Most functions now take a StorePath argument rather than a Path (which
is just an alias for std::string). The StorePath constructor ensures
that the path is syntactically correct (i.e. it looks like
<store-dir>/<base32-hash>-<name>). Similarly, functions like
buildPaths() now take a StorePathWithOutputs, rather than abusing Path
by adding a '!<outputs>' suffix.
Note that the StorePath type is implemented in Rust. This involves
some hackery to allow Rust values to be used directly in C++, via a
helper type whose destructor calls the Rust type's drop()
function. The main issue is the dynamic nature of C++ move semantics:
after we have moved a Rust value, we should not call the drop function
on the original value. So when we move a value, we set the original
value to bitwise zero, and the destructor only calls drop() if the
value is not bitwise zero. This should be sufficient for most types.
Also lots of minor cleanups to the C++ API to make it more modern
(e.g. using std::optional and std::string_view in some places).
This replaces the '(...)' installable syntax, which is not very
discoverable. The downside is that you can't have multiple expressions
or mix expressions and other installables.
Add missing docstring on InstallableCommand. Also, some of these were wrapped
when they're right next to a line longer than the unwrapped line, so we can just
unwrap them to save vertical space.
This adds a command 'nix make-content-addressable' that rewrites the
specified store paths into content-addressable paths. The advantage of
such paths is that 1) they can be imported without signatures; 2) they
can enable deduplication in cases where derivation changes do not
cause output changes (apart from store path hashes).
For example,
$ nix make-content-addressable -r nixpkgs.cowsay
rewrote '/nix/store/g1g31ah55xdia1jdqabv1imf6mcw0nb1-glibc-2.25-49' to '/nix/store/48jfj7bg78a8n4f2nhg269rgw1936vj4-glibc-2.25-49'
...
rewrote '/nix/store/qbi6rzpk0bxjw8lw6azn2mc7ynnn455q-cowsay-3.03+dfsg1-16' to '/nix/store/iq6g2x4q62xp7y7493bibx0qn5w7xz67-cowsay-3.03+dfsg1-16'
We can then copy the resulting closure to another store without
signatures:
$ nix copy --trusted-public-keys '' ---to ~/my-nix /nix/store/iq6g2x4q62xp7y7493bibx0qn5w7xz67-cowsay-3.03+dfsg1-16
In order to support self-references in content-addressable paths,
these paths are hashed "modulo" self-references, meaning that
self-references are zeroed out during hashing. Somewhat annoyingly,
this means that the NAR hash stored in the Nix database is no longer
necessarily equal to the output of "nix hash-path"; for
content-addressable paths, you need to pass the --modulo flag:
$ nix path-info --json /nix/store/iq6g2x4q62xp7y7493bibx0qn5w7xz67-cowsay-3.03+dfsg1-16 | jq -r .[].narHash
sha256:0ri611gdilz2c9rsibqhsipbfs9vwcqvs811a52i2bnkhv7w9mgw
$ nix hash-path --type sha256 --base32 /nix/store/iq6g2x4q62xp7y7493bibx0qn5w7xz67-cowsay-3.03+dfsg1-16
1ggznh07khq0hz6id09pqws3a8q9pn03ya3c03nwck1kwq8rclzs
$ nix hash-path --type sha256 --base32 /nix/store/iq6g2x4q62xp7y7493bibx0qn5w7xz67-cowsay-3.03+dfsg1-16 --modulo iq6g2x4q62xp7y7493bibx0qn5w7xz67
0ri611gdilz2c9rsibqhsipbfs9vwcqvs811a52i2bnkhv7w9mgw
A command like
$ nix run nixpkgs#hello
will now build the attribute 'packages.${system}.hello' rather than
'packages.hello'. Note that this does mean that the flake needs to
export an attribute for every system type it supports, and you can't
build on unsupported systems. So 'packages' typically looks like this:
packages = nixpkgs.lib.genAttrs ["x86_64-linux" "i686-linux"] (system: {
hello = ...;
});
The 'checks', 'defaultPackage', 'devShell', 'apps' and 'defaultApp'
outputs similarly are now attrsets that map system types to
derivations/apps. 'nix flake check' checks that the derivations for
all platforms evaluate correctly, but only builds the derivations in
'checks.${system}'.
Fixes#2861. (That issue also talks about access to ~/.config/nixpkgs
and --arg, but I think it's reasonable to say that flakes shouldn't
support those.)
The alternative to attribute selection is to pass the system type as
an argument to the flake's 'outputs' function, e.g. 'outputs = { self,
nixpkgs, system }: ...'. However, that approach would be at odds with
hermetic evaluation and make it impossible to enumerate the packages
provided by a flake.
This replaces 'nix-env --set'. For example:
$ nix build --profile /nix/var/nix/profiles/system \
~/Misc/eelco-configurations:nixosConfigurations.vyr.config.system.build.toplevel
updates the NixOS system profile from a flake.
This could have been a separate command (e.g. 'nix set-profile') but
1) '--profile' is pretty similar to '--out-link'; and 2) '--profile'
could be useful for other command (like 'nix dev-shell').
This is like 'nix run', except that the command to execute is defined
in a flake output, e.g.
defaultApp = {
type = "app";
program = "${packages.blender_2_80}/bin/blender";
};
Thus you can do
$ nix app blender-bin
to start Blender from the 'blender-bin' flake.
In the future, we can extend this with sandboxing. (For example we
would want to be able to specify that Blender should not have network
access by default and should only have access to certain paths in the
user's home directory.)
Thus
$ nix dev-shell
will now build the 'provides.devShell' attribute from the flake in the
current directory. If it doesn't exist, it falls back to
'provides.defaultPackage'.
This ensures that the lock file is updated *before* evaluating it, and
that it gets updated for any nix command, not just 'nix build'.
Also, while computing the lock file, allow arbitrary registry lookups,
not just at top-level.
Also, improve some error messages slightly.
This allows using an arbitrary "provides" attribute from the specified
flake. For example:
nix build --flake nixpkgs packages.hello
(Maybe provides.packages should be used for consistency...)
