -$ nix-env -i thunderbird --option binary-caches http://cache.nixos.org -</screen> - will install Thunderbird and its dependencies, using the available - pre-built binaries in <uri>http://cache.nixos.org</uri>. - The main advantage over the old “manifest”-based method of getting - pre-built binaries is that you don’t have to worry about your - manifest being in sync with the Nix expressions you’re installing - from; i.e., you don’t need to run <command>nix-pull</command> to - update your manifest. It’s also more scalable because you don’t - need to redownload a giant manifest file every time. - </para> - - <para>A Nix channel can provide a binary cache URL that will be - used automatically if you subscribe to that channel. If you use - the Nixpkgs or NixOS channels - (<uri>http://nixos.org/channels</uri>) you automatically get the - cache <uri>http://cache.nixos.org</uri>.</para> - - <para>Binary caches are created using <command>nix-push</command>. - For details on the operation and format of binary caches, see the - <command>nix-push</command> manpage. More details are provided in - <link xlink:href="http://lists.science.uu.nl/pipermail/nix-dev/2012-September/009826.html">this - nix-dev posting</link>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Multiple output support should now be usable. A derivation - can declare that it wants to produce multiple store paths by - saying something like -<programlisting> -outputs = [ "lib" "headers" "doc" ]; -</programlisting> - This will cause Nix to pass the intended store path of each output - to the builder through the environment variables - <literal>lib</literal>, <literal>headers</literal> and - <literal>doc</literal>. Other packages can refer to a specific - output by referring to - <literal><replaceable>pkg</replaceable>.<replaceable>output</replaceable></literal>, - e.g. -<programlisting> -buildInputs = [ pkg.lib pkg.headers ]; -</programlisting> - If you install a package with multiple outputs using - <command>nix-env</command>, each output path will be symlinked - into the user environment.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Dashes are now valid as part of identifiers and attribute - names.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The new operation <command>nix-store --repair-path</command> - allows corrupted or missing store paths to be repaired by - redownloading them. <command>nix-store --verify --check-contents - --repair</command> will scan and repair all paths in the Nix - store. Similarly, <command>nix-env</command>, - <command>nix-build</command>, <command>nix-instantiate</command> - and <command>nix-store --realise</command> have a - <option>--repair</option> flag to detect and fix bad paths by - rebuilding or redownloading them.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Nix no longer sets the immutable bit on files in the Nix - store. Instead, the recommended way to guard the Nix store - against accidental modification on Linux is to make it a read-only - bind mount, like this: - -<screen> -$ mount --bind /nix/store /nix/store -$ mount -o remount,ro,bind /nix/store -</screen> - - Nix will automatically make <filename>/nix/store</filename> - writable as needed (using a private mount namespace) to allow - modifications.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Store optimisation (replacing identical files in the store - with hard links) can now be done automatically every time a path - is added to the store. This is enabled by setting the - configuration option <literal>auto-optimise-store</literal> to - <literal>true</literal> (disabled by default).</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Nix now supports <command>xz</command> compression for NARs - in addition to <command>bzip2</command>. It compresses about 30% - better on typical archives and decompresses about twice as - fast.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Basic Nix expression evaluation profiling: setting the - environment variable <envar>NIX_COUNT_CALLS</envar> to - <literal>1</literal> will cause Nix to print how many times each - primop or function was executed.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>New primops: <varname>concatLists</varname>, - <varname>elem</varname>, <varname>elemAt</varname> and - <varname>filter</varname>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The command <command>nix-copy-closure</command> has a new - flag <option>--use-substitutes</option> (<option>-s</option>) to - download missing paths on the target machine using the substitute - mechanism.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The command <command>nix-worker</command> has been renamed - to <command>nix-daemon</command>. Support for running the Nix - worker in “slave” mode has been removed.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The <option>--help</option> flag of every Nix command now - invokes <command>man</command>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Chroot builds are now supported on systemd machines.</para> - </listitem> - -</itemizedlist> - -<para>This release has contributions from Eelco Dolstra, Florian -Friesdorf, Mats Erik Andersson and Shea Levy.</para> - -</section> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-1.1"><title>Release 1.1 (July 18, 2012)</title> - -<para>This release has the following improvements:</para> - -<itemizedlist> - - <listitem> - <para>On Linux, when doing a chroot build, Nix now uses various - namespace features provided by the Linux kernel to improve - build isolation. Namely: - <itemizedlist> - <listitem><para>The private network namespace ensures that - builders cannot talk to the outside world (or vice versa): each - build only sees a private loopback interface. This also means - that two concurrent builds can listen on the same port (e.g. as - part of a test) without conflicting with each - other.</para></listitem> - <listitem><para>The PID namespace causes each build to start as - PID 1. Processes outside of the chroot are not visible to those - on the inside. On the other hand, processes inside the chroot - <emphasis>are</emphasis> visible from the outside (though with - different PIDs).</para></listitem> - <listitem><para>The IPC namespace prevents the builder from - communicating with outside processes using SysV IPC mechanisms - (shared memory, message queues, semaphores). It also ensures - that all IPC objects are destroyed when the builder - exits.</para></listitem> - <listitem><para>The UTS namespace ensures that builders see a - hostname of <literal>localhost</literal> rather than the actual - hostname.</para></listitem> - <listitem><para>The private mount namespace was already used by - Nix to ensure that the bind-mounts used to set up the chroot are - cleaned up automatically.</para></listitem> - </itemizedlist> - </para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Build logs are now compressed using - <command>bzip2</command>. The command <command>nix-store - -l</command> decompresses them on the fly. This can be disabled - by setting the option <literal>build-compress-log</literal> to - <literal>false</literal>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The creation of build logs in - <filename>/nix/var/log/nix/drvs</filename> can be disabled by - setting the new option <literal>build-keep-log</literal> to - <literal>false</literal>. This is useful, for instance, for Hydra - build machines.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Nix now reserves some space in - <filename>/nix/var/nix/db/reserved</filename> to ensure that the - garbage collector can run successfully if the disk is full. This - is necessary because SQLite transactions fail if the disk is - full.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Added a basic <function>fetchurl</function> function. This - is not intended to replace the <function>fetchurl</function> in - Nixpkgs, but is useful for bootstrapping; e.g., it will allow us - to get rid of the bootstrap binaries in the Nixpkgs source tree - and download them instead. You can use it by doing - <literal>import <nix/fetchurl.nix> { url = - <replaceable>url</replaceable>; sha256 = - "<replaceable>hash</replaceable>"; }</literal>. (Shea Levy)</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Improved RPM spec file. (Michel Alexandre Salim)</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Support for on-demand socket-based activation in the Nix - daemon with <command>systemd</command>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Added a manpage for - <citerefentry><refentrytitle>nix.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>When using the Nix daemon, the <option>-s</option> flag in - <command>nix-env -qa</command> is now much faster.</para> - </listitem> - -</itemizedlist> - -</section> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-1.0"><title>Release 1.0 (May 11, 2012)</title> - -<para>There have been numerous improvements and bug fixes since the -previous release. Here are the most significant:</para> - -<itemizedlist> - - <listitem> - <para>Nix can now optionally use the Boehm garbage collector. - This significantly reduces the Nix evaluator’s memory footprint, - especially when evaluating large NixOS system configurations. It - can be enabled using the <option>--enable-gc</option> configure - option.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Nix now uses SQLite for its database. This is faster and - more flexible than the old <emphasis>ad hoc</emphasis> format. - SQLite is also used to cache the manifests in - <filename>/nix/var/nix/manifests</filename>, resulting in a - significant speedup.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Nix now has an search path for expressions. The search path - is set using the environment variable <envar>NIX_PATH</envar> and - the <option>-I</option> command line option. In Nix expressions, - paths between angle brackets are used to specify files that must - be looked up in the search path. For instance, the expression - <literal><nixpkgs/default.nix></literal> looks for a file - <filename>nixpkgs/default.nix</filename> relative to every element - in the search path.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The new command <command>nix-build --run-env</command> - builds all dependencies of a derivation, then starts a shell in an - environment containing all variables from the derivation. This is - useful for reproducing the environment of a derivation for - development.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The new command <command>nix-store --verify-path</command> - verifies that the contents of a store path have not - changed.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The new command <command>nix-store --print-env</command> - prints out the environment of a derivation in a format that can be - evaluated by a shell.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Attribute names can now be arbitrary strings. For instance, - you can write <literal>{ "foo-1.2" = …; "bla bla" = …; }."bla - bla"</literal>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Attribute selection can now provide a default value using - the <literal>or</literal> operator. For instance, the expression - <literal>x.y.z or e</literal> evaluates to the attribute - <literal>x.y.z</literal> if it exists, and <literal>e</literal> - otherwise.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The right-hand side of the <literal>?</literal> operator can - now be an attribute path, e.g., <literal>attrs ? - a.b.c</literal>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>On Linux, Nix will now make files in the Nix store immutable - on filesystems that support it. This prevents accidental - modification of files in the store by the root user.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Nix has preliminary support for derivations with multiple - outputs. This is useful because it allows parts of a package to - be deployed and garbage-collected separately. For instance, - development parts of a package such as header files or static - libraries would typically not be part of the closure of an - application, resulting in reduced disk usage and installation - time.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The Nix store garbage collector is faster and holds the - global lock for a shorter amount of time.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The option <option>--timeout</option> (corresponding to the - configuration setting <literal>build-timeout</literal>) allows you - to set an absolute timeout on builds — if a build runs for more than - the given number of seconds, it is terminated. This is useful for - recovering automatically from builds that are stuck in an infinite - loop but keep producing output, and for which - <literal>--max-silent-time</literal> is ineffective.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Nix development has moved to GitHub (<link - xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nix" />).</para> - </listitem> - -</itemizedlist> - -</section> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-0.16"><title>Release 0.16 (August 17, 2010)</title> - -<para>This release has the following improvements:</para> - -<itemizedlist> - - <listitem> - <para>The Nix expression evaluator is now much faster in most - cases: typically, <link - xlink:href="http://www.mail-archive.com/nix-dev@cs.uu.nl/msg04113.html">3 - to 8 times compared to the old implementation</link>. It also - uses less memory. It no longer depends on the ATerm - library.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para> - Support for configurable parallelism inside builders. Build - scripts have always had the ability to perform multiple build - actions in parallel (for instance, by running <command>make -j - 2</command>), but this was not desirable because the number of - actions to be performed in parallel was not configurable. Nix - now has an option <option>--cores - <replaceable>N</replaceable></option> as well as a configuration - setting <varname>build-cores = - <replaceable>N</replaceable></varname> that causes the - environment variable <envar>NIX_BUILD_CORES</envar> to be set to - <replaceable>N</replaceable> when the builder is invoked. The - builder can use this at its discretion to perform a parallel - build, e.g., by calling <command>make -j - <replaceable>N</replaceable></command>. In Nixpkgs, this can be - enabled on a per-package basis by setting the derivation - attribute <varname>enableParallelBuilding</varname> to - <literal>true</literal>. - </para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para><command>nix-store -q</command> now supports XML output - through the <option>--xml</option> flag.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Several bug fixes.</para> - </listitem> - -</itemizedlist> - -</section> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-0.15"><title>Release 0.15 (March 17, 2010)</title> - -<para>This is a bug-fix release. Among other things, it fixes -building on Mac OS X (Snow Leopard), and improves the contents of -<filename>/etc/passwd</filename> and <filename>/etc/group</filename> -in <literal>chroot</literal> builds.</para> - -</section> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-0.14"><title>Release 0.14 (February 4, 2010)</title> - -<para>This release has the following improvements:</para> - -<itemizedlist> - - <listitem> - <para>The garbage collector now starts deleting garbage much - faster than before. It no longer determines liveness of all paths - in the store, but does so on demand.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Added a new operation, <command>nix-store --query - --roots</command>, that shows the garbage collector roots that - directly or indirectly point to the given store paths.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Removed support for converting Berkeley DB-based Nix - databases to the new schema.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Removed the <option>--use-atime</option> and - <option>--max-atime</option> garbage collector options. They were - not very useful in practice.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>On Windows, Nix now requires Cygwin 1.7.x.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>A few bug fixes.</para> - </listitem> - -</itemizedlist> - -</section> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-0.13"><title>Release 0.13 (November 5, -2009)</title> - -<para>This is primarily a bug fix release. It has some new -features:</para> - -<itemizedlist> - - <listitem> - <para>Syntactic sugar for writing nested attribute sets. Instead of - -<programlisting> -{ - foo = { - bar = 123; - xyzzy = true; - }; - a = { b = { c = "d"; }; }; -} -</programlisting> - - you can write - -<programlisting> -{ - foo.bar = 123; - foo.xyzzy = true; - a.b.c = "d"; -} -</programlisting> - - This is useful, for instance, in NixOS configuration files.</para> - - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Support for Nix channels generated by Hydra, the Nix-based - continuous build system. (Hydra generates NAR archives on the - fly, so the size and hash of these archives isn’t known in - advance.)</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Support <literal>i686-linux</literal> builds directly on - <literal>x86_64-linux</literal> Nix installations. This is - implemented using the <function>personality()</function> syscall, - which causes <command>uname</command> to return - <literal>i686</literal> in child processes.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Various improvements to the <literal>chroot</literal> - support. Building in a <literal>chroot</literal> works quite well - now.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Nix no longer blocks if it tries to build a path and another - process is already building the same path. Instead it tries to - build another buildable path first. This improves - parallelism.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Support for large (> 4 GiB) files in NAR archives.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Various (performance) improvements to the remote build - mechanism.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>New primops: <varname>builtins.addErrorContext</varname> (to - add a string to stack traces — useful for debugging), - <varname>builtins.isBool</varname>, - <varname>builtins.isString</varname>, - <varname>builtins.isInt</varname>, - <varname>builtins.intersectAttrs</varname>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>OpenSolaris support (Sander van der Burg).</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Stack traces are no longer displayed unless the - <option>--show-trace</option> option is used.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>The scoping rules for <literal>inherit - (<replaceable>e</replaceable>) ...</literal> in recursive - attribute sets have changed. The expression - <replaceable>e</replaceable> can now refer to the attributes - defined in the containing set.</para> - </listitem> - -</itemizedlist> - -</section> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section xml:id="ssec-relnotes-0.12"><title>Release 0.12 (November 20, -2008)</title> - -<itemizedlist> - - <listitem> - <para>Nix no longer uses Berkeley DB to store Nix store metadata. - The principal advantages of the new storage scheme are: it works - properly over decent implementations of NFS (allowing Nix stores - to be shared between multiple machines); no recovery is needed - when a Nix process crashes; no write access is needed for - read-only operations; no more running out of Berkeley DB locks on - certain operations.</para> - - <para>You still need to compile Nix with Berkeley DB support if - you want Nix to automatically convert your old Nix store to the - new schema. If you don’t need this, you can build Nix with the - <filename>configure</filename> option - <option>--disable-old-db-compat</option>.</para> - - <para>After the automatic conversion to the new schema, you can - delete the old Berkeley DB files: - - <screen> -$ cd /nix/var/nix/db -$ rm __db* log.* derivers references referrers reserved validpaths DB_CONFIG</screen> - - The new metadata is stored in the directories - <filename>/nix/var/nix/db/info</filename> and - <filename>/nix/var/nix/db/referrer</filename>. Though the - metadata is stored in human-readable plain-text files, they are - not intended to be human-editable, as Nix is rather strict about - the format.</para> - - <para>The new storage schema may or may not require less disk - space than the Berkeley DB environment, mostly depending on the - cluster size of your file system. With 1 KiB clusters (which - seems to be the <literal>ext3</literal> default nowadays) it - usually takes up much less space.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem><para>There is a new substituter that copies paths - directly from other (remote) Nix stores mounted somewhere in the - filesystem. For instance, you can speed up an installation by - mounting some remote Nix store that already has the packages in - question via NFS or <literal>sshfs</literal>. The environment - variable <envar>NIX_OTHER_STORES</envar> specifies the locations of - the remote Nix directories, - e.g. <literal>/mnt/remote-fs/nix</literal>.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>New <command>nix-store</command> operations - <option>--dump-db</option> and <option>--load-db</option> to dump - and reload the Nix database.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>The garbage collector has a number of new options to - allow only some of the garbage to be deleted. The option - <option>--max-freed <replaceable>N</replaceable></option> tells the - collector to stop after at least <replaceable>N</replaceable> bytes - have been deleted. The option <option>--max-links - <replaceable>N</replaceable></option> tells it to stop after the - link count on <filename>/nix/store</filename> has dropped below - <replaceable>N</replaceable>. This is useful for very large Nix - stores on filesystems with a 32000 subdirectories limit (like - <literal>ext3</literal>). The option <option>--use-atime</option> - causes store paths to be deleted in order of ascending last access - time. This allows non-recently used stuff to be deleted. The - option <option>--max-atime <replaceable>time</replaceable></option> - specifies an upper limit to the last accessed time of paths that may - be deleted. For instance, - - <screen> - $ nix-store --gc -v --max-atime $(date +%s -d "2 months ago")</screen> - - deletes everything that hasn’t been accessed in two months.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para><command>nix-env</command> now uses optimistic - profile locking when performing an operation like installing or - upgrading, instead of setting an exclusive lock on the profile. - This allows multiple <command>nix-env -i / -u / -e</command> - operations on the same profile in parallel. If a - <command>nix-env</command> operation sees at the end that the profile - was changed in the meantime by another process, it will just - restart. This is generally cheap because the build results are - still in the Nix store.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>The option <option>--dry-run</option> is now - supported by <command>nix-store -r</command> and - <command>nix-build</command>.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>The information previously shown by - <option>--dry-run</option> (i.e., which derivations will be built - and which paths will be substituted) is now always shown by - <command>nix-env</command>, <command>nix-store -r</command> and - <command>nix-build</command>. The total download size of - substitutable paths is now also shown. For instance, a build will - show something like - - <screen> -the following derivations will be built: - /nix/store/129sbxnk5n466zg6r1qmq1xjv9zymyy7-activate-configuration.sh.drv - /nix/store/7mzy971rdm8l566ch8hgxaf89x7lr7ik-upstart-jobs.drv - ... -the following paths will be downloaded/copied (30.02 MiB): - /nix/store/4m8pvgy2dcjgppf5b4cj5l6wyshjhalj-samba-3.2.4 - /nix/store/7h1kwcj29ip8vk26rhmx6bfjraxp0g4l-libunwind-0.98.6 - ...</screen> - - </para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>Language features: - - <itemizedlist> - - <listitem><para>@-patterns as in Haskell. For instance, in a - function definition - - <programlisting>f = args @ {x, y, z}: <replaceable>...</replaceable>;</programlisting> - - <varname>args</varname> refers to the argument as a whole, which - is further pattern-matched against the attribute set pattern - <literal>{x, y, z}</literal>.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>“<literal>...</literal>” (ellipsis) patterns. - An attribute set pattern can now say <literal>...</literal> at - the end of the attribute name list to specify that the function - takes <emphasis>at least</emphasis> the listed attributes, while - ignoring additional attributes. For instance, - - <programlisting>{stdenv, fetchurl, fuse, ...}: <replaceable>...</replaceable></programlisting> - - defines a function that accepts any attribute set that includes - at least the three listed attributes.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>New primops: - <varname>builtins.parseDrvName</varname> (split a package name - string like <literal>"nix-0.12pre12876"</literal> into its name - and version components, e.g. <literal>"nix"</literal> and - <literal>"0.12pre12876"</literal>), - <varname>builtins.compareVersions</varname> (compare two version - strings using the same algorithm that <command>nix-env</command> - uses), <varname>builtins.length</varname> (efficiently compute - the length of a list), <varname>builtins.mul</varname> (integer - multiplication), <varname>builtins.div</varname> (integer - division). - <!-- <varname>builtins.genericClosure</varname> --> - </para></listitem> - - </itemizedlist> - - </para></listitem> - - <listitem><para><command>nix-prefetch-url</command> now supports - <literal>mirror://</literal> URLs, provided that the environment - variable <envar>NIXPKGS_ALL</envar> points at a Nixpkgs - tree.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>Removed the commands - <command>nix-pack-closure</command> and - <command>nix-unpack-closure</command>. You can do almost the same - thing but much more efficiently by doing <literal>nix-store --export - $(nix-store -qR <replaceable>paths</replaceable>) > closure</literal> and - <literal>nix-store --import < - closure</literal>.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>Lots of bug fixes, including a big performance bug in - the handling of <literal>with</literal>-expressions.</para></listitem> - -</itemizedlist> - -</section> - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section 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> - -</section> - - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section><title>Release 0.10.1 (October 11, 2006)</title> - -<para>This release fixes two somewhat obscure bugs that occur when -evaluating Nix expressions that are stored inside the Nix store -(<literal>NIX-67</literal>). These do not affect most users.</para> - -</section> - - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section><title>Release 0.10 (October 6, 2006)</title> - -<note><para>This version of Nix uses Berkeley DB 4.4 instead of 4.3. -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> -$ nix-store --clear-substitutes</screen> - -first.</para></note> - -<warning><para>Also, the database schema has changed slighted to fix a -performance issue (see below). When you run any Nix 0.10 command for -the first time, the database will be upgraded automatically. This is -irreversible.</para></warning> - -<itemizedlist> - - - <!-- Usability / features --> - - - <listitem><para><command>nix-env</command> usability improvements: - - <itemizedlist> - - <listitem><para>An option <option>--compare-versions</option> - (or <option>-c</option>) has been added to <command>nix-env - --query</command> to allow you to compare installed versions of - packages to available versions, or vice versa. An easy way to - see if you are up to date with what’s in your subscribed - channels is <literal>nix-env -qc \*</literal>.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para><literal>nix-env --query</literal> now takes as - arguments a list of package names about which to show - information, just like <option>--install</option>, etc.: for - example, <literal>nix-env -q gcc</literal>. Note that to show - all derivations, you need to specify - <literal>\*</literal>.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para><literal>nix-env -i - <replaceable>pkgname</replaceable></literal> will now install - the highest available version of - <replaceable>pkgname</replaceable>, rather than installing all - available versions (which would probably give collisions) - (<literal>NIX-31</literal>).</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para><literal>nix-env (-i|-u) --dry-run</literal> now - shows exactly which missing paths will be built or - substituted.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para><literal>nix-env -qa --description</literal> - shows human-readable descriptions of packages, provided that - they have a <literal>meta.description</literal> attribute (which - most packages in Nixpkgs don’t have yet).</para></listitem> - - </itemizedlist> - - </para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para>New language features: - - <itemizedlist> - - <listitem><para>Reference scanning (which happens after each - build) is much faster and takes a constant amount of - memory.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>String interpolation. Expressions like - -<programlisting> -"--with-freetype2-library=" + freetype + "/lib"</programlisting> - - can now be written as - -<programlisting> -"--with-freetype2-library=${freetype}/lib"</programlisting> - - You can write arbitrary expressions within - <literal>${<replaceable>...</replaceable>}</literal>, not just - identifiers.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>Multi-line string literals.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>String concatenations can now involve - derivations, as in the example <code>"--with-freetype2-library=" - + freetype + "/lib"</code>. This was not previously possible - because we need to register that a derivation that uses such a - string is dependent on <literal>freetype</literal>. The - evaluator now properly propagates this information. - 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> - - <!-- - <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 = ...; - ... 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 unambiguously 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 - successfully 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 successful 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 overridden 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> - - - -<!--==================================================================--> - -<section><title>Release 0.5 and earlier</title> - -<para>Please refer to the Subversion commit log messages.</para> - -</section> - - - -</article> |