The common use case is to search for packages containing multiple words
like a "git" "frontend". Having only one expressions makes this simple regular
use case very complicated. Instead, search accepts multiple regular epressions
which all need to match.
nix search git 'gui|frontend'
returns a list of all git uis for example
This is important since this is given as an example.
Other patterns containing "empty search string" will still
be handled differently on different platforms ("asdf|")
but that's less of an issue.
The package list is now cached in
~/.cache/nix/package-search.json. This gives a substantial speedup to
"nix search" queries. For example (on an SSD):
First run: (no package search cache, cold page cache)
$ time nix search blender
Attribute name: nixpkgs.blender
Package name: blender
Version: 2.78c
Description: 3D Creation/Animation/Publishing System
real 0m6.516s
Second run: (package search cache populated)
$ time nix search blender
Attribute name: nixpkgs.blender
Package name: blender
Version: 2.78c
Description: 3D Creation/Animation/Publishing System
real 0m0.143s
Maximilian Bosch
Jörg Thalheim