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Diffstat (limited to 'doc/manual/release-notes.xml')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/manual/release-notes.xml | 215 |
1 files changed, 131 insertions, 84 deletions
diff --git a/doc/manual/release-notes.xml b/doc/manual/release-notes.xml index 5379eadef..df0e396b6 100644 --- a/doc/manual/release-notes.xml +++ b/doc/manual/release-notes.xml @@ -26,7 +26,10 @@ irreversible.</para></warning> <itemizedlist> + + <!-- Usability / features --> + <listitem><para><command>nix-env</command> usability improvements: <itemizedlist> @@ -66,26 +69,6 @@ irreversible.</para></warning> </para></listitem> - <listitem><para>Berkeley DB 4.4’s process registry feature is used - to recover from crashed Nix processes.</para></listitem> - - <!-- <listitem><para>TODO: shared stores.</para></listitem> --> - - <listitem><para>A performance issue has been fixed with the - <literal>referer</literal> table, which stores the inverse of the - <literal>references</literal> table (i.e., it tells you what store - paths refer to a given path). Maintaining this table could take a - quadratic amount of time, as well as a quadratic amount of Berkeley - DB log file space (in particular when running the garbage collector) - (<literal>NIX-23</literal>).</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>Nix now catches the <literal>TERM</literal> and - <literal>HUP</literal> signals in addition to the - <literal>INT</literal> signal. So you can now do a <literal>killall - nix-store</literal> without triggering a database - recovery.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>New language features: <itemizedlist> @@ -111,13 +94,13 @@ irreversible.</para></warning> <listitem><para>Multi-line string literals.</para></listitem> <listitem><para>String concatenations can now involve - derivations, as in the example above — - <code>"--with-freetype2-library=" + freetype + "/lib"</code>. - This was not previously possible because we need to register - that a derivation that uses such a string is dependent on - <literal>freetype</literal>. The evaluator now properly - propagates this information. Consequently, the subpath operator - (<literal>~</literal>) has been deprecated.</para></listitem> + derivations, as in the example <code>"--with-freetype2-library=" + + freetype + "/lib"</code>. This was not previously possible + because we need to register that a derivation that uses such a + string is dependent on <literal>freetype</literal>. The + evaluator now properly propagates this information. + Consequently, the subpath operator (<literal>~</literal>) has + been deprecated.</para></listitem> <listitem><para>Default values of function arguments can now refer to other function arguments; that is, all arguments are in @@ -128,10 +111,62 @@ irreversible.</para></warning> <listitem><para>TODO: domain checks (r5895).</para></listitem> --> + <listitem><para>Lots of new builtin primitives, such as + functions for list manipulation and integer arithmetic. See the + manual for a complete list. All primops are now available in + the set <varname>builtins</varname>, allowing one to test for + the availability of primop in a backwards-compatible + way.</para></listitem> + </itemizedlist> </para></listitem> - + + + <listitem><para>New commands <command>nix-pack-closure</command> and + <command>nix-unpack-closure</command> than can be used to easily + transfer a store path with all its dependencies to another machine. + Very convenient whenever you have some package on your machine and + you want to copy it somewhere else.</para></listitem> + + + <listitem><para>XML support: + + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem><para><literal>nix-env -q --xml</literal> prints the + installed or available packages in an XML representation for + easy processing by other tools.</para></listitem> + + <listitem><para><literal>nix-instantiate --eval-only + --xml</literal> prints an XML representation of the resulting + term. (The new flag <option>--strict</option> forces ‘deep’ + evaluation of the result, i.e., list elements and attributes are + evaluated recursively.)</para></listitem> + + <listitem><para>In Nix expressions, the primop + <function>builtins.toXML</function> converts a term to an XML + representation. This is primarily useful for passing structured + information to builders.</para></listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + + </para></listitem> + + + <listitem><para>You can now unambigously specify which derivation to + build or install in <command>nix-env</command>, + <command>nix-instantiate</command> and <command>nix-build</command> + using the <option>--attr</option> / <option>-A</option> flags, which + takes an attribute name as argument. (Unlike symbolic package names + such as <literal>subversion-1.4.0</literal>, attribute names in an + attribute set are unique.) For instance, a quick way to perform a + test build of a package in Nixpkgs is <literal>nix-build + pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix -A + <replaceable>foo</replaceable></literal>. <literal>nix-env -q + --attr</literal> shows the attribute names corresponding to each + derivation.</para></listitem> + <listitem><para>If the top-level Nix expression used by <command>nix-env</command>, <command>nix-instantiate</command> or @@ -142,26 +177,53 @@ irreversible.</para></warning> <replaceable>value</replaceable></option> can be used to specify function arguments on the command line.</para></listitem> - <listitem><para>TODO: proxy support.</para></listitem> + + <listitem><para><literal>nix-install-package --url + <replaceable>URL</replaceable></literal> allows a package to be + installed directly from the given URL.</para></listitem> - <listitem><para>New commands <command>nix-pack-closure</command> and - <command>nix-unpack-closure</command> than can be used to easily - transfer a store path with all its dependencies to another machine. - Very convenient whenever you have some package on your machine and - you want to copy it somewhere else.</para></listitem> - <listitem><para><command>bsdiff</command> updated - 4.3.</para></listitem> + <listitem><para>Nix now works behind an HTTP proxy server; just set + the standard environment variables <envar>http_proxy</envar>, + <envar>https_proxy</envar>, <envar>ftp_proxy</envar> or + <envar>all_proxy</envar> appropriately. Functions such as + <function>fetchurl</function> in Nixpkgs also respect these + variables.</para></listitem> - <listitem><para>TODO: --attr / -A flags in - nix-env/nix-instantiate/nix-build. Also nix-env -qa - --attr.</para></listitem> <listitem><para><literal>nix-build -o <replaceable>symlink</replaceable></literal> allows the symlink to the build result to be named something other than <literal>result</literal>.</para></listitem> + + <!-- Stability / performance / etc. --> + + + <listitem><para>Platform support: + + <itemizedlist> + + <listitem><para>Support for 64-bit platforms, provided a <link + xlink:href="http://bugzilla.sen.cwi.nl:8080/show_bug.cgi?id=606">suitably + patched ATerm library</link> is used. Also, files larger than 2 + GiB are now supported.</para></listitem> + + <listitem><para>Added support for Cygwin (Windows, + <literal>i686-cygwin</literal>), Mac OS X on Intel + (<literal>i686-darwin</literal>) and Linux on PowerPC + (<literal>powerpc-linux</literal>).</para></listitem> + + <listitem><para>Users of SMP and multicore machines will + appreciate that the number of builds to be performed in parallel + can now be specified in the configuration file in the + <literal>build-max-jobs</literal> setting.</para></listitem> + + </itemizedlist> + + </para></listitem> + + <listitem><para>Garbage collector improvements: <itemizedlist> @@ -188,14 +250,38 @@ irreversible.</para></warning> --gc</literal>). This is an easy way to get rid of all old packages in the Nix store.</para></listitem> + <listitem><para><command>nix-store</command> now has an + operation <option>--delete</option> to delete specific paths + from the Nix store. It won’t delete reachable (non-garbage) + paths unless <option>--ignore-liveness</option> is + specified.</para></listitem> + </itemizedlist> </para></listitem> - <listitem><para>New command <literal>nix-store --delete</literal> to - delete specific paths from the Nix store. It won’t delete reachable - (non-garbage) paths unless <option>--ignore-liveness</option> is - specified.</para></listitem> + + <listitem><para>Berkeley DB 4.4’s process registry feature is used + to recover from crashed Nix processes.</para></listitem> + + <!-- <listitem><para>TODO: shared stores.</para></listitem> --> + + <listitem><para>A performance issue has been fixed with the + <literal>referer</literal> table, which stores the inverse of the + <literal>references</literal> table (i.e., it tells you what store + paths refer to a given path). Maintaining this table could take a + quadratic amount of time, as well as a quadratic amount of Berkeley + DB log file space (in particular when running the garbage collector) + (<literal>NIX-23</literal>).</para></listitem> + + <listitem><para>Nix now catches the <literal>TERM</literal> and + <literal>HUP</literal> signals in addition to the + <literal>INT</literal> signal. So you can now do a <literal>killall + nix-store</literal> without triggering a database + recovery.</para></listitem> + + <listitem><para><command>bsdiff</command> updated + 4.3.</para></listitem> <listitem><para>Substantial performance improvements in expression evaluation and <literal>nix-env -qa</literal>, all thanks to <link @@ -225,51 +311,12 @@ irreversible.</para></warning> </para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>XML support: - - <itemizedlist> - - <listitem><para><literal>nix-env -q --xml</literal> prints the - installed or available packages in an XML representation for - easy processing by other tools.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para><literal>nix-instantiate --eval-only - --xml</literal> prints an XML representation of the resulting - term. (The new flag <option>--strict</option> forces ‘deep’ - evaluation of the result, i.e., list elements and attributes are - evaluated recursively.)</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>In Nix expressions, the primop - <function>builtins.toXML</function> converts a term to an XML - representation. This is primarily useful for passing structured - information to builders.</para></listitem> - - </itemizedlist> - - </para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>Nix source distributions are a lot smaller now since we no longer include a full copy of the Berkeley DB source distribution (but only the bits we need).</para></listitem> - <listitem><para>Support for 64-bit platforms, provided <link - xlink:href="http://bugzilla.sen.cwi.nl:8080/show_bug.cgi?id=606">suitably - patched ATerm library</link> is used. Also, files larger than 2 GiB - are now supported.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>Users of SMP and multicore machines will appreciate - that the number of builds to be performed in parallel can now be - specified in the configuration file in the - <literal>build-max-jobs</literal> setting.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>Added support for Cygwin (Windows, - <literal>i686-cygwin</literal>) and Mac OS X on Intel - (<literal>i686-darwin</literal>).</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>TODO: <literal>nix-push - --target</literal>.</para></listitem> + <listitem><para>Header files are now installed so that external + programs can use the Nix libraries.</para></listitem> </itemizedlist> |