![Eelco Dolstra](/assets/img/avatar_default.png)
derivations. This is mostly to simplify the implementation of nix-prefetch-{url, svn}, which now work properly in setuid installations. * Enforce valid store names in `nix-store --add / --add-fixed'.
255 lines
9.3 KiB
Plaintext
255 lines
9.3 KiB
Plaintext
Version 0.8
|
|
|
|
NOTE: the hashing scheme in Nix 0.8 changed (as detailed below). As a
|
|
result, `nix-pull' 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.
|
|
|
|
If you get the error message
|
|
|
|
you have an old-style manifest `/nix/var/nix/manifests/[...]';
|
|
please delete it
|
|
|
|
you should delete previously downloaded manifests:
|
|
|
|
$ rm /nix/var/nix/manifests/*
|
|
|
|
If `nix-channel' gives the error message
|
|
|
|
manifest `http://catamaran.labs.cs.uu.nl/dist/nix/channels/[channel]/MANIFEST'
|
|
is too old (i.e., for Nix <= 0.7)
|
|
|
|
then you should unsubscribe from the offending channel (`nix-channel
|
|
--remove URL'; leave out `/MANIFEST'), and subscribe to the same URL,
|
|
with `channels' replaced by `channels-v3' (e.g.,
|
|
http://catamaran.labs.cs.uu.nl/dist/nix/channels-v3/nixpkgs-unstable).
|
|
|
|
Nix 0.8 has the following improvements:
|
|
|
|
* 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., /nix/store/csw87wag8bqlqk7ipllbwypb14xainap-atk-1.9.0).
|
|
(This is actually a 160 bit truncation of a SHA-256 hash.)
|
|
|
|
* 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.
|
|
|
|
For instance, given any store path, you can query its closure:
|
|
|
|
$ nix-store -qR $(which firefox)
|
|
... lots of paths ...
|
|
|
|
Also, Nix now remembers for each store path the derivation that
|
|
built it (the "deriver"):
|
|
|
|
$ nix-store -qR $(which firefox)
|
|
/nix/store/4b0jx7vq80l9aqcnkszxhymsf1ffa5jd-firefox-1.0.1.drv
|
|
|
|
So to see the build-time dependencies, you can do
|
|
|
|
$ nix-store -qR $(nix-store -qd $(which firefox))
|
|
|
|
or, in a nicer format:
|
|
|
|
$ nix-store -q --tree $(nix-store -qd $(which firefox))
|
|
|
|
File system references are also stored in reverse. For instance,
|
|
you can query all paths that directly or indirectly use a certain
|
|
Glibc:
|
|
|
|
$ nix-store -q --referers-closure \
|
|
/nix/store/8lz9yc6zgmc0vlqmn2ipcpkjlmbi51vv-glibc-2.3.4
|
|
|
|
* The concept of fixed-output derivations has been formalised.
|
|
Previously, functions such as `fetchurl' 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 `outputHash' and `outputHashAlgo'
|
|
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.)
|
|
|
|
* One-click installation :-) It is now possible to install any
|
|
top-level component in Nixpkgs directly, through the web - see,
|
|
e.g., http://catamaran.labs.cs.uu.nl/dist/nixpkgs-0.8/. All you
|
|
have to do is associate `/nix/bin/nix-install-package' with
|
|
`application/nix-package' (or the extension `.nixpkg'), 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.
|
|
|
|
* `nix-store -r PATHS' 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.
|
|
|
|
* `nix-channel' has new operations `--list' and `--remove'.
|
|
|
|
* New ways of installing components into user environments:
|
|
|
|
- Copy from another user environment:
|
|
|
|
$ nix-env -i --from-profile .../other-profile firefox
|
|
|
|
- Install a store derivation directly (bypassing the Nix expression
|
|
language entirely):
|
|
|
|
$ nix-env -i /nix/store/z58v41v21xd3...-aterm-2.3.1.drv
|
|
|
|
(This is used to implement `nix-install-package', which is
|
|
therefore immune to evolution in the Nix expression language.)
|
|
|
|
- Install an already built store path directly:
|
|
|
|
$ nix-env -i /nix/store/hsyj5pbn0d9i...-aterm-2.3.1
|
|
|
|
- Install the result of a Nix expression specified as a command-line
|
|
argument:
|
|
|
|
$ nix-env -f .../i686-linux.nix -i -E 'x: x.firefoxWrapper'
|
|
|
|
The difference with the normal installation mode is that `-E' does
|
|
not use the `name' attributes of derivations. Therefore, this can
|
|
be used to disambiguate multiple derivations with the same name.
|
|
|
|
* A hash of the contents of a store path is now stored in the database
|
|
after a succesful build. This allows you to check whether store
|
|
paths have been tampered with: `nix-store --verify --check-contents'.
|
|
|
|
* Implemented a concurrent garbage collector. It is now always safe
|
|
to run the garbage collector, even if other Nix operations are
|
|
happening simultaneously.
|
|
|
|
However, there can still be GC races if you use `nix-instantiate'
|
|
and `nix-store -r' directly to build things. To prevent races, use
|
|
the `--add-root' flag of those commands.
|
|
|
|
* 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.
|
|
|
|
* Likewise, the substitute mechanism now downloads files in the right
|
|
order, thus preserving the closure invariant at all times.
|
|
|
|
* The result of `nix-build' is now registered as a root of the garbage
|
|
collector. If the `./result' link is deleted, the GC root
|
|
disappears automatically.
|
|
|
|
* The behaviour of the garbage collector can be changed globally by
|
|
setting options in `/nix/etc/nix/nix.conf'.
|
|
|
|
- `gc-keep-derivations' specifies whether deriver links should be
|
|
followed when searching for live paths.
|
|
|
|
- `gc-keep-outputs' specifies whether outputs of derivations should
|
|
be followed when searching for live paths.
|
|
|
|
- `env-keep-derivations' specifies whether user environments should
|
|
store the paths of derivations when they are added (thus keeping
|
|
the derivations alive).
|
|
|
|
* New `nix-env' query flags `--drv-path' and `--out-path'.
|
|
|
|
* `fetchurl' allows SHA-1 and SHA-256 in addition to MD5. Just use
|
|
`sha1 = ' or `sha256 = ' instead of `md5 = '. Of course, they're
|
|
all unsafe, really ;-)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Version 0.7 (January 12, 2005)
|
|
|
|
* 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 *sequence* of patches
|
|
to an installed component, Nix will use it. Patches are currently
|
|
generated automatically between Nixpkgs (pre-)releases.
|
|
|
|
* Simplifications to the substitute mechanism.
|
|
|
|
* Nix-pull now stores downloaded manifests in /nix/var/nix/manifests.
|
|
|
|
* 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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Version 0.6 (November 14, 2004)
|
|
|
|
Major changes include the following:
|
|
|
|
* Rewrite of the normalisation engine.
|
|
|
|
* Multiple builds can now be performed in parallel (option `-j').
|
|
|
|
* 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.
|
|
|
|
* Option `--fallback' allows recovery from broken substitutes.
|
|
|
|
* Option `--keep-going' causes building of other (unaffected)
|
|
derivations to continue if one failed.
|
|
|
|
* Improvements to the garbage collector (i.e., it should actually work
|
|
now).
|
|
|
|
* Setuid Nix installations allow a Nix store to be shared among
|
|
multiple users.
|
|
|
|
* Substitute registration is much faster now.
|
|
|
|
* A utility `nix-build' to build a Nix expression and create a symlink
|
|
to the result int the current directory; useful for testing Nix
|
|
derivations.
|
|
|
|
* Manual updates.
|
|
|
|
* `nix-env' changes:
|
|
|
|
* Derivations for other platforms are filtered out (which can be
|
|
overriden using `--system-filter').
|
|
|
|
* `--install' by default now uninstall previous derivations with the
|
|
same name.
|
|
|
|
* `--upgrade' allows upgrading to a specific version.
|
|
|
|
* New operation `--delete-generations' to remove profile
|
|
generations (necessary for effective garbage collection).
|
|
|
|
* Nicer output (sorted, columnised).
|
|
|
|
* More sensible verbosity levels all around (builder output is now
|
|
shown always, unless `-Q' is given).
|
|
|
|
* Nix expression language changes:
|
|
|
|
* New language construct: `with E1; E2' brings all attributes
|
|
defined in the attribute set E1 in scope in E2.
|
|
|
|
* Added a `map' function.
|
|
|
|
* Various new operators (e.g., string concatenation).
|
|
|
|
* Expression evaluation is much faster.
|
|
|
|
* An Emacs mode for editing Nix expressions (with syntax highlighting
|
|
and indentation) has been added.
|
|
|
|
* Many bug fixes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Version 0.5 and earlier
|
|
|
|
Please refer to the Subversion commit log messages.
|