diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/manual/release-notes/rl-0.11.xml')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/manual/release-notes/rl-0.11.xml | 261 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 261 deletions
diff --git a/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-0.11.xml b/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-0.11.xml deleted file mode 100644 index 7ad0ab5b7..000000000 --- a/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-0.11.xml +++ /dev/null @@ -1,261 +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="ssec-relnotes-0.11"> - -<title>Release 0.11 (2007-12-31)</title> - -<para>Nix 0.11 has many improvements over the previous stable release. -The most important improvement is secure multi-user support. It also -features many usability enhancements and language extensions, many of -them prompted by NixOS, the purely functional Linux distribution based -on Nix. Here is an (incomplete) list:</para> - - -<itemizedlist> - - - <listitem><para>Secure multi-user support. A single Nix store can - now be shared between multiple (possible untrusted) users. This is - an important feature for NixOS, where it allows non-root users to - install software. The old setuid method for sharing a store between - multiple users has been removed. Details for setting up a - multi-user store can be found in the manual.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para>The new command <command>nix-copy-closure</command> - gives you an easy and efficient way to exchange software between - machines. It copies the missing parts of the closure of a set of - store path to or from a remote machine via - <command>ssh</command>.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para>A new kind of string literal: strings between double - single-quotes (<literal>''</literal>) have indentation - “intelligently” removed. This allows large strings (such as shell - scripts or configuration file fragments in NixOS) to cleanly follow - the indentation of the surrounding expression. It also requires - much less escaping, since <literal>''</literal> is less common in - most languages than <literal>"</literal>.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para><command>nix-env</command> <option>--set</option> - modifies the current generation of a profile so that it contains - exactly the specified derivation, and nothing else. For example, - <literal>nix-env -p /nix/var/nix/profiles/browser --set - firefox</literal> lets the profile named - <filename>browser</filename> contain just Firefox.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para><command>nix-env</command> now maintains - meta-information about installed packages in profiles. The - meta-information is the contents of the <varname>meta</varname> - attribute of derivations, such as <varname>description</varname> or - <varname>homepage</varname>. The command <literal>nix-env -q --xml - --meta</literal> shows all meta-information.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para><command>nix-env</command> now uses the - <varname>meta.priority</varname> attribute of derivations to resolve - filename collisions between packages. Lower priority values denote - a higher priority. For instance, the GCC wrapper package and the - Binutils package in Nixpkgs both have a file - <filename>bin/ld</filename>, so previously if you tried to install - both you would get a collision. Now, on the other hand, the GCC - wrapper declares a higher priority than Binutils, so the former’s - <filename>bin/ld</filename> is symlinked in the user - environment.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para><command>nix-env -i / -u</command>: instead of - breaking package ties by version, break them by priority and version - number. That is, if there are multiple packages with the same name, - then pick the package with the highest priority, and only use the - version if there are multiple packages with the same - priority.</para> - - <para>This makes it possible to mark specific versions/variant in - Nixpkgs more or less desirable than others. A typical example would - be a beta version of some package (e.g., - <literal>gcc-4.2.0rc1</literal>) which should not be installed even - though it is the highest version, except when it is explicitly - selected (e.g., <literal>nix-env -i - gcc-4.2.0rc1</literal>).</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para><command>nix-env --set-flag</command> allows meta - attributes of installed packages to be modified. There are several - attributes that can be usefully modified, because they affect the - behaviour of <command>nix-env</command> or the user environment - build script: - - <itemizedlist> - - <listitem><para><varname>meta.priority</varname> can be changed - to resolve filename clashes (see above).</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para><varname>meta.keep</varname> can be set to - <literal>true</literal> to prevent the package from being - upgraded or replaced. Useful if you want to hang on to an older - version of a package.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para><varname>meta.active</varname> can be set to - <literal>false</literal> to “disable” the package. That is, no - symlinks will be generated to the files of the package, but it - remains part of the profile (so it won’t be garbage-collected). - Set it back to <literal>true</literal> to re-enable the - package.</para></listitem> - - </itemizedlist> - - </para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para><command>nix-env -q</command> now has a flag - <option>--prebuilt-only</option> (<option>-b</option>) that causes - <command>nix-env</command> to show only those derivations whose - output is already in the Nix store or that can be substituted (i.e., - downloaded from somewhere). In other words, it shows the packages - that can be installed “quickly”, i.e., don’t need to be built from - source. The <option>-b</option> flag is also available in - <command>nix-env -i</command> and <command>nix-env -u</command> to - filter out derivations for which no pre-built binary is - available.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para>The new option <option>--argstr</option> (in - <command>nix-env</command>, <command>nix-instantiate</command> and - <command>nix-build</command>) is like <option>--arg</option>, except - that the value is a string. For example, <literal>--argstr system - i686-linux</literal> is equivalent to <literal>--arg system - \"i686-linux\"</literal> (note that <option>--argstr</option> - prevents annoying quoting around shell arguments).</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para><command>nix-store</command> has a new operation - <option>--read-log</option> (<option>-l</option>) - <parameter>paths</parameter> that shows the build log of the given - paths.</para></listitem> - - - <!-- - <listitem><para>TODO: semantic cleanups of string concatenation - etc. (mostly in r6740).</para></listitem> - --> - - - <listitem><para>Nix now uses Berkeley DB 4.5. The database is - upgraded automatically, but you should be careful not to use old - versions of Nix that still use Berkeley DB 4.4.</para></listitem> - - - <!-- foo - <listitem><para>TODO: option <option>- -reregister</option> in - <command>nix-store - -register-validity</command>.</para></listitem> - --> - - - <listitem><para>The option <option>--max-silent-time</option> - (corresponding to the configuration setting - <literal>build-max-silent-time</literal>) allows you to set a - timeout on builds — if a build produces no output on - <literal>stdout</literal> or <literal>stderr</literal> for the given - number of seconds, it is terminated. This is useful for recovering - automatically from builds that are stuck in an infinite - loop.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para><command>nix-channel</command>: each subscribed - channel is its own attribute in the top-level expression generated - for the channel. This allows disambiguation (e.g. <literal>nix-env - -i -A nixpkgs_unstable.firefox</literal>).</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para>The substitutes table has been removed from the - database. This makes operations such as <command>nix-pull</command> - and <command>nix-channel --update</command> much, much - faster.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para><command>nix-pull</command> now supports - bzip2-compressed manifests. This speeds up - channels.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para><command>nix-prefetch-url</command> now has a - limited form of caching. This is used by - <command>nix-channel</command> to prevent unnecessary downloads when - the channel hasn’t changed.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para><command>nix-prefetch-url</command> now by default - computes the SHA-256 hash of the file instead of the MD5 hash. In - calls to <function>fetchurl</function> you should pass the - <literal>sha256</literal> attribute instead of - <literal>md5</literal>. You can pass either a hexadecimal or a - base-32 encoding of the hash.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para>Nix can now perform builds in an automatically - generated “chroot”. This prevents a builder from accessing stuff - outside of the Nix store, and thus helps ensure purity. This is an - experimental feature.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para>The new command <command>nix-store - --optimise</command> reduces Nix store disk space usage by finding - identical files in the store and hard-linking them to each other. - It typically reduces the size of the store by something like - 25-35%.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para><filename>~/.nix-defexpr</filename> can now be a - directory, in which case the Nix expressions in that directory are - combined into an attribute set, with the file names used as the - names of the attributes. The command <command>nix-env - --import</command> (which set the - <filename>~/.nix-defexpr</filename> symlink) is - removed.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para>Derivations can specify the new special attribute - <varname>allowedReferences</varname> to enforce that the references - in the output of a derivation are a subset of a declared set of - paths. For example, if <varname>allowedReferences</varname> is an - empty list, then the output must not have any references. This is - used in NixOS to check that generated files such as initial ramdisks - for booting Linux don’t have any dependencies.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para>The new attribute - <varname>exportReferencesGraph</varname> allows builders access to - the references graph of their inputs. This is used in NixOS for - tasks such as generating ISO-9660 images that contain a Nix store - populated with the closure of certain paths.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para>Fixed-output derivations (like - <function>fetchurl</function>) can define the attribute - <varname>impureEnvVars</varname> to allow external environment - variables to be passed to builders. This is used in Nixpkgs to - support proxy configuration, among other things.</para></listitem> - - - <listitem><para>Several new built-in functions: - <function>builtins.attrNames</function>, - <function>builtins.filterSource</function>, - <function>builtins.isAttrs</function>, - <function>builtins.isFunction</function>, - <function>builtins.listToAttrs</function>, - <function>builtins.stringLength</function>, - <function>builtins.sub</function>, - <function>builtins.substring</function>, - <function>throw</function>, - <function>builtins.trace</function>, - <function>builtins.readFile</function>.</para></listitem> - - -</itemizedlist> - -</section> |