forked from lix-project/lix
213 lines
9.2 KiB
Markdown
213 lines
9.2 KiB
Markdown
# Release 0.10 (2006-10-06)
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> **Note**
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>
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> This version of Nix uses Berkeley DB 4.4 instead of 4.3. The database
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> is upgraded automatically, but you should be careful not to use old
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> versions of Nix that still use Berkeley DB 4.3. In particular, if you
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> use a Nix installed through Nix, you should run
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>
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> $ nix-store --clear-substitutes
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>
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> first.
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> **Warning**
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>
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> Also, the database schema has changed slighted to fix a performance
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> issue (see below). When you run any Nix 0.10 command for the first
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> time, the database will be upgraded automatically. This is
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> irreversible.
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- `nix-env` usability improvements:
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- An option `--compare-versions` (or `-c`) has been added to
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`nix-env
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--query` to allow you to compare installed versions of packages
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to available versions, or vice versa. An easy way to see if you
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are up to date with what’s in your subscribed channels is
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`nix-env -qc \*`.
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- `nix-env --query` now takes as arguments a list of package names
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about which to show information, just like `--install`, etc.:
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for example, `nix-env -q gcc`. Note that to show all
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derivations, you need to specify `\*`.
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- `nix-env -i
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pkgname` will now install the highest available version of
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*pkgname*, rather than installing all available versions (which
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would probably give collisions) (`NIX-31`).
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- `nix-env (-i|-u) --dry-run` now shows exactly which missing
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paths will be built or substituted.
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- `nix-env -qa --description` shows human-readable descriptions of
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packages, provided that they have a `meta.description` attribute
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(which most packages in Nixpkgs don’t have yet).
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- New language features:
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- Reference scanning (which happens after each build) is much
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faster and takes a constant amount of memory.
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- String interpolation. Expressions like
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"--with-freetype2-library=" + freetype + "/lib"
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can now be written as
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"--with-freetype2-library=${freetype}/lib"
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You can write arbitrary expressions within `${...}`, not just
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identifiers.
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- Multi-line string literals.
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- String concatenations can now involve derivations, as in the
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example `"--with-freetype2-library="
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+ freetype + "/lib"`. This was not previously possible because
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we need to register that a derivation that uses such a string is
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dependent on `freetype`. The evaluator now properly propagates
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this information. Consequently, the subpath operator (`~`) has
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been deprecated.
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- Default values of function arguments can now refer to other
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function arguments; that is, all arguments are in scope in the
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default values (`NIX-45`).
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- Lots of new built-in primitives, such as functions for list
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manipulation and integer arithmetic. See the manual for a
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complete list. All primops are now available in the set
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`builtins`, allowing one to test for the availability of primop
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in a backwards-compatible way.
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- Real let-expressions: `let x = ...;
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... z = ...; in ...`.
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- New commands `nix-pack-closure` and `nix-unpack-closure` than can be
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used to easily transfer a store path with all its dependencies to
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another machine. Very convenient whenever you have some package on
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your machine and you want to copy it somewhere else.
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- XML support:
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- `nix-env -q --xml` prints the installed or available packages in
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an XML representation for easy processing by other tools.
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- `nix-instantiate --eval-only
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--xml` prints an XML representation of the resulting term. (The
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new flag `--strict` forces ‘deep’ evaluation of the result,
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i.e., list elements and attributes are evaluated recursively.)
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- In Nix expressions, the primop `builtins.toXML` converts a term
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to an XML representation. This is primarily useful for passing
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structured information to builders.
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- You can now unambiguously specify which derivation to build or
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install in `nix-env`, `nix-instantiate` and `nix-build` using the
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`--attr` / `-A` flags, which takes an attribute name as argument.
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(Unlike symbolic package names such as `subversion-1.4.0`, attribute
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names in an attribute set are unique.) For instance, a quick way to
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perform a test build of a package in Nixpkgs is `nix-build
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pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix -A
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foo`. `nix-env -q
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--attr` shows the attribute names corresponding to each derivation.
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- If the top-level Nix expression used by `nix-env`, `nix-instantiate`
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or `nix-build` evaluates to a function whose arguments all have
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default values, the function will be called automatically. Also, the
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new command-line switch `--arg
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name
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value` can be used to specify function arguments on the command
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line.
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- `nix-install-package --url
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URL` allows a package to be installed directly from the given URL.
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- Nix now works behind an HTTP proxy server; just set the standard
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environment variables `http_proxy`, `https_proxy`, `ftp_proxy` or
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`all_proxy` appropriately. Functions such as `fetchurl` in Nixpkgs
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also respect these variables.
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- `nix-build -o
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symlink` allows the symlink to the build result to be named
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something other than `result`.
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- Platform support:
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- Support for 64-bit platforms, provided a [suitably patched ATerm
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library](http://bugzilla.sen.cwi.nl:8080/show_bug.cgi?id=606) is
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used. Also, files larger than 2 GiB are now supported.
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- Added support for Cygwin (Windows, `i686-cygwin`), Mac OS X on
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Intel (`i686-darwin`) and Linux on PowerPC (`powerpc-linux`).
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- Users of SMP and multicore machines will appreciate that the
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number of builds to be performed in parallel can now be
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specified in the configuration file in the `build-max-jobs`
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setting.
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- Garbage collector improvements:
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- Open files (such as running programs) are now used as roots of
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the garbage collector. This prevents programs that have been
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uninstalled from being garbage collected while they are still
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running. The script that detects these additional runtime roots
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(`find-runtime-roots.pl`) is inherently system-specific, but it
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should work on Linux and on all platforms that have the `lsof`
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utility.
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- `nix-store --gc` (a.k.a. `nix-collect-garbage`) prints out the
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number of bytes freed on standard output. `nix-store
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--gc --print-dead` shows how many bytes would be freed by an
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actual garbage collection.
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- `nix-collect-garbage -d` removes all old generations of *all*
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profiles before calling the actual garbage collector (`nix-store
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--gc`). This is an easy way to get rid of all old packages in
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the Nix store.
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- `nix-store` now has an operation `--delete` to delete specific
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paths from the Nix store. It won’t delete reachable
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(non-garbage) paths unless `--ignore-liveness` is specified.
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- Berkeley DB 4.4’s process registry feature is used to recover from
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crashed Nix processes.
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- A performance issue has been fixed with the `referer` table, which
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stores the inverse of the `references` table (i.e., it tells you
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what store paths refer to a given path). Maintaining this table
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could take a quadratic amount of time, as well as a quadratic amount
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of Berkeley DB log file space (in particular when running the
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garbage collector) (`NIX-23`).
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- Nix now catches the `TERM` and `HUP` signals in addition to the
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`INT` signal. So you can now do a `killall
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nix-store` without triggering a database recovery.
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- `bsdiff` updated to version 4.3.
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- Substantial performance improvements in expression evaluation and
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`nix-env -qa`, all thanks to [Valgrind](http://valgrind.org/).
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Memory use has been reduced by a factor 8 or so. Big speedup by
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memoisation of path hashing.
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- Lots of bug fixes, notably:
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- Make sure that the garbage collector can run successfully when
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the disk is full (`NIX-18`).
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- `nix-env` now locks the profile to prevent races between
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concurrent `nix-env` operations on the same profile (`NIX-7`).
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- Removed misleading messages from `nix-env -i` (e.g.,
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``installing
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`foo'`` followed by ``uninstalling
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`foo'``) (`NIX-17`).
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- Nix source distributions are a lot smaller now since we no longer
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include a full copy of the Berkeley DB source distribution (but only
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the bits we need).
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- Header files are now installed so that external programs can use the
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Nix libraries.
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