forked from lix-project/lix
Document channel format and excise most mentions of manifests and nix-pull
This commit is contained in:
Eelco Dolstra
parent
e5a51fab24
commit
3b88d03714
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@ -33,8 +33,8 @@
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<para>A Nix channel is mechanism that allows you to automatically stay
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up-to-date with a set of pre-built Nix expressions. A Nix channel is
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just a URL that points to a place containing a set of Nix expressions
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and a <command>nix-push</command> manifest. <phrase
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just a URL that points to a place containing both a set of Nix
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expressions and a pointer to a binary cache. <phrase
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condition="manual">See also <xref linkend="sec-channels"
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/>.</phrase></para>
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@ -99,13 +99,6 @@ an update.</para>
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<para>The list of subscribed channels is stored in
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<filename>~/.nix-channels</filename>.</para>
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<para>A channel consists of two elements: a bzipped Tar archive
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containing the Nix expressions, and a manifest created by
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<command>nix-push</command>. These must be stored under
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<literal><replaceable>url</replaceable>/nixexprs.tar.bz2</literal> and
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<literal><replaceable>url</replaceable>/MANIFEST</literal>,
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respectively.</para>
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</refsection>
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<refsection><title>Examples</title>
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@ -163,4 +156,49 @@ $ nix-instantiate --eval -E '(import <nixpkgs> {}).lib.nixpkgsVersion'
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</refsection>
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<refsection><title>Channel format</title>
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<para>A channel URL should point to a directory containing the
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following files:</para>
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<variablelist>
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<varlistentry><term><filename>nixexprs.tar.xz</filename></term>
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<listitem><para>A tarball containing Nix expressions and files
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referenced by them (such as build scripts and patches). At
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top-level, the tarball should contain a single directory. That
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directory must contain a file <filename>default.nix</filename>
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that serves as the channel’s “entry point”.</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term><filename>binary-cache-url</filename></term>
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<listitem><para>A file containing the URL to a binary cache (such
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as <uri>https://cache.nixos.org</uri>. Nix will automatically
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check this cache for pre-built binaries, if the user has
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sufficient rights to add binary caches. For instance, in a
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multi-user Nix setup, the binary caches provided by the channels
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of the root user are used automatically, but caches corresponding
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to the channels of non-root users are ignored. Binary caches can
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be created and maintained using
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<command>nix-push</command>.</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term><filename>MANIFEST.bz2</filename></term>
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<listitem><para>(Deprecated in favour of binary caches.) A
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manifest as created by <command>nix-push</command>. Only used if
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<filename>binary-cache-url</filename> is not present or if the
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<filename>nix.conf</filename> option
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<option>force-manifest</option> is set.</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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</variablelist>
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</refsection>
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</refentry>
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@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
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<refnamediv>
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<refname>nix-pull</refname>
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<refpurpose>pull substitutes from a network cache</refpurpose>
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<refpurpose>register availability of pre-built binaries (deprecated)</refpurpose>
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</refnamediv>
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<refsynopsisdiv>
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@ -26,6 +26,9 @@
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<refsection><title>Description</title>
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<note><para>This command and the use of manifests is deprecated. It is
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better to use binary caches.</para></note>
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<para>The command <command>nix-pull</command> obtains a list of
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pre-built store paths from the URL <replaceable>url</replaceable>, and
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for each of these store paths, registers a substitute derivation that
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@ -43,7 +46,7 @@ with the files created by <replaceable>nix-push</replaceable>.</para>
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<refsection><title>Examples</title>
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<screen>
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$ nix-pull http://nix.cs.uu.nl/dist/nix/nixpkgs-0.5pre753/MANIFEST</screen>
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$ nix-pull https://nixos.org/releases/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-15.05pre54468.69858d7/MANIFEST</screen>
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</refsection>
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@ -23,11 +23,11 @@ daemon</emphasis> running under the owner of the Nix store/database
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that performs the operation.</para>
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<note><para>Multi-user mode has one important limitation: only
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<systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> can run <command
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linkend="sec-nix-pull">nix-pull</command> to register the availability
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of pre-built binaries. However, those registrations are shared by all
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users, so they still get the benefit from <command>nix-pull</command>s
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done by <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem>.</para></note>
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<systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> and a set of trusted
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users specified in <filename>nix.conf</filename> can specify arbitrary
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binary caches. So while unprivileged users may install packages from
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arbitrary Nix expressions, they may not get pre-built
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binaries.</para></note>
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<simplesect>
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@ -28,40 +28,71 @@ Nix expressions called the Nix Package collection that contains
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packages ranging from basic development stuff such as GCC and Glibc,
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to end-user applications like Mozilla Firefox. (Nix is however not
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tied to the Nix Package collection; you could write your own Nix
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expressions based on it, or completely new ones.) You can download
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the latest version from <link
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xlink:href='http://nixos.org/nixpkgs/download.html' />.</para>
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expressions based on it, or completely new ones.)</para>
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<para>Assuming that you have downloaded and unpacked a release of Nix
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Packages, you can view the set of available packages in the release:
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<para>You can manually download the latest version of Nixpkgs from
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<link xlink:href='http://nixos.org/nixpkgs/download.html'/>. However,
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it’s much more convenient to use the Nixpkgs
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<emphasis>channel</emphasis>, since it makes it easy to stay up to
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date with new versions of Nixpkgs. (Channels are described in more
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detail in <xref linkend="sec-channels"/>.) Nixpkgs is automatically
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added to your list of “subscribed” channels when when you install
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Nix. If this is not the case for some reason, you can add it as
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follows:
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<screen>
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$ nix-env -qaf nixpkgs-<replaceable>version</replaceable> '*'
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ant-blackdown-1.4.2
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$ nix-channel --add https://nixos.org/channels/nixpkgs-unstable
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$ nix-channel --update
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</screen>
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</para>
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<note><para>On NixOS, you’re automatically subscribed to a NixOS
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channel corresponding to your NixOS major release
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(e.g. <uri>http://nixos.org/channels/nixos-14.12</uri>). A NixOS
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channel is identical to the Nixpkgs channel, except that it contains
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only Linux binaries and is updated only if a set of regression tests
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succeed.</para></note>
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<para>You can view the set of available packages in Nixpkgs:
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<screen>
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$ nix-env -qa
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aterm-2.2
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bash-3.0
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binutils-2.15
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bison-1.875d
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blackdown-1.4.2
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bzip2-1.0.2
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...</screen>
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…</screen>
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where <literal>nixpkgs-<replaceable>version</replaceable></literal> is
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where you’ve unpacked the release. The flag <option>-q</option>
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specifies a query operation; <option>-a</option> means that you want
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to show the “available” (i.e., installable) packages, as opposed to
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the installed packages; and <option>-f</option>
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<filename>nixpkgs-<replaceable>version</replaceable></filename>
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specifies the source of the packages. The argument
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<literal>'*'</literal> shows all installable packages. (The quotes are
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necessary to prevent shell expansion.) You can also select specific
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packages by name:
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The flag <option>-q</option> specifies a query operation, and
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<option>-a</option> means that you want to show the “available” (i.e.,
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installable) packages, as opposed to the installed packages. If you
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downloaded Nixpkgs yourself, or if you checked it out from GitHub,
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then you need to pass the path to your Nixpkgs tree using the
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<option>-f</option> flag:
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<screen>
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$ nix-env -qaf nixpkgs-<replaceable>version</replaceable> gcc
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gcc-3.4.6
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gcc-4.0.3
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gcc-4.1.1</screen>
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$ nix-env -qaf <replaceable>/path/to/nixpkgs</replaceable>
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</screen>
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where <replaceable>/path/to/nixpkgs</replaceable> is where you’ve
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unpacked or checked out Nixpkgs.</para>
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<para>You can select specific packages by name:
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<screen>
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$ nix-env -qa firefox
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firefox-34.0.5
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firefox-with-plugins-34.0.5
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</screen>
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and using regular expressions:
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<screen>
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$ nix-env -qa 'firefox.*'
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</screen>
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</para>
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@ -70,12 +101,12 @@ available packages, i.e., whether they are installed into the user
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environment and/or present in the system:
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<screen>
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$ nix-env -qasf nixpkgs-<replaceable>version</replaceable> '*'
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...
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$ nix-env -qas
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…
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-PS bash-3.0
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--S binutils-2.15
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IPS bison-1.875d
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...</screen>
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…</screen>
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The first character (<literal>I</literal>) indicates whether the
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package is installed in your current user environment. The second
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@ -88,40 +119,33 @@ just means that Nix knows that it can fetch a pre-built package from
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somewhere (typically a network server) instead of building it
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locally.</para>
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<para>So now that we have a set of Nix expressions we can build the
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packages contained in them. This is done using <literal>nix-env
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-i</literal>. For instance,
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<para>You can install a package using <literal>nix-env -i</literal>.
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For instance,
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<screen>
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$ nix-env -f nixpkgs-<replaceable>version</replaceable> -i subversion</screen>
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$ nix-env -i subversion</screen>
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will install the package called <literal>subversion</literal> (which
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is, of course, the <link
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xlink:href='http://subversion.tigris.org/'>Subversion version
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management system</link>).</para>
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<para>When you do this for the first time, Nix will start building
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Subversion and all its dependencies. This will take quite a while —
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typically an hour or two on modern machines. Fortunately, there is a
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faster way (so do a Ctrl-C on that install operation!): you just need
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to tell Nix that pre-built binaries of all those packages are
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available somewhere. This is done using the
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<command>nix-pull</command> command, which must be supplied with a URL
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containing a <emphasis>manifest</emphasis> describing what binaries
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are available. This URL should correspond to the Nix Packages release
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that you’re using. For instance, if you obtained a release from <link
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xlink:href='http://nixos.org/releases/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-0.12pre11712-4lrp7j8x'
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/>, then you should do:
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<screen>
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$ nix-pull http://nixos.org/releases/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-0.12pre11712-4lrp7j8x/MANIFEST</screen>
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If you then issue the installation command, it should start
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downloading binaries from <systemitem
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class='fqdomainname'>nixos.org</systemitem>, instead of building
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them from source. This might still take a while since all
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dependencies must be downloaded, but on a reasonably fast connection
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such as a DSL line it’s on the order of a few minutes.</para>
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<note><para>When you ask Nix to install a package, it will first try
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to get it in pre-compiled form from a <emphasis>binary
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cache</emphasis>. By default, Nix will use the binary cache
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<uri>https://cache.nixos.org</uri>; it contains binaries for most
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packages in Nixpkgs. Only if no binary is available in the binary
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cache, Nix will build the package from source. So if <literal>nix-env
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-i subversion</literal> results in Nix building stuff from source,
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then either the package is not built for your platform by the Nixpkgs
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build servers, or your version of Nixpkgs is too old or too new. For
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instance, if you have a very recent checkout of Nixpkgs, then the
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Nixpkgs build servers may not have had a chance to build everything
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and upload the resulting binaries to
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<uri>https://cache.nixos.org</uri>. The Nixpkgs channel is only
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updated after all binaries have been uploaded to the cache, so if you
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stick to the Nixpkgs channel (rather than using a Git checkout of the
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Nixpkgs tree), you will get binaries for most packages.</para></note>
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<para>Naturally, packages can also be uninstalled:
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@ -134,7 +158,7 @@ $ nix-env -e subversion</screen>
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release of Nix Packages, you can do:
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<screen>
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$ nix-env -f nixpkgs-<replaceable>version</replaceable> -u subversion</screen>
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$ nix-env -u subversion</screen>
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This will <emphasis>only</emphasis> upgrade Subversion if there is a
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“newer” version in the new set of Nix expressions, as
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@ -149,17 +173,17 @@ whatever version is already installed.</para>
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versions:
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<screen>
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$ nix-env -f nixpkgs-<replaceable>version</replaceable> -u '*'</screen>
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$ nix-env -u</screen>
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</para>
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<para>Sometimes it’s useful to be able to ask what
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<command>nix-env</command> would do, without actually doing it. For
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instance, to find out what packages would be upgraded by
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<literal>nix-env -u '*'</literal>, you can do
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<literal>nix-env -u</literal>, you can do
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<screen>
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$ nix-env ... -u '*' --dry-run
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$ nix-env -u --dry-run
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(dry run; not doing anything)
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upgrading `libxslt-1.1.0' to `libxslt-1.1.10'
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upgrading `graphviz-1.10' to `graphviz-1.12'
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@ -8,10 +8,9 @@
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<para>If you want to stay up to date with a set of packages, it’s not
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very convenient to manually download the latest set of Nix expressions
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for those packages, use <command>nix-pull</command> to register
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pre-built binaries (if available), and upgrade using
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<command>nix-env</command>. Fortunately, there’s a better way:
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<emphasis>Nix channels</emphasis>.</para>
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for those packages and upgrade using <command>nix-env</command>.
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Fortunately, there’s a better way: <emphasis>Nix
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channels</emphasis>.</para>
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<para>A Nix channel is just a URL that points to a place that contains
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a set of Nix expressions and a manifest. Using the command <link
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@ -23,33 +22,34 @@ URL.</para>
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<command>nix-channel --add</command>, e.g.,
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<screen>
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$ nix-channel --add http://nixos.org/channels/nixpkgs-unstable</screen>
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$ nix-channel --add https://nixos.org/channels/nixpkgs-unstable</screen>
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subscribes you to a channel that always contains that latest version
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of the Nix Packages collection. (Instead of
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<literal>nixpkgs-unstable</literal> you could also subscribe to
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<literal>nixpkgs-stable</literal>, which should have a higher level of
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stability, but right now is just outdated.) Subscribing really just
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means that the URL is added to the file
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<filename>~/.nix-channels</filename>. Right now there is no command
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to “unsubscribe”; you should just edit that file manually
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and delete the offending URL.</para>
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of the Nix Packages collection. (Subscribing really just means that
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the URL is added to the file <filename>~/.nix-channels</filename>,
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where it is read by subsequent calls to <command>nix-channel
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--update</command>.) You can “unsubscribe” using <command>nix-channel
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--remove</command>:
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<screen>
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$ nix-channel --remove nixpkgs
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</screen>
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</para>
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<para>To obtain the latest Nix expressions available in a channel, do
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<screen>
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$ nix-channel --update</screen>
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This downloads the Nix expressions in every channel (downloaded from
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<literal><replaceable>url</replaceable>/nixexprs.tar.bz2</literal>)
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and registers any available pre-built binaries in every channel
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(by <command>nix-pull</command>ing
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<literal><replaceable>url</replaceable>/MANIFEST</literal>). It also
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makes the union of each channel’s Nix expressions the default for
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<command>nix-env</command> operations. Consequently, you can then say
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This downloads and unpacks the Nix expressions in every channel
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(downloaded from <literal><replaceable>url</replaceable>/nixexprs.tar.bz2</literal>).
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It also makes the union of each channel’s Nix expressions available by
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default to <command>nix-env</command> operations (via the symlink
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<filename>~/.nix-defexpr/channels</filename>). Consequently, you can
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then say
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<screen>
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$ nix-env -u '*'</screen>
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$ nix-env -u</screen>
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to upgrade all packages in your profile to the latest versions
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available in the subscribed channels.</para>
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@ -73,9 +73,9 @@ generated based on the current one. For instance, generation 43 was
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created from generation 42 when we did
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<screen>
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$ nix-env -i subversion mozilla</screen>
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$ nix-env -i subversion firefox</screen>
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on a set of Nix expressions that contained Mozilla and a new version
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on a set of Nix expressions that contained Firefox and a new version
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of Subversion.</para>
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<para>Generations are grouped together into
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Reference in a new issue