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Diffstat (limited to 'doc/manual/command-ref/nix-channel.xml')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/manual/command-ref/nix-channel.xml | 56 |
1 files changed, 47 insertions, 9 deletions
diff --git a/doc/manual/command-ref/nix-channel.xml b/doc/manual/command-ref/nix-channel.xml index c4cc04ce2..b777c6b6b 100644 --- a/doc/manual/command-ref/nix-channel.xml +++ b/doc/manual/command-ref/nix-channel.xml @@ -33,8 +33,8 @@ <para>A Nix channel is mechanism that allows you to automatically stay up-to-date with a set of pre-built Nix expressions. A Nix channel is -just a URL that points to a place containing a set of Nix expressions -and a <command>nix-push</command> manifest. <phrase +just a URL that points to a place containing both a set of Nix +expressions and a pointer to a binary cache. <phrase condition="manual">See also <xref linkend="sec-channels" />.</phrase></para> @@ -99,13 +99,6 @@ an update.</para> <para>The list of subscribed channels is stored in <filename>~/.nix-channels</filename>.</para> -<para>A channel consists of two elements: a bzipped Tar archive -containing the Nix expressions, and a manifest created by -<command>nix-push</command>. These must be stored under -<literal><replaceable>url</replaceable>/nixexprs.tar.bz2</literal> and -<literal><replaceable>url</replaceable>/MANIFEST</literal>, -respectively.</para> - </refsection> <refsection><title>Examples</title> @@ -163,4 +156,49 @@ $ nix-instantiate --eval -E '(import <nixpkgs> {}).lib.nixpkgsVersion' </refsection> +<refsection><title>Channel format</title> + +<para>A channel URL should point to a directory containing the +following files:</para> + +<variablelist> + + <varlistentry><term><filename>nixexprs.tar.xz</filename></term> + + <listitem><para>A tarball containing Nix expressions and files + referenced by them (such as build scripts and patches). At + top-level, the tarball should contain a single directory. That + directory must contain a file <filename>default.nix</filename> + that serves as the channel’s “entry point”.</para></listitem> + + </varlistentry> + + <varlistentry><term><filename>binary-cache-url</filename></term> + + <listitem><para>A file containing the URL to a binary cache (such + as <uri>https://cache.nixos.org</uri>. Nix will automatically + check this cache for pre-built binaries, if the user has + sufficient rights to add binary caches. For instance, in a + multi-user Nix setup, the binary caches provided by the channels + of the root user are used automatically, but caches corresponding + to the channels of non-root users are ignored. Binary caches can + be created and maintained using + <command>nix-push</command>.</para></listitem> + + </varlistentry> + + <varlistentry><term><filename>MANIFEST.bz2</filename></term> + + <listitem><para>(Deprecated in favour of binary caches.) A + manifest as created by <command>nix-push</command>. Only used if + <filename>binary-cache-url</filename> is not present or if the + <filename>nix.conf</filename> option + <option>force-manifest</option> is set.</para></listitem> + + </varlistentry> + +</variablelist> + +</refsection> + </refentry> |