this is a quick half-fix for command line examples, as discussed
discussed in [1].
[1]: https://github.com/NixOS/nix/pull/7389
examples which look like this
$ foo bar
baz
are confusing for Unix shell beginners, because it's hard to discern
what is supposed to be entered into the actual command line when the
convention of prefixing `$` is not known, as barely any real-world shell
looks that way any more.
this change prevents selecting the prompt part with the mouse in the
HTML representation of the Nix manual.
it does not prevent selecting the output part of the shell example.
it also does not address that the copy button provided by mdBook takes
the entire sample, including the prompts, into the clipboard.
after discussing this with multiple people, I'm convinced that "build
task" is more precise: a derivation is not an action, but inert until it
is built. also it's easier to pronounce.
proposal: use "build task" for the generic concept "description of how
to derive new files from the contents of existing files". then it will
be easier to distinguish what we mean by "derivation" (a specific data
structure and Nix language value type) and "store derivation" (a
serialisation of a derivation into a file in the Nix store).
In addition to consistency, the fancy "Copy to clipboard" button on the
website will copy the prompt character. Retaining the prompt character
would mean having to edit each command after pasting in the terminal.
Specifically, explain why Nix does not _re_evaluate paths during a
`nix repl` session. This is a thing that bit me while playing around
with paths and antiquotation in `nix repl` while reading the Nix
language tutorial at https://nix.dev/tutorials/nix-language.
Co-authored-by: Valentin Gagarin <valentin.gagarin@tweag.io>
Mainly:
- Try to triangulate between narrative that framed this as
a new/easy process and the need for a reference that will
not quickly grow stale.
- Fix a ~continuity issue where the text was talking about
"your Cachix cache" before saying that you'd need to make
a Cachix cache to enable the installer tests.
- Adopt suggestion on titling, and nest subtitles in the
installer test section.
renaming section headers and changing manually set `id`s will break URLs
in the wild.
this change allows keeping track of all changes to ensure backwards
compatibility.
Patrick Jackson