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diff --git a/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-0.12.xml b/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-0.12.xml deleted file mode 100644 index c30124786..000000000 --- a/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-0.12.xml +++ /dev/null @@ -1,175 +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-0.12"> - -<title>Release 0.12 (2008-11-20)</title> - -<itemizedlist> - - <listitem> - <para>Nix no longer uses Berkeley DB to store Nix store metadata. - The principal advantages of the new storage scheme are: it works - properly over decent implementations of NFS (allowing Nix stores - to be shared between multiple machines); no recovery is needed - when a Nix process crashes; no write access is needed for - read-only operations; no more running out of Berkeley DB locks on - certain operations.</para> - - <para>You still need to compile Nix with Berkeley DB support if - you want Nix to automatically convert your old Nix store to the - new schema. If you don’t need this, you can build Nix with the - <filename>configure</filename> option - <option>--disable-old-db-compat</option>.</para> - - <para>After the automatic conversion to the new schema, you can - delete the old Berkeley DB files: - - <screen> -$ cd /nix/var/nix/db -$ rm __db* log.* derivers references referrers reserved validpaths DB_CONFIG</screen> - - The new metadata is stored in the directories - <filename>/nix/var/nix/db/info</filename> and - <filename>/nix/var/nix/db/referrer</filename>. Though the - metadata is stored in human-readable plain-text files, they are - not intended to be human-editable, as Nix is rather strict about - the format.</para> - - <para>The new storage schema may or may not require less disk - space than the Berkeley DB environment, mostly depending on the - cluster size of your file system. With 1 KiB clusters (which - seems to be the <literal>ext3</literal> default nowadays) it - usually takes up much less space.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem><para>There is a new substituter that copies paths - directly from other (remote) Nix stores mounted somewhere in the - filesystem. For instance, you can speed up an installation by - mounting some remote Nix store that already has the packages in - question via NFS or <literal>sshfs</literal>. The environment - variable <literal>NIX_OTHER_STORES</literal> specifies the locations of - the remote Nix directories, - e.g. <literal>/mnt/remote-fs/nix</literal>.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>New <command>nix-store</command> operations - <option>--dump-db</option> and <option>--load-db</option> to dump - and reload the Nix database.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>The garbage collector has a number of new options to - allow only some of the garbage to be deleted. The option - <option>--max-freed <emphasis>N</emphasis></option> tells the - collector to stop after at least <emphasis>N</emphasis> bytes - have been deleted. The option <option>--max-links - <emphasis>N</emphasis></option> tells it to stop after the - link count on <filename>/nix/store</filename> has dropped below - <emphasis>N</emphasis>. This is useful for very large Nix - stores on filesystems with a 32000 subdirectories limit (like - <literal>ext3</literal>). The option <option>--use-atime</option> - causes store paths to be deleted in order of ascending last access - time. This allows non-recently used stuff to be deleted. The - option <option>--max-atime <emphasis>time</emphasis></option> - specifies an upper limit to the last accessed time of paths that may - be deleted. For instance, - - <screen> - $ nix-store --gc -v --max-atime $(date +%s -d "2 months ago")</screen> - - deletes everything that hasn’t been accessed in two months.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para><command>nix-env</command> now uses optimistic - profile locking when performing an operation like installing or - upgrading, instead of setting an exclusive lock on the profile. - This allows multiple <command>nix-env -i / -u / -e</command> - operations on the same profile in parallel. If a - <command>nix-env</command> operation sees at the end that the profile - was changed in the meantime by another process, it will just - restart. This is generally cheap because the build results are - still in the Nix store.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>The option <option>--dry-run</option> is now - supported by <command>nix-store -r</command> and - <command>nix-build</command>.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>The information previously shown by - <option>--dry-run</option> (i.e., which derivations will be built - and which paths will be substituted) is now always shown by - <command>nix-env</command>, <command>nix-store -r</command> and - <command>nix-build</command>. The total download size of - substitutable paths is now also shown. For instance, a build will - show something like - - <screen> -the following derivations will be built: - /nix/store/129sbxnk5n466zg6r1qmq1xjv9zymyy7-activate-configuration.sh.drv - /nix/store/7mzy971rdm8l566ch8hgxaf89x7lr7ik-upstart-jobs.drv - ... -the following paths will be downloaded/copied (30.02 MiB): - /nix/store/4m8pvgy2dcjgppf5b4cj5l6wyshjhalj-samba-3.2.4 - /nix/store/7h1kwcj29ip8vk26rhmx6bfjraxp0g4l-libunwind-0.98.6 - ...</screen> - - </para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>Language features: - - <itemizedlist> - - <listitem><para>@-patterns as in Haskell. For instance, in a - function definition - - <programlisting>f = args @ {x, y, z}: <emphasis>...</emphasis>;</programlisting> - - <varname>args</varname> refers to the argument as a whole, which - is further pattern-matched against the attribute set pattern - <literal>{x, y, z}</literal>.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>“<literal>...</literal>” (ellipsis) patterns. - An attribute set pattern can now say <literal>...</literal> at - the end of the attribute name list to specify that the function - takes <emphasis>at least</emphasis> the listed attributes, while - ignoring additional attributes. For instance, - - <programlisting>{stdenv, fetchurl, fuse, ...}: <emphasis>...</emphasis></programlisting> - - defines a function that accepts any attribute set that includes - at least the three listed attributes.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>New primops: - <varname>builtins.parseDrvName</varname> (split a package name - string like <literal>"nix-0.12pre12876"</literal> into its name - and version components, e.g. <literal>"nix"</literal> and - <literal>"0.12pre12876"</literal>), - <varname>builtins.compareVersions</varname> (compare two version - strings using the same algorithm that <command>nix-env</command> - uses), <varname>builtins.length</varname> (efficiently compute - the length of a list), <varname>builtins.mul</varname> (integer - multiplication), <varname>builtins.div</varname> (integer - division). - <!-- <varname>builtins.genericClosure</varname> --> - </para></listitem> - - </itemizedlist> - - </para></listitem> - - <listitem><para><command>nix-prefetch-url</command> now supports - <literal>mirror://</literal> URLs, provided that the environment - variable <literal>NIXPKGS_ALL</literal> points at a Nixpkgs - tree.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>Removed the commands - <command>nix-pack-closure</command> and - <command>nix-unpack-closure</command>. You can do almost the same - thing but much more efficiently by doing <literal>nix-store --export - $(nix-store -qR <emphasis>paths</emphasis>) > closure</literal> and - <literal>nix-store --import < - closure</literal>.</para></listitem> - - <listitem><para>Lots of bug fixes, including a big performance bug in - the handling of <literal>with</literal>-expressions.</para></listitem> - -</itemizedlist> - -</section> |