Intro: Mention binary caches

This commit is contained in:
Eelco Dolstra 2014-11-25 15:55:28 +01:00
parent d4c8ee7059
commit 5f04da905f

View file

@ -161,13 +161,19 @@ library and the compiler) would have to built, at least if they are
not already in the Nix store. This is a <emphasis>source deployment
model</emphasis>. For most users, building from source is not very
pleasant as it takes far too long. However, Nix can automatically
skip building from source and download a pre-built binary instead if
it knows about it. <emphasis>Nix channels</emphasis> provide Nix
expressions along with pre-built binaries.</para>
skip building from source and instead use a <emphasis>binary
cache</emphasis>, a web server that provides pre-built binaries. For
instance, when asked to build
<literal>/nix/store/b6gvzjyb2pg0…-firefox-33.1</literal> from source,
Nix would first check if the file
<uri>http://cache.nixos.org/b6gvzjyb2pg0….narinfo</uri> exists, and if
so, fetch the pre-built binary referenced from there; otherwise, it
would fall back to building from source.</para>
</simplesect>
<!--
<simplesect><title>Binary patching</title>
<para>In addition to downloading binaries automatically if theyre
@ -176,6 +182,7 @@ package in the Nix store into a new version. This speeds up
upgrades.</para>
</simplesect>
-->
<simplesect><title>Nix Packages collection</title>