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diff --git a/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-0.10.xml b/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-0.10.xml deleted file mode 100644 index 01f70acfd..000000000 --- a/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-0.10.xml +++ /dev/null @@ -1,323 +0,0 @@ -<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" - xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" - xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" - version="5.0" - xml:id="ch-relnotes-0.10"> - -<title>Release 0.10 (2006-10-06)</title> - -<note><para>This version of Nix uses Berkeley DB 4.4 instead of 4.3. -The database is upgraded automatically, but you should be careful not -to use old versions of Nix that still use Berkeley DB 4.3. In -particular, if you use a Nix installed through Nix, you should run - -<screen> -$ nix-store --clear-substitutes</screen> - -first.</para></note> - -<warning><para>Also, the database schema has changed slighted to fix a -performance issue (see below). When you run any Nix 0.10 command for -the first time, the database will be upgraded automatically. This is -irreversible.</para></warning> - -<itemizedlist> - - - <!-- Usability / features --> - - - <listitem><para><command>nix-env</command> usability improvements: - - <itemizedlist> - - <listitem><para>An option <option>--compare-versions</option> - (or <option>-c</option>) has been added to <command>nix-env - --query</command> to allow you to compare installed versions of - packages to available versions, or vice versa. An easy way to - see if you are up to date with what’s in your subscribed - channels is <literal>nix-env -qc \*</literal>.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para><literal>nix-env --query</literal> now takes as - arguments a list of package names about which to show - information, just like <option>--install</option>, etc.: for - example, <literal>nix-env -q gcc</literal>. Note that to show - all derivations, you need to specify - <literal>\*</literal>.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para><literal>nix-env -i - <emphasis>pkgname</emphasis></literal> will now install - the highest available version of - <emphasis>pkgname</emphasis>, rather than installing all - available versions (which would probably give collisions) - (<literal>NIX-31</literal>).</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para><literal>nix-env (-i|-u) --dry-run</literal> now - shows exactly which missing paths will be built or - substituted.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para><literal>nix-env -qa --description</literal> - shows human-readable descriptions of packages, provided that - they have a <literal>meta.description</literal> attribute (which - most packages in Nixpkgs don’t have yet).</para></listitem> - - </itemizedlist> - - </para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para>New language features: - - <itemizedlist> - - <listitem><para>Reference scanning (which happens after each - build) is much faster and takes a constant amount of - memory.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>String interpolation. Expressions like - -<programlisting> -"--with-freetype2-library=" + freetype + "/lib"</programlisting> - - can now be written as - -<programlisting> -"--with-freetype2-library=${freetype}/lib"</programlisting> - - You can write arbitrary expressions within - <literal>${<emphasis>...</emphasis>}</literal>, not just - identifiers.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>Multi-line string literals.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>String concatenations can now involve - 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 - scope in the default values - (<literal>NIX-45</literal>).</para></listitem> - - <!-- - <listitem><para>TODO: domain checks (r5895).</para></listitem> - --> - - <listitem><para>Lots of new built-in 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> - - <listitem><para>Real let-expressions: <literal>let x = ...; - ... z = ...; in ...</literal>.</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 unambiguously 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 - <emphasis>foo</emphasis></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 - <command>nix-build</command> evaluates to a function whose arguments - all have default values, the function will be called automatically. - Also, the new command-line switch <option>--arg - <emphasis>name</emphasis> - <emphasis>value</emphasis></option> can be used to specify - function arguments on the command line.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para><literal>nix-install-package --url - <emphasis>URL</emphasis></literal> allows a package to be - installed directly from the given URL.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para>Nix now works behind an HTTP proxy server; just set - the standard environment variables <literal>http_proxy</literal>, - <literal>https_proxy</literal>, <literal>ftp_proxy</literal> or - <literal>all_proxy</literal> appropriately. Functions such as - <function>fetchurl</function> in Nixpkgs also respect these - variables.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para><literal>nix-build -o - <emphasis>symlink</emphasis></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> - - <listitem><para>Open files (such as running programs) are now - used as roots of the garbage collector. This prevents programs - that have been uninstalled from being garbage collected while - they are still running. The script that detects these - additional runtime roots - (<filename>find-runtime-roots.pl</filename>) is inherently - system-specific, but it should work on Linux and on all - platforms that have the <command>lsof</command> - utility.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para><literal>nix-store --gc</literal> - (a.k.a. <command>nix-collect-garbage</command>) prints out the - number of bytes freed on standard output. <literal>nix-store - --gc --print-dead</literal> shows how many bytes would be freed - by an actual garbage collection.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para><literal>nix-collect-garbage -d</literal> - removes all old generations of <emphasis>all</emphasis> profiles - before calling the actual garbage collector (<literal>nix-store - --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>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 to version - 4.3.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>Substantial performance improvements in expression - evaluation and <literal>nix-env -qa</literal>, all thanks to <link - xlink:href="http://valgrind.org/">Valgrind</link>. Memory use has - been reduced by a factor 8 or so. Big speedup by memoisation of - path hashing.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>Lots of bug fixes, notably: - - <itemizedlist> - - <listitem><para>Make sure that the garbage collector can run - successfully when the disk is full - (<literal>NIX-18</literal>).</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para><command>nix-env</command> now locks the profile - to prevent races between concurrent <command>nix-env</command> - operations on the same profile - (<literal>NIX-7</literal>).</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>Removed misleading messages from - <literal>nix-env -i</literal> (e.g., <literal>installing - `foo'</literal> followed by <literal>uninstalling - `foo'</literal>) (<literal>NIX-17</literal>).</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>Header files are now installed so that external - programs can use the Nix libraries.</para></listitem> - -</itemizedlist> - -</section> |