119 lines
4.3 KiB
XML
119 lines
4.3 KiB
XML
<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
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xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
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xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
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version="5.0"
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xml:id="ssec-relnotes-1.0">
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<title>Release 1.0 (2012-05-11)</title>
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<para>There have been numerous improvements and bug fixes since the
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previous release. Here are the most significant:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>Nix can now optionally use the Boehm garbage collector.
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This significantly reduces the Nix evaluator’s memory footprint,
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especially when evaluating large NixOS system configurations. It
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can be enabled using the <option>--enable-gc</option> configure
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option.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Nix now uses SQLite for its database. This is faster and
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more flexible than the old <emphasis>ad hoc</emphasis> format.
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SQLite is also used to cache the manifests in
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<filename>/nix/var/nix/manifests</filename>, resulting in a
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significant speedup.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Nix now has an search path for expressions. The search path
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is set using the environment variable <envar>NIX_PATH</envar> and
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the <option>-I</option> command line option. In Nix expressions,
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paths between angle brackets are used to specify files that must
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be looked up in the search path. For instance, the expression
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<literal><nixpkgs/default.nix></literal> looks for a file
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<filename>nixpkgs/default.nix</filename> relative to every element
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in the search path.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>The new command <command>nix-build --run-env</command>
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builds all dependencies of a derivation, then starts a shell in an
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environment containing all variables from the derivation. This is
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useful for reproducing the environment of a derivation for
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development.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>The new command <command>nix-store --verify-path</command>
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verifies that the contents of a store path have not
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changed.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>The new command <command>nix-store --print-env</command>
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prints out the environment of a derivation in a format that can be
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evaluated by a shell.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Attribute names can now be arbitrary strings. For instance,
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you can write <literal>{ "foo-1.2" = …; "bla bla" = …; }."bla
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bla"</literal>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Attribute selection can now provide a default value using
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the <literal>or</literal> operator. For instance, the expression
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<literal>x.y.z or e</literal> evaluates to the attribute
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<literal>x.y.z</literal> if it exists, and <literal>e</literal>
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otherwise.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>The right-hand side of the <literal>?</literal> operator can
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now be an attribute path, e.g., <literal>attrs ?
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a.b.c</literal>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>On Linux, Nix will now make files in the Nix store immutable
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on filesystems that support it. This prevents accidental
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modification of files in the store by the root user.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Nix has preliminary support for derivations with multiple
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outputs. This is useful because it allows parts of a package to
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be deployed and garbage-collected separately. For instance,
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development parts of a package such as header files or static
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libraries would typically not be part of the closure of an
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application, resulting in reduced disk usage and installation
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time.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>The Nix store garbage collector is faster and holds the
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global lock for a shorter amount of time.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>The option <option>--timeout</option> (corresponding to the
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configuration setting <literal>build-timeout</literal>) allows you
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to set an absolute timeout on builds — if a build runs for more than
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the given number of seconds, it is terminated. This is useful for
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recovering automatically from builds that are stuck in an infinite
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loop but keep producing output, and for which
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<literal>--max-silent-time</literal> is ineffective.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Nix development has moved to GitHub (<link
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xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nix" />).</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</section>
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