Version 2.90.0 blog post
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content/blog/2024-07-10-lix-2.90-release.md
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title = "Announcing Lix 2.90 \"Vanilla Ice Cream\""
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author = "Lix Team"
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We at the Lix team are proud to announce our first release, version 2.90
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"Vanilla Ice Cream". This release focuses on foundations and reliability, but
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nevertheless contains several small but exciting user-facing features that are
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exclusive to Lix.
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Lix is a Nix implementation focused on reliability, predictability,
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friendliness, developed by a community of people from
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around the world. We have long term plans to incrementally evolve Nix to work
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in more places, to make it more reliable and secure, and to update
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the language and semantics to correct past mistakes and reduce
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errors, all the while providing an amazing tooling experience.
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Lix forks from CppNix version 2.18, which is the default version of Nix in
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NixOS 23.11 and 24.05. It includes backports for most bug fixes in later versions of
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CppNix, as well as various reliability improvements, and many improvements to user
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experience. Our goal with Lix 2.90 is to create a better Nix 2.18: faster, more
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user friendly, with fewer bugs, and fully compatible with previously-valid
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Nix code including flakes.
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Some highlights of this release include:
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- `:doc` in `nix repl` now works on lambdas, in addition to built-in functions
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as before, thanks to [Lunaphied] and [jade]:
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```
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dev/nixpkgs » nix repl -f .
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Lix 2.90.0-lixpre20240520-992c63f
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Type :? for help.
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Loading installable ''...
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Added 21430 variables.
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nix-repl> :doc lib.forEach
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Synopsis: func = xs: f: ...
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| Apply the function to each element in the list.
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| Same as `map`, but arguments flipped.
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| Inputs
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| `xs`
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| : 1\. Function argument
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| `f`
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| : 2\. Function argument
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| Type
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| ``
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| forEach :: [a] -> (a -> b) -> [b]
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| ``
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| Examples
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| :::{.example}
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# lib.lists.forEach usage example
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| ``nix
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| forEach [ 1 2 ] (x:
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| toString x
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| )
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| => [ "1" "2" ]
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| ``
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| :::
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/home/jade/dev/nixpkgs/lib/lists.nix:77
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```
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- `nix repl` supports creating shortcuts using the [`repl-overlays`][repl-overlays]
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setting, thanks to [wiggles]. For example, one can create a shortcut to
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`legacyPackages.${currentSystem}` with the following repl overlay, configured
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as a file in the `repl-overlays` setting in `~/.config/nix/nix.conf`:
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```nix
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{ currentSystem, ...}: final: prev: let
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optionalAttrs = predicate: attrs:
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if predicate
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then attrs
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else {};
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in
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optionalAttrs (prev ? legacyPackages && prev.legacyPackages ? ${currentSystem})
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{
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pkgs = prev.legacyPackages.${currentSystem};
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}
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```
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Then:
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```
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~ » nix repl nixpkgs
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Lix 2.90.0-lixpre20240520-992c63f
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Type :? for help.
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Loading installable 'flake:nixpkgs#'...
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Added 5 variables.
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Loading 'repl-overlays'...
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Added 6 variables.
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nix-repl> pkgs.hello
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«derivation /nix/store/w0hjp1fnvyf1z30s29fj4im8c7bxqrql-hello-2.12.1.drv»
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```
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- Evaluation is 5-20% faster than 2.18, depending on which benchmark is in use,
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thanks to [eldritch horrors].
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- Various user experience issues have been fixed. For example:
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- Error reporting has been fixed to be more accurate in several cases thanks
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to [wiggles], and errors give more details to diagnose them.
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For instance, type errors now give the actual value that caused the error.
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- `nix flake lock --update-input nixpkgs` is now the much more reasonable
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`nix flake update nixpkgs`.
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- `nix build -E` is now an alias for `nix build --expr`, mirroring `nix-build
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-E`.
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- Several very silly `--debugger` bugs that one runs into in normal usage
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have been fixed thanks to [wiggles], so the debugger actually works properly
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without a mental index of all the bugs in it.
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- The Lix evaluation cache no longer caches failures, so "cached failure" is an
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error of the past.
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- The REPL value printer now intelligently chooses whether to print on one
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line or multiple lines, rather than putting everything on one very long
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line.
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- Various failures that were silent in the past are no longer silent:
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- The Lix daemon warns when it rejects a setting from a client that requires
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being a trusted user, instead of silently ignoring it.
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- Remote builds failing to connect to a builder now print the error.
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- Crashing the daemon now indicates that is what probably happened.
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- Lix now generally crashes much harder in the case of bugs, such that bugs
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are easier to find and fix.
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- Various errors have been made more specific, like "path is invalid".
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- Several hauntings have been exorcised from the codebase:
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- Flake input overrides like `foo.inputs.bar.inputs.nixpkgs` now work as
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documented rather than being ignored.
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- Store path names starting with `.` are now permitted, fixing some home-manager
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issues.
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- A crash when running patched kernels with non-default schedulers has been
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fixed.
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- Breakage inside the sandbox when running on systems with unprivileged user
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namespaces disabled has been fixed.
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- Various format string crashes have been fixed.
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- `nix doctor` now has correct output of client trustedness.
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[wiggles]: https://github.com/9999years
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[eldritch horrors]: https://git.lix.systems/pennae
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[Lunaphied]: https://github.com/lunaphied
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[jade]: https://jade.fyi
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[repl-overlays]: https://docs.lix.systems/manual/lix/2.90/command-ref/conf-file.html#conf-repl-overlays
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A lot of internal stability work and development process work has gone into
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this release. For instance:
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- Lix builds exclusively with the Meson build system. The historical CppNix
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Make-based build system has been removed altogether. This improves
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compile times as well as various aspects of the developer experience: the `clangd`
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language server just works with no configuration now, for instance.
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- Lix has the beginnings of the infrastructure to do linting of its C++ code and work on
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modernization with automated tools.
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- Lix enforces various aspects of [its
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styleguide][styleguide] with `pre-commit` hooks.
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- A lot of onboarding and project planning information has been written down in
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the [Wiki]. In general we strive to be transparent with our plans and
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priorities, and to communicate them clearly.
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- We have completed a release automation project, which should let us release more
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frequently given that our `main` is more or less releaseable on any given day.
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- We have built out a lot of infrastructure which we own end-to-end, allowing
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us to quickly improve on pain points in the project ourselves.
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- We have [Single Sign-On](https://identity.lix.systems) permitting us to
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easily deploy more services that cleanly integrate together.
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- We use [Gerrit](https://gerrit.lix.systems) for reviews, which allows us to
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focus on providing prompt and high quality patch reviews by making it easy
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to review changes piece by piece, with CI testing of every commit.
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Gerrit is one of our secret superpowers in shipping correct code, since it,
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by its structure, enforces good commit history, reviewable code, and
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incremental changes.
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- We use [Forgejo](https://git.lix.systems) for code hosting and issue
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tracking, which we have customised to integrate natively with Gerrit and
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to work natively with Nix flakes for locking tarballs.
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- We have a [Wiki] with design documents, styleguide, and other project
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organisational information.
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[Wiki]: https://wiki.lix.systems
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[styleguide]: https://wiki.lix.systems/books/lix-contributors/chapter/style-guide
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For a more comprehensive list of the changes in this release, see
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[the release notes][release-notes].
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[release-notes]: https://docs.lix.systems/manual/lix/2.90/release-notes/rl-2.90.html
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The Lix team as well as several dozen beta testers have been running a
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development release of Lix 2.90 in production every day for a couple of months,
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and we do not expect any significant regressions compared to Nix 2.18. However,
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if you find a bug or suspicious behaviour in Lix, feel free to mention it on
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Matrix or [file a bug on Forgejo][bugs]. If you would like to participate in
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beta testing of future Lix versions, we have a [guide on the wiki][beta-guide]
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and a [Matrix channel][beta-channel] for running `main`.
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[bugs]: https://git.lix.systems/lix-project/lix/issues
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[beta-guide]: https://wiki.lix.systems/books/lix-contributors/page/lix-beta-guide
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[beta-channel]: https://matrix.to/#/#open-beta:lix.systems
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We would especially like to thank all the following groups for their hard work
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and trust in contributing to this release:
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- The several dozen Lix beta testers who have been running Lix `main` in
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production for over a month, and who have helped us fix the various
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longstanding CppNix bugs they have had stuck in their craw as well as put up
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with our work-in-progress infrastructure as we built it out.
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- All the first time contributors who made their first contributions to a Nix
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implementation in Lix. We are eternally grateful to everyone who helped us out
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on the numerous important but tedious issues.
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- All the people new to Nix who have trusted us by running experimental
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versions of Lix and given us feedback.
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- The long time CppNix contributors who came to Lix and helped out with fixing
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many issues.
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- The CppNix contributors and CppNix team, without whom we would not have this
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software, and who wrote many of the bug fixes we backported to Lix from CppNix
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versions > 2.18.
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- Everyone else who has worked with us on starting to make this dream a
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reality.
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We are very proud of what everyone has achieved with this release since we
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begun in late February 2024, and we are just getting started. We are looking
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forward to continue working together with everyone to build a better foundation
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for the future evolution of Nix.
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