Release 0.9 (September 16, 2005)
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
$ nix-store --clear-substitutes
first.
Unpacking of patch sequences is much faster now
since we no longer do redundant unpacking and repacking of
intermediate paths.
Nix now uses Berkeley DB 4.3.
The derivation primitive is
lazier. Attributes of dependent derivations can mutually refer to
each other (as long as there are no data dependencies on the
outPath and drvPath attributes
computed by derivation).
For example, the expression derivation
attrs now evaluates to (essentially)
attrs // {
type = "derivation";
outPath = derivation! attrs;
drvPath = derivation! attrs;
}
where derivation! is a primop that does the
actual derivation instantiation (i.e., it does what
derivation used to do). The advantage is that
it allows commands such as nix-env -qa and
nix-env -i to be much faster since they no longer
need to instantiate all derivations, just the
name attribute.
Also, it allows derivations to cyclically reference each
other, for example,
webServer = derivation {
...
hostName = "svn.cs.uu.nl";
services = [svnService];
};
svnService = derivation {
...
hostName = webServer.hostName;
};
Previously, this would yield a black hole (infinite recursion).
nix-build now defaults to using
./default.nix if no Nix expression is
specified.
nix-instantiate, when applied to
a Nix expression that evaluates to a function, will call the
function automatically if all its arguments have
defaults.
Nix now uses libtool to build dynamic libraries.
This reduces the size of executables.
A new list concatenation operator
++. For example, [1 2 3] ++ [4 5
6] evaluates to [1 2 3 4 5
6].
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 r3578
and r3580.
Various bug fixes and performance
improvements.