lix/doc/manual/rl-next/leading-period.md

---
synopsis: Store paths are allowed to start with `.`
issues: 912
prs: [9867, 9091, 9095, 9120, 9121, 9122, 9130, 9219, 9224]
credits: [roberth, horrors]
category: Fixes
---

Leading periods were allowed by accident in Nix 2.4. The Nix team has considered this to be a bug, but this behavior has since been relied on by users, leading to unnecessary difficulties.
From now on, leading periods are officially, definitively supported. The names `.` and `..` are disallowed, as well as those starting with `.-` or `..-`.

Nix versions that denied leading periods are documented [in the issue](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/912#issuecomment-1919583286).
parseStorePath: Support leading period (cherry picked from commit b13e6a76b4f289c6db69ffaa7bd35b7e44f2a391) Change-Id: Ie14be437d87d17248f80e1f009aa2a4311ddede6 2024-01-27 10:19:05 +00:00			`---`
			synopsis: Store paths are allowed to start with `.`
			`issues: 912`
			`prs: [9867, 9091, 9095, 9120, 9121, 9122, 9130, 9219, 9224]`
doc: add release note credits and categories for all the changes in Lix This does not add missing release notes, and it doesn't do anything about the profiles feature we would really like to have so we can have consistent credit. Change-Id: I72a6f7acfcff85f380be17dac76501a6f4693776 2024-05-15 02:14:58 +00:00			`credits: [roberth, horrors]`
			`category: Fixes`
parseStorePath: Support leading period (cherry picked from commit b13e6a76b4f289c6db69ffaa7bd35b7e44f2a391) Change-Id: Ie14be437d87d17248f80e1f009aa2a4311ddede6 2024-01-27 10:19:05 +00:00			`---`

			`Leading periods were allowed by accident in Nix 2.4. The Nix team has considered this to be a bug, but this behavior has since been relied on by users, leading to unnecessary difficulties.`
Disallow store path names that are . or .. (plus opt. -) As discussed in the maintainer meeting on 2024-01-29. Mainly this is to avoid a situation where the name is parsed and treated as a file name, mostly to protect users. .-* and ..-* are also considered invalid because they might strip on that separator to remove versions. Doesn't really work, but that's what we decided, and I won't argue with it, because .-* probably doesn't seem to have a real world application anyway. We do still permit a 1-character name that's just "-", which still poses a similar risk in such a situation. We can't start disallowing trailing -, because a non-zero number of users will need it and we've seen how annoying and painful such a change is. What matters most is preventing a situation where . or .. can be injected, and to just get this done. (cherry picked from commit f1b4663805a9dbcb1ace64ec110092d17c9155e0) Change-Id: I900a8509933cee662f888c3c76fa8986b0058839 2024-01-30 17:37:23 +00:00			From now on, leading periods are officially, definitively supported. The names `.` and `..` are disallowed, as well as those starting with `.-` or `..-`.
parseStorePath: Support leading period (cherry picked from commit b13e6a76b4f289c6db69ffaa7bd35b7e44f2a391) Change-Id: Ie14be437d87d17248f80e1f009aa2a4311ddede6 2024-01-27 10:19:05 +00:00
			`Nix versions that denied leading periods are documented [in the issue](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/912#issuecomment-1919583286).`