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diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/release-notes.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/release-notes.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b05d5ee0a --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/release-notes.md @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +# Nix Release Notes diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.10.1.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.10.1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e1ed6558a --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.10.1.md @@ -0,0 +1,5 @@ +# Release 0.10.1 (2006-10-11) + +This release fixes two somewhat obscure bugs that occur when evaluating +Nix expressions that are stored inside the Nix store (`NIX-67`). These +do not affect most users. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.10.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.10.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..bf0e59fad --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.10.md @@ -0,0 +1,212 @@ +# Release 0.10 (2006-10-06) + +> **Note** +> +> 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 +> +> $ nix-store --clear-substitutes +> +> first. + +> **Warning** +> +> 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. + + - `nix-env` usability improvements: + + - An option `--compare-versions` (or `-c`) has been added to + `nix-env + --query` 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 + `nix-env -qc \*`. + + - `nix-env --query` now takes as arguments a list of package names + about which to show information, just like `--install`, etc.: + for example, `nix-env -q gcc`. Note that to show all + derivations, you need to specify `\*`. + + - `nix-env -i + pkgname` will now install the highest available version of + pkgname, rather than installing all available versions (which + would probably give collisions) (`NIX-31`). + + - `nix-env (-i|-u) --dry-run` now shows exactly which missing + paths will be built or substituted. + + - `nix-env -qa --description` shows human-readable descriptions of + packages, provided that they have a `meta.description` attribute + (which most packages in Nixpkgs don’t have yet). + + - New language features: + + - Reference scanning (which happens after each build) is much + faster and takes a constant amount of memory. + + - String interpolation. Expressions like + + "--with-freetype2-library=" + freetype + "/lib" + + can now be written as + + "--with-freetype2-library=${freetype}/lib" + + You can write arbitrary expressions within `${...}`, not just + identifiers. + + - Multi-line string literals. + + - String concatenations can now involve derivations, as in the + example `"--with-freetype2-library=" + + freetype + "/lib"`. This was not previously possible because + we need to register that a derivation that uses such a string is + dependent on `freetype`. The evaluator now properly propagates + this information. Consequently, the subpath operator (`~`) has + been deprecated. + + - Default values of function arguments can now refer to other + function arguments; that is, all arguments are in scope in the + default values (`NIX-45`). + + - 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 + `builtins`, allowing one to test for the availability of primop + in a backwards-compatible way. + + - Real let-expressions: `let x = ...; + ... z = ...; in ...`. + + - New commands `nix-pack-closure` and `nix-unpack-closure` 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. + + - XML support: + + - `nix-env -q --xml` prints the installed or available packages in + an XML representation for easy processing by other tools. + + - `nix-instantiate --eval-only + --xml` prints an XML representation of the resulting term. (The + new flag `--strict` forces ‘deep’ evaluation of the result, + i.e., list elements and attributes are evaluated recursively.) + + - In Nix expressions, the primop `builtins.toXML` converts a term + to an XML representation. This is primarily useful for passing + structured information to builders. + + - You can now unambiguously specify which derivation to build or + install in `nix-env`, `nix-instantiate` and `nix-build` using the + `--attr` / `-A` flags, which takes an attribute name as argument. + (Unlike symbolic package names such as `subversion-1.4.0`, attribute + names in an attribute set are unique.) For instance, a quick way to + perform a test build of a package in Nixpkgs is `nix-build + pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix -A + foo`. `nix-env -q + --attr` shows the attribute names corresponding to each derivation. + + - If the top-level Nix expression used by `nix-env`, `nix-instantiate` + or `nix-build` evaluates to a function whose arguments all have + default values, the function will be called automatically. Also, the + new command-line switch `--arg + name + value` can be used to specify function arguments on the command + line. + + - `nix-install-package --url + URL` allows a package to be installed directly from the given URL. + + - Nix now works behind an HTTP proxy server; just set the standard + environment variables http\_proxy, https\_proxy, ftp\_proxy or + all\_proxy appropriately. Functions such as `fetchurl` in Nixpkgs + also respect these variables. + + - `nix-build -o + symlink` allows the symlink to the build result to be named + something other than `result`. + + - Platform support: + + - Support for 64-bit platforms, provided a [suitably patched ATerm + library](http://bugzilla.sen.cwi.nl:8080/show_bug.cgi?id=606) is + used. Also, files larger than 2 GiB are now supported. + + - Added support for Cygwin (Windows, `i686-cygwin`), Mac OS X on + Intel (`i686-darwin`) and Linux on PowerPC (`powerpc-linux`). + + - 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 `build-max-jobs` + setting. + + - Garbage collector improvements: + + - 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 + (`find-runtime-roots.pl`) is inherently system-specific, but it + should work on Linux and on all platforms that have the `lsof` + utility. + + - `nix-store --gc` (a.k.a. `nix-collect-garbage`) prints out the + number of bytes freed on standard output. `nix-store + --gc --print-dead` shows how many bytes would be freed by an + actual garbage collection. + + - `nix-collect-garbage -d` removes all old generations of *all* + profiles before calling the actual garbage collector (`nix-store + --gc`). This is an easy way to get rid of all old packages in + the Nix store. + + - `nix-store` now has an operation `--delete` to delete specific + paths from the Nix store. It won’t delete reachable + (non-garbage) paths unless `--ignore-liveness` is specified. + + - Berkeley DB 4.4’s process registry feature is used to recover from + crashed Nix processes. + + - A performance issue has been fixed with the `referer` table, which + stores the inverse of the `references` 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) (`NIX-23`). + + - Nix now catches the `TERM` and `HUP` signals in addition to the + `INT` signal. So you can now do a `killall + nix-store` without triggering a database recovery. + + - `bsdiff` updated to version 4.3. + + - Substantial performance improvements in expression evaluation and + `nix-env -qa`, all thanks to [Valgrind](http://valgrind.org/). + Memory use has been reduced by a factor 8 or so. Big speedup by + memoisation of path hashing. + + - Lots of bug fixes, notably: + + - Make sure that the garbage collector can run successfully when + the disk is full (`NIX-18`). + + - `nix-env` now locks the profile to prevent races between + concurrent `nix-env` operations on the same profile (`NIX-7`). + + - Removed misleading messages from `nix-env -i` (e.g., + ``installing + `foo'`` followed by ``uninstalling + `foo'``) (`NIX-17`). + + - 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). + + - Header files are now installed so that external programs can use the + Nix libraries. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.11.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.11.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d2f4d73aa --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.11.md @@ -0,0 +1,167 @@ +# Release 0.11 (2007-12-31) + +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: + + - 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. + + - The new command `nix-copy-closure` 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 `ssh`. + + - A new kind of string literal: strings between double single-quotes + (`''`) 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 `''` is less + common in most languages than `"`. + + - `nix-env` `--set` modifies the current generation of a profile so + that it contains exactly the specified derivation, and nothing else. + For example, `nix-env -p /nix/var/nix/profiles/browser --set + firefox` lets the profile named `browser` contain just Firefox. + + - `nix-env` now maintains meta-information about installed packages in + profiles. The meta-information is the contents of the `meta` + attribute of derivations, such as `description` or `homepage`. The + command `nix-env -q --xml + --meta` shows all meta-information. + + - `nix-env` now uses the `meta.priority` 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 `bin/ld`, 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 `bin/ld` is symlinked in the user + environment. + + - `nix-env -i / -u`: 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. + + 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., `gcc-4.2.0rc1`) which should not + be installed even though it is the highest version, except when it + is explicitly selected (e.g., `nix-env -i + gcc-4.2.0rc1`). + + - `nix-env --set-flag` allows meta attributes of installed packages to + be modified. There are several attributes that can be usefully + modified, because they affect the behaviour of `nix-env` or the user + environment build script: + + - `meta.priority` can be changed to resolve filename clashes (see + above). + + - `meta.keep` can be set to `true` to prevent the package from + being upgraded or replaced. Useful if you want to hang on to an + older version of a package. + + - `meta.active` can be set to `false` 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 `true` to re-enable the + package. + + - `nix-env -q` now has a flag `--prebuilt-only` (`-b`) that causes + `nix-env` 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 + `-b` flag is also available in `nix-env -i` and `nix-env -u` to + filter out derivations for which no pre-built binary is available. + + - The new option `--argstr` (in `nix-env`, `nix-instantiate` and + `nix-build`) is like `--arg`, except that the value is a string. For + example, `--argstr system + i686-linux` is equivalent to `--arg system + \"i686-linux\"` (note that `--argstr` prevents annoying quoting + around shell arguments). + + - `nix-store` has a new operation `--read-log` (`-l`) `paths` that + shows the build log of the given paths. + + - 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. + + - The option `--max-silent-time` (corresponding to the configuration + setting `build-max-silent-time`) allows you to set a timeout on + builds — if a build produces no output on `stdout` or `stderr` for + the given number of seconds, it is terminated. This is useful for + recovering automatically from builds that are stuck in an infinite + loop. + + - `nix-channel`: each subscribed channel is its own attribute in the + top-level expression generated for the channel. This allows + disambiguation (e.g. `nix-env + -i -A nixpkgs_unstable.firefox`). + + - The substitutes table has been removed from the database. This makes + operations such as `nix-pull` and `nix-channel --update` much, much + faster. + + - `nix-pull` now supports bzip2-compressed manifests. This speeds up + channels. + + - `nix-prefetch-url` now has a limited form of caching. This is used + by `nix-channel` to prevent unnecessary downloads when the channel + hasn’t changed. + + - `nix-prefetch-url` now by default computes the SHA-256 hash of the + file instead of the MD5 hash. In calls to `fetchurl` you should pass + the `sha256` attribute instead of `md5`. You can pass either a + hexadecimal or a base-32 encoding of the hash. + + - 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. + + - The new command `nix-store + --optimise` 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%. + + - `~/.nix-defexpr` 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 + `nix-env + --import` (which set the `~/.nix-defexpr` symlink) is removed. + + - Derivations can specify the new special attribute + `allowedReferences` to enforce that the references in the output of + a derivation are a subset of a declared set of paths. For example, + if `allowedReferences` 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. + + - The new attribute `exportReferencesGraph` 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. + + - Fixed-output derivations (like `fetchurl`) can define the attribute + `impureEnvVars` to allow external environment variables to be passed + to builders. This is used in Nixpkgs to support proxy configuration, + among other things. + + - Several new built-in functions: `builtins.attrNames`, + `builtins.filterSource`, `builtins.isAttrs`, `builtins.isFunction`, + `builtins.listToAttrs`, `builtins.stringLength`, `builtins.sub`, + `builtins.substring`, `throw`, `builtins.trace`, + `builtins.readFile`. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.12.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.12.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0dc727b69 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.12.md @@ -0,0 +1,123 @@ +# Release 0.12 (2008-11-20) + + - 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. + + 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 `configure` + option `--disable-old-db-compat`. + + After the automatic conversion to the new schema, you can delete the + old Berkeley DB files: + + $ cd /nix/var/nix/db + $ rm __db* log.* derivers references referrers reserved validpaths DB_CONFIG + + The new metadata is stored in the directories `/nix/var/nix/db/info` + and `/nix/var/nix/db/referrer`. 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. + + 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 `ext3` + default nowadays) it usually takes up much less space. + + - 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 + `sshfs`. The environment variable NIX\_OTHER\_STORES specifies the + locations of the remote Nix directories, e.g. `/mnt/remote-fs/nix`. + + - New `nix-store` operations `--dump-db` and `--load-db` to dump and + reload the Nix database. + + - The garbage collector has a number of new options to allow only some + of the garbage to be deleted. The option `--max-freed N` tells the + collector to stop after at least N bytes have been deleted. The + option `--max-links + N` tells it to stop after the link count on `/nix/store` has dropped + below N. This is useful for very large Nix stores on filesystems + with a 32000 subdirectories limit (like `ext3`). The option + `--use-atime` causes store paths to be deleted in order of ascending + last access time. This allows non-recently used stuff to be deleted. + The option `--max-atime time` specifies an upper limit to the last + accessed time of paths that may be deleted. For instance, + + ``` + $ nix-store --gc -v --max-atime $(date +%s -d "2 months ago") + ``` + + deletes everything that hasn’t been accessed in two months. + + - `nix-env` 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 `nix-env -i / -u + / -e` operations on the same profile in parallel. If a `nix-env` + 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. + + - The option `--dry-run` is now supported by `nix-store -r` and + `nix-build`. + + - The information previously shown by `--dry-run` (i.e., which + derivations will be built and which paths will be substituted) is + now always shown by `nix-env`, `nix-store -r` and `nix-build`. The + total download size of substitutable paths is now also shown. For + instance, a build will show something like + + 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 + ... + + - Language features: + + - @-patterns as in Haskell. For instance, in a function definition + + f = args @ {x, y, z}: ...; + + `args` refers to the argument as a whole, which is further + pattern-matched against the attribute set pattern `{x, y, z}`. + + - “`...`” (ellipsis) patterns. An attribute set pattern can now + say `...` at the end of the attribute name list to specify that + the function takes *at least* the listed attributes, while + ignoring additional attributes. For instance, + + {stdenv, fetchurl, fuse, ...}: ... + + defines a function that accepts any attribute set that includes + at least the three listed attributes. + + - New primops: `builtins.parseDrvName` (split a package name + string like `"nix-0.12pre12876"` into its name and version + components, e.g. `"nix"` and `"0.12pre12876"`), + `builtins.compareVersions` (compare two version strings using + the same algorithm that `nix-env` uses), `builtins.length` + (efficiently compute the length of a list), `builtins.mul` + (integer multiplication), `builtins.div` (integer division). + + - `nix-prefetch-url` now supports `mirror://` URLs, provided that the + environment variable NIXPKGS\_ALL points at a Nixpkgs tree. + + - Removed the commands `nix-pack-closure` and `nix-unpack-closure`. + You can do almost the same thing but much more efficiently by doing + `nix-store --export + $(nix-store -qR paths) > closure` and `nix-store --import < + closure`. + + - Lots of bug fixes, including a big performance bug in the handling + of `with`-expressions. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.13.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.13.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..21f33e3db --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.13.md @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +# Release 0.13 (2009-11-05) + +This is primarily a bug fix release. It has some new features: + + - Syntactic sugar for writing nested attribute sets. Instead of + + { + foo = { + bar = 123; + xyzzy = true; + }; + a = { b = { c = "d"; }; }; + } + + you can write + + { + foo.bar = 123; + foo.xyzzy = true; + a.b.c = "d"; + } + + This is useful, for instance, in NixOS configuration files. + + - Support for Nix channels generated by Hydra, the Nix-based + continuous build system. (Hydra generates NAR archives on the fly, + so the size and hash of these archives isn’t known in advance.) + + - Support `i686-linux` builds directly on `x86_64-linux` Nix + installations. This is implemented using the `personality()` + syscall, which causes `uname` to return `i686` in child processes. + + - Various improvements to the `chroot` support. Building in a `chroot` + works quite well now. + + - Nix no longer blocks if it tries to build a path and another process + is already building the same path. Instead it tries to build another + buildable path first. This improves parallelism. + + - Support for large (\> 4 GiB) files in NAR archives. + + - Various (performance) improvements to the remote build mechanism. + + - New primops: `builtins.addErrorContext` (to add a string to stack + traces — useful for debugging), `builtins.isBool`, + `builtins.isString`, `builtins.isInt`, `builtins.intersectAttrs`. + + - OpenSolaris support (Sander van der Burg). + + - Stack traces are no longer displayed unless the `--show-trace` + option is used. + + - The scoping rules for `inherit + (e) ...` in recursive attribute sets have changed. The expression e + can now refer to the attributes defined in the containing set. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.14.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.14.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9d58f2072 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.14.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +# Release 0.14 (2010-02-04) + +This release has the following improvements: + + - The garbage collector now starts deleting garbage much faster than + before. It no longer determines liveness of all paths in the store, + but does so on demand. + + - Added a new operation, `nix-store --query + --roots`, that shows the garbage collector roots that directly or + indirectly point to the given store paths. + + - Removed support for converting Berkeley DB-based Nix databases to + the new schema. + + - Removed the `--use-atime` and `--max-atime` garbage collector + options. They were not very useful in practice. + + - On Windows, Nix now requires Cygwin 1.7.x. + + - A few bug fixes. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.15.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.15.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..48e2a6f1b --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.15.md @@ -0,0 +1,5 @@ +# Release 0.15 (2010-03-17) + +This is a bug-fix release. Among other things, it fixes building on Mac +OS X (Snow Leopard), and improves the contents of `/etc/passwd` and +`/etc/group` in `chroot` builds. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.16.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.16.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..121bbde28 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.16.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +# Release 0.16 (2010-08-17) + +This release has the following improvements: + + - The Nix expression evaluator is now much faster in most cases: + typically, [3 to 8 times compared to the old + implementation](http://www.mail-archive.com/nix-dev@cs.uu.nl/msg04113.html). + It also uses less memory. It no longer depends on the ATerm library. + + - Support for configurable parallelism inside builders. Build scripts + have always had the ability to perform multiple build actions in + parallel (for instance, by running `make -j + 2`), but this was not desirable because the number of actions to be + performed in parallel was not configurable. Nix now has an option + `--cores + N` as well as a configuration setting `build-cores = + N` that causes the environment variable NIX\_BUILD\_CORES to be set + to N when the builder is invoked. The builder can use this at its + discretion to perform a parallel build, e.g., by calling `make -j + N`. In Nixpkgs, this can be enabled on a per-package basis by + setting the derivation attribute `enableParallelBuilding` to `true`. + + - `nix-store -q` now supports XML output through the `--xml` flag. + + - Several bug fixes. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.5.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5cff2da0b --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.5.md @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +# Release 0.5 and earlier + +Please refer to the Subversion commit log messages. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.6.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c816c9851 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.6.md @@ -0,0 +1,64 @@ +# Release 0.6 (2004-11-14) + + - Rewrite of the normalisation engine. + + - Multiple builds can now be performed in parallel (option `-j`). + + - Distributed builds. Nix can now call a shell script to forward + builds to Nix installations on remote machines, which may or may + not be of the same platform type. + + - Option `--fallback` allows recovery from broken substitutes. + + - Option `--keep-going` causes building of other (unaffected) + derivations to continue if one failed. + + - Improvements to the garbage collector (i.e., it should actually work + now). + + - Setuid Nix installations allow a Nix store to be shared among + multiple users. + + - Substitute registration is much faster now. + + - A utility `nix-build` to build a Nix expression and create a symlink + to the result int the current directory; useful for testing Nix + derivations. + + - Manual updates. + + - `nix-env` changes: + + - Derivations for other platforms are filtered out (which can be + overridden using `--system-filter`). + + - `--install` by default now uninstall previous derivations with + the same name. + + - `--upgrade` allows upgrading to a specific version. + + - New operation `--delete-generations` to remove profile + generations (necessary for effective garbage collection). + + - Nicer output (sorted, columnised). + + - More sensible verbosity levels all around (builder output is now + shown always, unless `-Q` is given). + + - Nix expression language changes: + + - New language construct: `with + E1; + E2` brings all attributes defined in the attribute set E1 in + scope in E2. + + - Added a `map` function. + + - Various new operators (e.g., string concatenation). + + - Expression evaluation is much faster. + + - An Emacs mode for editing Nix expressions (with syntax highlighting + and indentation) has been added. + + - Many bug fixes. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.7.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d873fe890 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.7.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +# Release 0.7 (2005-01-12) + + - Binary patching. When upgrading components using pre-built binaries + (through nix-pull / nix-channel), Nix can automatically download and + apply binary patches to already installed components instead of full + downloads. Patching is “smart”: if there is a *sequence* of patches + to an installed component, Nix will use it. Patches are currently + generated automatically between Nixpkgs (pre-)releases. + + - Simplifications to the substitute mechanism. + + - Nix-pull now stores downloaded manifests in + `/nix/var/nix/manifests`. + + - Metadata on files in the Nix store is canonicalised after builds: + the last-modified timestamp is set to 0 (00:00:00 1/1/1970), the + mode is set to 0444 or 0555 (readable and possibly executable by + all; setuid/setgid bits are dropped), and the group is set to the + default. This ensures that the result of a build and an installation + through a substitute is the same; and that timestamp dependencies + are revealed. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.8.1.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.8.1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7629f81cb --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.8.1.md @@ -0,0 +1,8 @@ +# Release 0.8.1 (2005-04-13) + +This is a bug fix release. + + - Patch downloading was broken. + + - The garbage collector would not delete paths that had references + from invalid (but substitutable) paths. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.8.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..626c0c92b --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.8.md @@ -0,0 +1,166 @@ +# Release 0.8 (2005-04-11) + +NOTE: the hashing scheme in Nix 0.8 changed (as detailed below). As a +result, `nix-pull` manifests and channels built for Nix 0.7 and below +will not work anymore. However, the Nix expression language has not +changed, so you can still build from source. Also, existing user +environments continue to work. Nix 0.8 will automatically upgrade the +database schema of previous installations when it is first run. + +If you get the error message + + you have an old-style manifest `/nix/var/nix/manifests/[...]'; please + delete it + +you should delete previously downloaded manifests: + + $ rm /nix/var/nix/manifests/* + +If `nix-channel` gives the error message + + manifest `http://catamaran.labs.cs.uu.nl/dist/nix/channels/[channel]/MANIFEST' + is too old (i.e., for Nix <= 0.7) + +then you should unsubscribe from the offending channel (`nix-channel +--remove +URL`; leave out `/MANIFEST`), and subscribe to the same URL, with +`channels` replaced by `channels-v3` (e.g., +<http://catamaran.labs.cs.uu.nl/dist/nix/channels-v3/nixpkgs-unstable>). + +Nix 0.8 has the following improvements: + + - The cryptographic hashes used in store paths are now 160 bits long, + but encoded in base-32 so that they are still only 32 characters + long (e.g., + `/nix/store/csw87wag8bqlqk7ipllbwypb14xainap-atk-1.9.0`). (This is + actually a 160 bit truncation of a SHA-256 hash.) + + - Big cleanups and simplifications of the basic store semantics. The + notion of “closure store expressions” is gone (and so is the notion + of “successors”); the file system references of a store path are now + just stored in the database. + + For instance, given any store path, you can query its closure: + + $ nix-store -qR $(which firefox) + ... lots of paths ... + + Also, Nix now remembers for each store path the derivation that + built it (the “deriver”): + + $ nix-store -qR $(which firefox) + /nix/store/4b0jx7vq80l9aqcnkszxhymsf1ffa5jd-firefox-1.0.1.drv + + So to see the build-time dependencies, you can do + + $ nix-store -qR $(nix-store -qd $(which firefox)) + + or, in a nicer format: + + $ nix-store -q --tree $(nix-store -qd $(which firefox)) + + File system references are also stored in reverse. For instance, you + can query all paths that directly or indirectly use a certain Glibc: + + $ nix-store -q --referrers-closure \ + /nix/store/8lz9yc6zgmc0vlqmn2ipcpkjlmbi51vv-glibc-2.3.4 + + - The concept of fixed-output derivations has been formalised. + Previously, functions such as `fetchurl` in Nixpkgs used a hack + (namely, explicitly specifying a store path hash) to prevent changes + to, say, the URL of the file from propagating upwards through the + dependency graph, causing rebuilds of everything. This can now be + done cleanly by specifying the `outputHash` and `outputHashAlgo` + attributes. Nix itself checks that the content of the output has the + specified hash. (This is important for maintaining certain + invariants necessary for future work on secure shared stores.) + + - One-click installation :-) It is now possible to install any + top-level component in Nixpkgs directly, through the web — see, + e.g., <http://catamaran.labs.cs.uu.nl/dist/nixpkgs-0.8/>. All you + have to do is associate `/nix/bin/nix-install-package` with the MIME + type `application/nix-package` (or the extension `.nixpkg`), and + clicking on a package link will cause it to be installed, with all + appropriate dependencies. If you just want to install some specific + application, this is easier than subscribing to a channel. + + - `nix-store -r + PATHS` now builds all the derivations PATHS in parallel. Previously + it did them sequentially (though exploiting possible parallelism + between subderivations). This is nice for build farms. + + - `nix-channel` has new operations `--list` and `--remove`. + + - New ways of installing components into user environments: + + - Copy from another user environment: + + $ nix-env -i --from-profile .../other-profile firefox + + - Install a store derivation directly (bypassing the Nix + expression language entirely): + + $ nix-env -i /nix/store/z58v41v21xd3...-aterm-2.3.1.drv + + (This is used to implement `nix-install-package`, which is + therefore immune to evolution in the Nix expression language.) + + - Install an already built store path directly: + + $ nix-env -i /nix/store/hsyj5pbn0d9i...-aterm-2.3.1 + + - Install the result of a Nix expression specified as a + command-line argument: + + $ nix-env -f .../i686-linux.nix -i -E 'x: x.firefoxWrapper' + + The difference with the normal installation mode is that `-E` + does not use the `name` attributes of derivations. Therefore, + this can be used to disambiguate multiple derivations with the + same name. + + - A hash of the contents of a store path is now stored in the database + after a successful build. This allows you to check whether store + paths have been tampered with: `nix-store + --verify --check-contents`. + + - Implemented a concurrent garbage collector. It is now always safe to + run the garbage collector, even if other Nix operations are + happening simultaneously. + + However, there can still be GC races if you use `nix-instantiate` + and `nix-store + --realise` directly to build things. To prevent races, use the + `--add-root` flag of those commands. + + - The garbage collector now finally deletes paths in the right order + (i.e., topologically sorted under the “references” relation), thus + making it safe to interrupt the collector without risking a store + that violates the closure invariant. + + - Likewise, the substitute mechanism now downloads files in the right + order, thus preserving the closure invariant at all times. + + - The result of `nix-build` is now registered as a root of the garbage + collector. If the `./result` link is deleted, the GC root disappears + automatically. + + - The behaviour of the garbage collector can be changed globally by + setting options in `/nix/etc/nix/nix.conf`. + + - `gc-keep-derivations` specifies whether deriver links should be + followed when searching for live paths. + + - `gc-keep-outputs` specifies whether outputs of derivations + should be followed when searching for live paths. + + - `env-keep-derivations` specifies whether user environments + should store the paths of derivations when they are added (thus + keeping the derivations alive). + + - New `nix-env` query flags `--drv-path` and `--out-path`. + + - `fetchurl` allows SHA-1 and SHA-256 in addition to MD5. Just specify + the attribute `sha1` or `sha256` instead of `md5`. + + - Manual updates. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.9.1.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.9.1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9c20eed1b --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.9.1.md @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +# Release 0.9.1 (2005-09-20) + +This bug fix release addresses a problem with the ATerm library when the +`--with-aterm` flag in `configure` was *not* used. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.9.2.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.9.2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0caaf28de --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.9.2.md @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +# Release 0.9.2 (2005-09-21) + +This bug fix release fixes two problems on Mac OS X: + + - If Nix was linked against statically linked versions of the ATerm or + Berkeley DB library, there would be dynamic link errors at runtime. + + - `nix-pull` and `nix-push` intermittently failed due to race + conditions involving pipes and child processes with error messages + such as `open2: open(GLOB(0x180b2e4), >&=9) failed: Bad + file descriptor at /nix/bin/nix-pull line 77` (issue `NIX-14`). diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.9.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.9.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8c3e1b28e --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-0.9.md @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ +# Release 0.9 (2005-09-16) + +NOTE: this version of Nix uses Berkeley DB 4.3 instead of 4.2. The +database is upgraded automatically, but you should be careful not to use +old versions of Nix that still use Berkeley DB 4.2. In particular, if +you use a Nix installed through Nix, you should run + + $ nix-store --clear-substitutes + +first. + + - Unpacking of patch sequences is much faster now since we no longer + do redundant unpacking and repacking of intermediate paths. + + - Nix now uses Berkeley DB 4.3. + + - The `derivation` primitive is lazier. Attributes of dependent + derivations can mutually refer to each other (as long as there are + no data dependencies on the `outPath` and `drvPath` attributes + computed by `derivation`). + + For example, the expression `derivation + attrs` now evaluates to (essentially) + + attrs // { + type = "derivation"; + outPath = derivation! attrs; + drvPath = derivation! attrs; + } + + where `derivation!` is a primop that does the actual derivation + instantiation (i.e., it does what `derivation` used to do). The + advantage is that it allows commands such as `nix-env -qa` and + `nix-env -i` to be much faster since they no longer need to + instantiate all derivations, just the `name` attribute. + + Also, it allows derivations to cyclically reference each other, for + example, + + webServer = derivation { + ... + hostName = "svn.cs.uu.nl"; + services = [svnService]; + }; + + svnService = derivation { + ... + hostName = webServer.hostName; + }; + + Previously, this would yield a black hole (infinite recursion). + + - `nix-build` now defaults to using `./default.nix` if no Nix + expression is specified. + + - `nix-instantiate`, when applied to a Nix expression that evaluates + to a function, will call the function automatically if all its + arguments have defaults. + + - Nix now uses libtool to build dynamic libraries. This reduces the + size of executables. + + - A new list concatenation operator `++`. For example, `[1 2 3] ++ + [4 5 + 6]` evaluates to `[1 2 3 4 5 + 6]`. + + - Some currently undocumented primops to support low-level build + management using Nix (i.e., using Nix as a Make replacement). See + the commit messages for `r3578` and `r3580`. + + - Various bug fixes and performance improvements. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.0.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..025f827d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.0.md @@ -0,0 +1,68 @@ +# Release 1.0 (2012-05-11) + +There have been numerous improvements and bug fixes since the previous +release. Here are the most significant: + + - Nix can now optionally use the Boehm garbage collector. This + significantly reduces the Nix evaluator’s memory footprint, + especially when evaluating large NixOS system configurations. It can + be enabled using the `--enable-gc` configure option. + + - Nix now uses SQLite for its database. This is faster and more + flexible than the old *ad hoc* format. SQLite is also used to cache + the manifests in `/nix/var/nix/manifests`, resulting in a + significant speedup. + + - Nix now has an search path for expressions. The search path is set + using the environment variable NIX\_PATH and the `-I` command line + option. In Nix expressions, paths between angle brackets are used to + specify files that must be looked up in the search path. For + instance, the expression `<nixpkgs/default.nix>` looks for a file + `nixpkgs/default.nix` relative to every element in the search path. + + - The new command `nix-build --run-env` builds all dependencies of a + derivation, then starts a shell in an environment containing all + variables from the derivation. This is useful for reproducing the + environment of a derivation for development. + + - The new command `nix-store --verify-path` verifies that the contents + of a store path have not changed. + + - The new command `nix-store --print-env` prints out the environment + of a derivation in a format that can be evaluated by a shell. + + - Attribute names can now be arbitrary strings. For instance, you can + write `{ "foo-1.2" = …; "bla bla" = …; }."bla + bla"`. + + - Attribute selection can now provide a default value using the `or` + operator. For instance, the expression `x.y.z or e` evaluates to the + attribute `x.y.z` if it exists, and `e` otherwise. + + - The right-hand side of the `?` operator can now be an attribute + path, e.g., `attrs ? + a.b.c`. + + - On Linux, Nix will now make files in the Nix store immutable on + filesystems that support it. This prevents accidental modification + of files in the store by the root user. + + - Nix has preliminary support for derivations with multiple outputs. + This is useful because it allows parts of a package to be deployed + and garbage-collected separately. For instance, development parts of + a package such as header files or static libraries would typically + not be part of the closure of an application, resulting in reduced + disk usage and installation time. + + - The Nix store garbage collector is faster and holds the global lock + for a shorter amount of time. + + - The option `--timeout` (corresponding to the configuration setting + `build-timeout`) allows you to set an absolute timeout on builds — + if a build runs for more than the given number of seconds, it is + terminated. This is useful for recovering automatically from builds + that are stuck in an infinite loop but keep producing output, and + for which `--max-silent-time` is ineffective. + + - Nix development has moved to GitHub + (<https://github.com/NixOS/nix>). diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.1.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1e658fe15 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.1.md @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ +# Release 1.1 (2012-07-18) + +This release has the following improvements: + + - On Linux, when doing a chroot build, Nix now uses various namespace + features provided by the Linux kernel to improve build isolation. + Namely: + + - The private network namespace ensures that builders cannot talk + to the outside world (or vice versa): each build only sees a + private loopback interface. This also means that two concurrent + builds can listen on the same port (e.g. as part of a test) + without conflicting with each other. + + - The PID namespace causes each build to start as PID 1. Processes + outside of the chroot are not visible to those on the inside. On + the other hand, processes inside the chroot *are* visible from + the outside (though with different PIDs). + + - The IPC namespace prevents the builder from communicating with + outside processes using SysV IPC mechanisms (shared memory, + message queues, semaphores). It also ensures that all IPC + objects are destroyed when the builder exits. + + - The UTS namespace ensures that builders see a hostname of + `localhost` rather than the actual hostname. + + - The private mount namespace was already used by Nix to ensure + that the bind-mounts used to set up the chroot are cleaned up + automatically. + + - Build logs are now compressed using `bzip2`. The command `nix-store + -l` decompresses them on the fly. This can be disabled by setting + the option `build-compress-log` to `false`. + + - The creation of build logs in `/nix/var/log/nix/drvs` can be + disabled by setting the new option `build-keep-log` to `false`. This + is useful, for instance, for Hydra build machines. + + - Nix now reserves some space in `/nix/var/nix/db/reserved` to ensure + that the garbage collector can run successfully if the disk is full. + This is necessary because SQLite transactions fail if the disk is + full. + + - Added a basic `fetchurl` function. This is not intended to replace + the `fetchurl` in Nixpkgs, but is useful for bootstrapping; e.g., it + will allow us to get rid of the bootstrap binaries in the Nixpkgs + source tree and download them instead. You can use it by doing + `import <nix/fetchurl.nix> { url = + url; sha256 = + "hash"; }`. (Shea Levy) + + - Improved RPM spec file. (Michel Alexandre Salim) + + - Support for on-demand socket-based activation in the Nix daemon with + `systemd`. + + - Added a manpage for nix.conf5. + + - When using the Nix daemon, the `-s` flag in `nix-env -qa` is now + much faster. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.10.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.10.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2bb859536 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.10.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +# Release 1.10 (2015-09-03) + +This is primarily a bug fix release. It also has a number of new +features: + + - A number of builtin functions have been added to reduce + Nixpkgs/NixOS evaluation time and memory consumption: `all`, `any`, + `concatStringsSep`, `foldl’`, `genList`, `replaceStrings`, `sort`. + + - The garbage collector is more robust when the disk is full. + + - Nix supports a new API for building derivations that doesn’t require + a `.drv` file to be present on disk; it only requires an in-memory + representation of the derivation. This is used by the Hydra + continuous build system to make remote builds more efficient. + + - The function `<nix/fetchurl.nix>` now uses a *builtin* builder (i.e. + it doesn’t require starting an external process; the download is + performed by Nix itself). This ensures that derivation paths don’t + change when Nix is upgraded, and obviates the need for ugly hacks to + support chroot execution. + + - `--version -v` now prints some configuration information, in + particular what compile-time optional features are enabled, and the + paths of various directories. + + - Build users have their supplementary groups set correctly. + +This release has contributions from Eelco Dolstra, Guillaume Maudoux, +Iwan Aucamp, Jaka Hudoklin, Kirill Elagin, Ludovic Courtès, Manolis +Ragkousis, Nicolas B. Pierron and Shea Levy. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.11.10.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.11.10.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d1efe1d0b --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.11.10.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +# Release 1.11.10 (2017-06-12) + +This release fixes a security bug in Nix’s “build user” build isolation +mechanism. Previously, Nix builders had the ability to create setuid +binaries owned by a `nixbld` user. Such a binary could then be used by +an attacker to assume a `nixbld` identity and interfere with subsequent +builds running under the same UID. + +To prevent this issue, Nix now disallows builders to create setuid and +setgid binaries. On Linux, this is done using a seccomp BPF filter. Note +that this imposes a small performance penalty (e.g. 1% when building GNU +Hello). Using seccomp, we now also prevent the creation of extended +attributes and POSIX ACLs since these cannot be represented in the NAR +format and (in the case of POSIX ACLs) allow bypassing regular Nix store +permissions. On macOS, the restriction is implemented using the existing +sandbox mechanism, which now uses a minimal “allow all except the +creation of setuid/setgid binaries” profile when regular sandboxing is +disabled. On other platforms, the “build user” mechanism is now +disabled. + +Thanks go to Linus Heckemann for discovering and reporting this bug. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.11.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.11.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..381887bd8 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.11.md @@ -0,0 +1,87 @@ +# Release 1.11 (2016-01-19) + +This is primarily a bug fix release. It also has a number of new +features: + + - `nix-prefetch-url` can now download URLs specified in a Nix + expression. For example, + + $ nix-prefetch-url -A hello.src + + will prefetch the file specified by the `fetchurl` call in the + attribute `hello.src` from the Nix expression in the current + directory, and print the cryptographic hash of the resulting file on + stdout. This differs from `nix-build -A + hello.src` in that it doesn't verify the hash, and is thus useful + when you’re updating a Nix expression. + + You can also prefetch the result of functions that unpack a tarball, + such as `fetchFromGitHub`. For example: + + $ nix-prefetch-url --unpack https://github.com/NixOS/patchelf/archive/0.8.tar.gz + + or from a Nix expression: + + $ nix-prefetch-url -A nix-repl.src + + - The builtin function `<nix/fetchurl.nix>` now supports downloading + and unpacking NARs. This removes the need to have multiple downloads + in the Nixpkgs stdenv bootstrap process (like a separate busybox + binary for Linux, or curl/mkdir/sh/bzip2 for Darwin). Now all those + files can be combined into a single NAR, optionally compressed using + `xz`. + + - Nix now supports SHA-512 hashes for verifying fixed-output + derivations, and in `builtins.hashString`. + + - The new flag `--option build-repeat + N` will cause every build to be executed N+1 times. If the build + output differs between any round, the build is rejected, and the + output paths are not registered as valid. This is primarily useful + to verify build determinism. (We already had a `--check` option to + repeat a previously succeeded build. However, with `--check`, + non-deterministic builds are registered in the DB. Preventing that + is useful for Hydra to ensure that non-deterministic builds don't + end up getting published to the binary cache.) + + - The options `--check` and `--option + build-repeat N`, if they detect a difference between two runs of the + same derivation and `-K` is given, will make the output of the other + run available under `store-path-check`. This makes it easier to + investigate the non-determinism using tools like `diffoscope`, e.g., + + $ nix-build pkgs/stdenv/linux -A stage1.pkgs.zlib --check -K + error: derivation ‘/nix/store/l54i8wlw2265…-zlib-1.2.8.drv’ may not + be deterministic: output ‘/nix/store/11a27shh6n2i…-zlib-1.2.8’ + differs from ‘/nix/store/11a27shh6n2i…-zlib-1.2.8-check’ + + $ diffoscope /nix/store/11a27shh6n2i…-zlib-1.2.8 /nix/store/11a27shh6n2i…-zlib-1.2.8-check + … + ├── lib/libz.a + │ ├── metadata + │ │ @@ -1,15 +1,15 @@ + │ │ -rw-r--r-- 30001/30000 3096 Jan 12 15:20 2016 adler32.o + … + │ │ +rw-r--r-- 30001/30000 3096 Jan 12 15:28 2016 adler32.o + … + + - Improved FreeBSD support. + + - `nix-env -qa --xml --meta` now prints license information. + + - The maximum number of parallel TCP connections that the binary cache + substituter will use has been decreased from 150 to 25. This should + prevent upsetting some broken NAT routers, and also improves + performance. + + - All "chroot"-containing strings got renamed to "sandbox". In + particular, some Nix options got renamed, but the old names are + still accepted as lower-priority aliases. + +This release has contributions from Anders Claesson, Anthony Cowley, +Bjørn Forsman, Brian McKenna, Danny Wilson, davidak, Eelco Dolstra, +Fabian Schmitthenner, FrankHB, Ilya Novoselov, janus, Jim Garrison, John +Ericson, Jude Taylor, Ludovic Courtès, Manuel Jacob, Mathnerd314, Pascal +Wittmann, Peter Simons, Philip Potter, Preston Bennes, Rommel M. +Martinez, Sander van der Burg, Shea Levy, Tim Cuthbertson, Tuomas +Tynkkynen, Utku Demir and Vladimír Čunát. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.2.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e62b2dac9 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.2.md @@ -0,0 +1,97 @@ +# Release 1.2 (2012-12-06) + +This release has the following improvements and changes: + + - Nix has a new binary substituter mechanism: the *binary cache*. A + binary cache contains pre-built binaries of Nix packages. Whenever + Nix wants to build a missing Nix store path, it will check a set of + binary caches to see if any of them has a pre-built binary of that + path. The configuration setting `binary-caches` contains a list of + URLs of binary caches. For instance, doing + + $ nix-env -i thunderbird --option binary-caches http://cache.nixos.org + + will install Thunderbird and its dependencies, using the available + pre-built binaries in <http://cache.nixos.org>. The main advantage + over the old “manifest”-based method of getting pre-built binaries + is that you don’t have to worry about your manifest being in sync + with the Nix expressions you’re installing from; i.e., you don’t + need to run `nix-pull` to update your manifest. It’s also more + scalable because you don’t need to redownload a giant manifest file + every time. + + A Nix channel can provide a binary cache URL that will be used + automatically if you subscribe to that channel. If you use the + Nixpkgs or NixOS channels (<http://nixos.org/channels>) you + automatically get the cache <http://cache.nixos.org>. + + Binary caches are created using `nix-push`. For details on the + operation and format of binary caches, see the `nix-push` manpage. + More details are provided in [this nix-dev + posting](https://nixos.org/nix-dev/2012-September/009826.html). + + - Multiple output support should now be usable. A derivation can + declare that it wants to produce multiple store paths by saying + something like + + outputs = [ "lib" "headers" "doc" ]; + + This will cause Nix to pass the intended store path of each output + to the builder through the environment variables `lib`, `headers` + and `doc`. Other packages can refer to a specific output by + referring to `pkg.output`, e.g. + + buildInputs = [ pkg.lib pkg.headers ]; + + If you install a package with multiple outputs using `nix-env`, each + output path will be symlinked into the user environment. + + - Dashes are now valid as part of identifiers and attribute names. + + - The new operation `nix-store --repair-path` allows corrupted or + missing store paths to be repaired by redownloading them. `nix-store + --verify --check-contents + --repair` will scan and repair all paths in the Nix store. + Similarly, `nix-env`, `nix-build`, `nix-instantiate` and `nix-store + --realise` have a `--repair` flag to detect and fix bad paths by + rebuilding or redownloading them. + + - Nix no longer sets the immutable bit on files in the Nix store. + Instead, the recommended way to guard the Nix store against + accidental modification on Linux is to make it a read-only bind + mount, like this: + + $ mount --bind /nix/store /nix/store + $ mount -o remount,ro,bind /nix/store + + Nix will automatically make `/nix/store` writable as needed (using a + private mount namespace) to allow modifications. + + - Store optimisation (replacing identical files in the store with hard + links) can now be done automatically every time a path is added to + the store. This is enabled by setting the configuration option + `auto-optimise-store` to `true` (disabled by default). + + - Nix now supports `xz` compression for NARs in addition to `bzip2`. + It compresses about 30% better on typical archives and decompresses + about twice as fast. + + - Basic Nix expression evaluation profiling: setting the environment + variable NIX\_COUNT\_CALLS to `1` will cause Nix to print how many + times each primop or function was executed. + + - New primops: `concatLists`, `elem`, `elemAt` and `filter`. + + - The command `nix-copy-closure` has a new flag `--use-substitutes` + (`-s`) to download missing paths on the target machine using the + substitute mechanism. + + - The command `nix-worker` has been renamed to `nix-daemon`. Support + for running the Nix worker in “slave” mode has been removed. + + - The `--help` flag of every Nix command now invokes `man`. + + - Chroot builds are now supported on systemd machines. + +This release has contributions from Eelco Dolstra, Florian Friesdorf, +Mats Erik Andersson and Shea Levy. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.3.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0c7b48380 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.3.md @@ -0,0 +1,10 @@ +# Release 1.3 (2013-01-04) + +This is primarily a bug fix release. When this version is first run on +Linux, it removes any immutable bits from the Nix store and increases +the schema version of the Nix store. (The previous release removed +support for setting the immutable bit; this release clears any remaining +immutable bits to make certain operations more efficient.) + +This release has contributions from Eelco Dolstra and Stuart +Pernsteiner. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.4.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d6d2227f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.4.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +# Release 1.4 (2013-02-26) + +This release fixes a security bug in multi-user operation. It was +possible for derivations to cause the mode of files outside of the Nix +store to be changed to 444 (read-only but world-readable) by creating +hard links to those files +([details](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/5526a282b5b44e9296e61e07d7d2626a79141ac4)). + +There are also the following improvements: + + - New built-in function: `builtins.hashString`. + + - Build logs are now stored in `/nix/var/log/nix/drvs/XX/`, where XX + is the first two characters of the derivation. This is useful on + machines that keep a lot of build logs (such as Hydra servers). + + - The function `corepkgs/fetchurl` can now make the downloaded file + executable. This will allow getting rid of all bootstrap binaries in + the Nixpkgs source tree. + + - Language change: The expression `"${./path} + ..."` now evaluates to a string instead of a path. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.5.1.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.5.1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..72b29518e --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.5.1.md @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +# Release 1.5.1 (2013-02-28) + +The bug fix to the bug fix had a bug itself, of course. But this time it +will work for sure\! diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.5.2.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.5.2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..508580554 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.5.2.md @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +# Release 1.5.2 (2013-05-13) + +This is primarily a bug fix release. It has contributions from Eelco +Dolstra, Lluís Batlle i Rossell and Shea Levy. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.5.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d2ccf8a5d --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.5.md @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +# Release 1.5 (2013-02-27) + +This is a brown paper bag release to fix a regression introduced by the +hard link security fix in 1.4. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.6.1.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.6.1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ed974fe0b --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.6.1.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +# Release 1.6.1 (2013-10-28) + +This is primarily a bug fix release. Changes of interest are: + + - Nix 1.6 accidentally changed the semantics of antiquoted paths in + strings, such as `"${/foo}/bar"`. This release reverts to the Nix + 1.5.3 behaviour. + + - Previously, Nix optimised expressions such as `"${expr}"` to expr. + Thus it neither checked whether expr could be coerced to a string, + nor applied such coercions. This meant that `"${123}"` evaluatued to + `123`, and `"${./foo}"` evaluated to `./foo` (even though `"${./foo} + "` evaluates to `"/nix/store/hash-foo "`). Nix now checks the type + of antiquoted expressions and applies coercions. + + - Nix now shows the exact position of undefined variables. In + particular, undefined variable errors in a `with` previously didn't + show *any* position information, so this makes it a lot easier to + fix such errors. + + - Undefined variables are now treated consistently. Previously, the + `tryEval` function would catch undefined variables inside a `with` + but not outside. Now `tryEval` never catches undefined variables. + + - Bash completion in `nix-shell` now works correctly. + + - Stack traces are less verbose: they no longer show calls to builtin + functions and only show a single line for each derivation on the + call stack. + + - New built-in function: `builtins.typeOf`, which returns the type of + its argument as a string. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.6.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a4583f4e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.6.md @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ +# Release 1.6 (2013-09-10) + +In addition to the usual bug fixes, this release has several new +features: + + - The command `nix-build --run-env` has been renamed to `nix-shell`. + + - `nix-shell` now sources `$stdenv/setup` *inside* the interactive + shell, rather than in a parent shell. This ensures that shell + functions defined by `stdenv` can be used in the interactive shell. + + - `nix-shell` has a new flag `--pure` to clear the environment, so you + get an environment that more closely corresponds to the “real” Nix + build. + + - `nix-shell` now sets the shell prompt (PS1) to ensure that Nix + shells are distinguishable from your regular shells. + + - `nix-env` no longer requires a `*` argument to match all packages, + so `nix-env -qa` is equivalent to `nix-env + -qa '*'`. + + - `nix-env -i` has a new flag `--remove-all` (`-r`) to remove all + previous packages from the profile. This makes it easier to do + declarative package management similar to NixOS’s + `environment.systemPackages`. For instance, if you have a + specification `my-packages.nix` like this: + + with import <nixpkgs> {}; + [ thunderbird + geeqie + ... + ] + + then after any change to this file, you can run: + + $ nix-env -f my-packages.nix -ir + + to update your profile to match the specification. + + - The ‘`with`’ language construct is now more lazy. It only evaluates + its argument if a variable might actually refer to an attribute in + the argument. For instance, this now works: + + let + pkgs = with pkgs; { foo = "old"; bar = foo; } // overrides; + overrides = { foo = "new"; }; + in pkgs.bar + + This evaluates to `"new"`, while previously it gave an “infinite + recursion” error. + + - Nix now has proper integer arithmetic operators. For instance, you + can write `x + y` instead of `builtins.add x y`, or `x < + y` instead of `builtins.lessThan x y`. The comparison operators also + work on strings. + + - On 64-bit systems, Nix integers are now 64 bits rather than 32 bits. + + - When using the Nix daemon, the `nix-daemon` worker process now runs + on the same CPU as the client, on systems that support setting CPU + affinity. This gives a significant speedup on some systems. + + - If a stack overflow occurs in the Nix evaluator, you now get a + proper error message (rather than “Segmentation fault”) on some + systems. + + - In addition to directories, you can now bind-mount regular files in + chroots through the (now misnamed) option `build-chroot-dirs`. + +This release has contributions from Domen Kožar, Eelco Dolstra, Florian +Friesdorf, Gergely Risko, Ivan Kozik, Ludovic Courtès and Shea Levy. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.7.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..71a327ed6 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.7.md @@ -0,0 +1,140 @@ +# Release 1.7 (2014-04-11) + +In addition to the usual bug fixes, this release has the following new +features: + + - Antiquotation is now allowed inside of quoted attribute names (e.g. + `set."${foo}"`). In the case where the attribute name is just a + single antiquotation, the quotes can be dropped (e.g. the above + example can be written `set.${foo}`). If an attribute name inside of + a set declaration evaluates to `null` (e.g. `{ ${null} = false; }`), + then that attribute is not added to the set. + + - Experimental support for cryptographically signed binary caches. See + [the commit for + details](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/0fdf4da0e979f992db75cc17376e455ddc5a96d8). + + - An experimental new substituter, `download-via-ssh`, that fetches + binaries from remote machines via SSH. Specifying the flags + `--option + use-ssh-substituter true --option ssh-substituter-hosts + user@hostname` will cause Nix to download binaries from the + specified machine, if it has them. + + - `nix-store -r` and `nix-build` have a new flag, `--check`, that + builds a previously built derivation again, and prints an error + message if the output is not exactly the same. This helps to verify + whether a derivation is truly deterministic. For example: + + $ nix-build '<nixpkgs>' -A patchelf + … + $ nix-build '<nixpkgs>' -A patchelf --check + … + error: derivation `/nix/store/1ipvxs…-patchelf-0.6' may not be deterministic: + hash mismatch in output `/nix/store/4pc1dm…-patchelf-0.6.drv' + + - The `nix-instantiate` flags `--eval-only` and `--parse-only` have + been renamed to `--eval` and `--parse`, respectively. + + - `nix-instantiate`, `nix-build` and `nix-shell` now have a flag + `--expr` (or `-E`) that allows you to specify the expression to be + evaluated as a command line argument. For instance, `nix-instantiate + --eval -E + '1 + 2'` will print `3`. + + - `nix-shell` improvements: + + - It has a new flag, `--packages` (or `-p`), that sets up a build + environment containing the specified packages from Nixpkgs. For + example, the command + + $ nix-shell -p sqlite xorg.libX11 hello + + will start a shell in which the given packages are present. + + - It now uses `shell.nix` as the default expression, falling back + to `default.nix` if the former doesn’t exist. This makes it + convenient to have a `shell.nix` in your project to set up a + nice development environment. + + - It evaluates the derivation attribute `shellHook`, if set. Since + `stdenv` does not normally execute this hook, it allows you to + do `nix-shell`-specific setup. + + - It preserves the user’s timezone setting. + + - In chroots, Nix now sets up a `/dev` containing only a minimal set + of devices (such as `/dev/null`). Note that it only does this if you + *don’t* have `/dev` listed in your `build-chroot-dirs` setting; + otherwise, it will bind-mount the `/dev` from outside the chroot. + + Similarly, if you don’t have `/dev/pts` listed in + `build-chroot-dirs`, Nix will mount a private `devpts` filesystem on + the chroot’s `/dev/pts`. + + - New built-in function: `builtins.toJSON`, which returns a JSON + representation of a value. + + - `nix-env -q` has a new flag `--json` to print a JSON representation + of the installed or available packages. + + - `nix-env` now supports meta attributes with more complex values, + such as attribute sets. + + - The `-A` flag now allows attribute names with dots in them, e.g. + + $ nix-instantiate --eval '<nixos>' -A 'config.systemd.units."nscd.service".text' + + - The `--max-freed` option to `nix-store --gc` now accepts a unit + specifier. For example, `nix-store --gc --max-freed + 1G` will free up to 1 gigabyte of disk space. + + - `nix-collect-garbage` has a new flag `--delete-older-than` N`d`, + which deletes all user environment generations older than N days. + Likewise, `nix-env + --delete-generations` accepts a N`d` age limit. + + - Nix now heuristically detects whether a build failure was due to a + disk-full condition. In that case, the build is not flagged as + “permanently failed”. This is mostly useful for Hydra, which needs + to distinguish between permanent and transient build failures. + + - There is a new symbol `__curPos` that expands to an attribute set + containing its file name and line and column numbers, e.g. `{ file = + "foo.nix"; line = 10; + column = 5; }`. There also is a new builtin function, + `unsafeGetAttrPos`, that returns the position of an attribute. This + is used by Nixpkgs to provide location information in error + messages, e.g. + + $ nix-build '<nixpkgs>' -A libreoffice --argstr system x86_64-darwin + error: the package ‘libreoffice-4.0.5.2’ in ‘.../applications/office/libreoffice/default.nix:263’ + is not supported on ‘x86_64-darwin’ + + - The garbage collector is now more concurrent with other Nix + processes because it releases certain locks earlier. + + - The binary tarball installer has been improved. You can now install + Nix by running: + + $ bash <(curl https://nixos.org/nix/install) + + - More evaluation errors include position information. For instance, + selecting a missing attribute will print something like + + error: attribute `nixUnstabl' missing, at /etc/nixos/configurations/misc/eelco/mandark.nix:216:15 + + - The command `nix-setuid-helper` is gone. + + - Nix no longer uses Automake, but instead has a non-recursive, GNU + Make-based build system. + + - All installed libraries now have the prefix `libnix`. In particular, + this gets rid of `libutil`, which could clash with libraries with + the same name from other packages. + + - Nix now requires a compiler that supports C++11. + +This release has contributions from Danny Wilson, Domen Kožar, Eelco +Dolstra, Ian-Woo Kim, Ludovic Courtès, Maxim Ivanov, Petr Rockai, +Ricardo M. Correia and Shea Levy. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.8.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..10a82d52a --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.8.md @@ -0,0 +1,88 @@ +# Release 1.8 (2014-12-14) + + - Breaking change: to address a race condition, the remote build hook + mechanism now uses `nix-store + --serve` on the remote machine. This requires build slaves to be + updated to Nix 1.8. + + - Nix now uses HTTPS instead of HTTP to access the default binary + cache, `cache.nixos.org`. + + - `nix-env` selectors are now regular expressions. For instance, you + can do + + $ nix-env -qa '.*zip.*' + + to query all packages with a name containing `zip`. + + - `nix-store --read-log` can now fetch remote build logs. If a build + log is not available locally, then ‘nix-store -l’ will now try to + download it from the servers listed in the ‘log-servers’ option in + nix.conf. For instance, if you have the configuration option + + log-servers = http://hydra.nixos.org/log + + then it will try to get logs from `http://hydra.nixos.org/log/base + name of the + store path`. This allows you to do things like: + + $ nix-store -l $(which xterm) + + and get a log even if `xterm` wasn't built locally. + + - New builtin functions: `attrValues`, `deepSeq`, `fromJSON`, + `readDir`, `seq`. + + - `nix-instantiate --eval` now has a `--json` flag to print the + resulting value in JSON format. + + - `nix-copy-closure` now uses `nix-store --serve` on the remote side + to send or receive closures. This fixes a race condition between + `nix-copy-closure` and the garbage collector. + + - Derivations can specify the new special attribute + `allowedRequisites`, which has a similar meaning to + `allowedReferences`. But instead of only enforcing to explicitly + specify the immediate references, it requires the derivation to + specify all the dependencies recursively (hence the name, + requisites) that are used by the resulting output. + + - On Mac OS X, Nix now handles case collisions when importing closures + from case-sensitive file systems. This is mostly useful for running + NixOps on Mac OS X. + + - The Nix daemon has new configuration options `allowed-users` + (specifying the users and groups that are allowed to connect to the + daemon) and `trusted-users` (specifying the users and groups that + can perform privileged operations like specifying untrusted binary + caches). + + - The configuration option `build-cores` now defaults to the number of + available CPU cores. + + - Build users are now used by default when Nix is invoked as root. + This prevents builds from accidentally running as root. + + - Nix now includes systemd units and Upstart jobs. + + - Speed improvements to `nix-store + --optimise`. + + - Language change: the `==` operator now ignores string contexts (the + “dependencies” of a string). + + - Nix now filters out Nix-specific ANSI escape sequences on standard + error. They are supposed to be invisible, but some terminals show + them anyway. + + - Various commands now automatically pipe their output into the pager + as specified by the PAGER environment variable. + + - Several improvements to reduce memory consumption in the evaluator. + +This release has contributions from Adam Szkoda, Aristid Breitkreuz, Bob +van der Linden, Charles Strahan, darealshinji, Eelco Dolstra, Gergely +Risko, Joel Taylor, Ludovic Courtès, Marko Durkovic, Mikey Ariel, Paul +Colomiets, Ricardo M. Correia, Ricky Elrod, Robert Helgesson, Rob +Vermaas, Russell O'Connor, Shea Levy, Shell Turner, Sönke Hahn, Steve +Purcell, Vladimír Čunát and Wout Mertens. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.9.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.9.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..01b067aab --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-1.9.md @@ -0,0 +1,143 @@ +# Release 1.9 (2015-06-12) + +In addition to the usual bug fixes, this release has the following new +features: + + - Signed binary cache support. You can enable signature checking by + adding the following to `nix.conf`: + + signed-binary-caches = * + binary-cache-public-keys = cache.nixos.org-1:6NCHdD59X431o0gWypbMrAURkbJ16ZPMQFGspcDShjY= + + This will prevent Nix from downloading any binary from the cache + that is not signed by one of the keys listed in + `binary-cache-public-keys`. + + Signature checking is only supported if you built Nix with the + `libsodium` package. + + Note that while Nix has had experimental support for signed binary + caches since version 1.7, this release changes the signature format + in a backwards-incompatible way. + + - Automatic downloading of Nix expression tarballs. In various places, + you can now specify the URL of a tarball containing Nix expressions + (such as Nixpkgs), which will be downloaded and unpacked + automatically. For example: + + - In `nix-env`: + + $ nix-env -f https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs-channels/archive/nixos-14.12.tar.gz -iA firefox + + This installs Firefox from the latest tested and built revision + of the NixOS 14.12 channel. + + - In `nix-build` and `nix-shell`: + + $ nix-build https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/archive/master.tar.gz -A hello + + This builds GNU Hello from the latest revision of the Nixpkgs + master branch. + + - In the Nix search path (as specified via NIX\_PATH or `-I`). For + example, to start a shell containing the Pan package from a + specific version of Nixpkgs: + + $ nix-shell -p pan -I nixpkgs=https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs-channels/archive/8a3eea054838b55aca962c3fbde9c83c102b8bf2.tar.gz + + - In `nixos-rebuild` (on NixOS): + + $ nixos-rebuild test -I nixpkgs=https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs-channels/archive/nixos-unstable.tar.gz + + - In Nix expressions, via the new builtin function `fetchTarball`: + + with import (fetchTarball https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs-channels/archive/nixos-14.12.tar.gz) {}; … + + (This is not allowed in restricted mode.) + + - `nix-shell` improvements: + + - `nix-shell` now has a flag `--run` to execute a command in the + `nix-shell` environment, e.g. `nix-shell --run make`. This is + like the existing `--command` flag, except that it uses a + non-interactive shell (ensuring that hitting Ctrl-C won’t drop + you into the child shell). + + - `nix-shell` can now be used as a `#!`-interpreter. This allows + you to write scripts that dynamically fetch their own + dependencies. For example, here is a Haskell script that, when + invoked, first downloads GHC and the Haskell packages on which + it depends: + + #! /usr/bin/env nix-shell + #! nix-shell -i runghc -p haskellPackages.ghc haskellPackages.HTTP + + import Network.HTTP + + main = do + resp <- Network.HTTP.simpleHTTP (getRequest "http://nixos.org/") + body <- getResponseBody resp + print (take 100 body) + + Of course, the dependencies are cached in the Nix store, so the + second invocation of this script will be much faster. + + - Chroot improvements: + + - Chroot builds are now supported on Mac OS X (using its sandbox + mechanism). + + - If chroots are enabled, they are now used for all derivations, + including fixed-output derivations (such as `fetchurl`). The + latter do have network access, but can no longer access the host + filesystem. If you need the old behaviour, you can set the + option `build-use-chroot` to `relaxed`. + + - On Linux, if chroots are enabled, builds are performed in a + private PID namespace once again. (This functionality was lost + in Nix 1.8.) + + - Store paths listed in `build-chroot-dirs` are now automatically + expanded to their closure. For instance, if you want + `/nix/store/…-bash/bin/sh` mounted in your chroot as `/bin/sh`, + you only need to say `build-chroot-dirs = + /bin/sh=/nix/store/…-bash/bin/sh`; it is no longer necessary to + specify the dependencies of Bash. + + - The new derivation attribute `passAsFile` allows you to specify that + the contents of derivation attributes should be passed via files + rather than environment variables. This is useful if you need to + pass very long strings that exceed the size limit of the + environment. The Nixpkgs function `writeTextFile` uses this. + + - You can now use `~` in Nix file names to refer to your home + directory, e.g. `import + ~/.nixpkgs/config.nix`. + + - Nix has a new option `restrict-eval` that allows limiting what paths + the Nix evaluator has access to. By passing `--option restrict-eval + true` to Nix, the evaluator will throw an exception if an attempt is + made to access any file outside of the Nix search path. This is + primarily intended for Hydra to ensure that a Hydra jobset only + refers to its declared inputs (and is therefore reproducible). + + - `nix-env` now only creates a new “generation” symlink in + `/nix/var/nix/profiles` if something actually changed. + + - The environment variable NIX\_PAGER can now be set to override + PAGER. You can set it to `cat` to disable paging for Nix commands + only. + + - Failing `<...>` lookups now show position information. + + - Improved Boehm GC use: we disabled scanning for interior pointers, + which should reduce the “`Repeated + allocation of very large block`” warnings and associated retention + of memory. + +This release has contributions from aszlig, Benjamin Staffin, Charles +Strahan, Christian Theune, Daniel Hahler, Danylo Hlynskyi Daniel +Peebles, Dan Peebles, Domen Kožar, Eelco Dolstra, Harald van Dijk, Hoang +Xuan Phu, Jaka Hudoklin, Jeff Ramnani, j-keck, Linquize, Luca Bruno, +Michael Merickel, Oliver Dunkl, Rob Vermaas, Rok Garbas, Shea Levy, +Tobias Geerinckx-Rice and William A. Kennington III. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-2.0.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-2.0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0ce985b2f --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-2.0.md @@ -0,0 +1,557 @@ +# Release 2.0 (2018-02-22) + +The following incompatible changes have been made: + + - The manifest-based substituter mechanism + (`download-using-manifests`) has been + [removed](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/867967265b80946dfe1db72d40324b4f9af988ed). + It has been superseded by the binary cache substituter mechanism + since several years. As a result, the following programs have been + removed: + + - `nix-pull` + + - `nix-generate-patches` + + - `bsdiff` + + - `bspatch` + + - The “copy from other stores” substituter mechanism + (`copy-from-other-stores` and the NIX\_OTHER\_STORES environment + variable) has been removed. It was primarily used by the NixOS + installer to copy available paths from the installation medium. The + replacement is to use a chroot store as a substituter (e.g. + `--substituters /mnt`), or to build into a chroot store (e.g. + `--store /mnt --substituters /`). + + - The command `nix-push` has been removed as part of the effort to + eliminate Nix's dependency on Perl. You can use `nix copy` instead, + e.g. `nix copy + --to file:///tmp/my-binary-cache paths…` + + - The “nested” log output feature (`--log-type + pretty`) has been removed. As a result, `nix-log2xml` was also + removed. + + - OpenSSL-based signing has been + [removed](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/f435f8247553656774dd1b2c88e9de5d59cab203). + This feature was never well-supported. A better alternative is + provided by the `secret-key-files` and `trusted-public-keys` + options. + + - Failed build caching has been + [removed](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/8cffec84859cec8b610a2a22ab0c4d462a9351ff). + This feature was introduced to support the Hydra continuous build + system, but Hydra no longer uses it. + + - `nix-mode.el` has been removed from Nix. It is now [a separate + repository](https://github.com/NixOS/nix-mode) and can be installed + through the MELPA package repository. + +This release has the following new features: + + - It introduces a new command named `nix`, which is intended to + eventually replace all `nix-*` commands with a more consistent and + better designed user interface. It currently provides replacements + for some (but not all) of the functionality provided by `nix-store`, + `nix-build`, `nix-shell -p`, `nix-env -qa`, `nix-instantiate + --eval`, `nix-push` and `nix-copy-closure`. It has the following + major features: + + - Unlike the legacy commands, it has a consistent way to refer to + packages and package-like arguments (like store paths). For + example, the following commands all copy the GNU Hello package + to a remote machine: + + nix copy --to ssh://machine nixpkgs.hello + + nix copy --to ssh://machine /nix/store/0i2jd68mp5g6h2sa5k9c85rb80sn8hi9-hello-2.10 + + nix copy --to ssh://machine '(with import <nixpkgs> {}; hello)' + + By contrast, `nix-copy-closure` only accepted store paths as + arguments. + + - It is self-documenting: `--help` shows all available + command-line arguments. If `--help` is given after a subcommand, + it shows examples for that subcommand. `nix + --help-config` shows all configuration options. + + - It is much less verbose. By default, it displays a single-line + progress indicator that shows how many packages are left to be + built or downloaded, and (if there are running builds) the most + recent line of builder output. If a build fails, it shows the + last few lines of builder output. The full build log can be + retrieved using `nix + log`. + + - It + [provides](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/b8283773bd64d7da6859ed520ee19867742a03ba) + all `nix.conf` configuration options as command line flags. For + example, instead of `--option + http-connections 100` you can write `--http-connections 100`. + Boolean options can be written as `--foo` or `--no-foo` (e.g. + `--no-auto-optimise-store`). + + - Many subcommands have a `--json` flag to write results to stdout + in JSON format. + + > **Warning** + > + > Please note that the `nix` command is a work in progress and the + > interface is subject to change. + + It provides the following high-level (“porcelain”) subcommands: + + - `nix build` is a replacement for `nix-build`. + + - `nix run` executes a command in an environment in which the + specified packages are available. It is (roughly) a replacement + for `nix-shell + -p`. Unlike that command, it does not execute the command in a + shell, and has a flag (`-c`) that specifies the unquoted command + line to be executed. + + It is particularly useful in conjunction with chroot stores, + allowing Linux users who do not have permission to install Nix + in `/nix/store` to still use binary substitutes that assume + `/nix/store`. For example, + + nix run --store ~/my-nix nixpkgs.hello -c hello --greeting 'Hi everybody!' + + downloads (or if not substitutes are available, builds) the GNU + Hello package into `~/my-nix/nix/store`, then runs `hello` in a + mount namespace where `~/my-nix/nix/store` is mounted onto + `/nix/store`. + + - `nix search` replaces `nix-env + -qa`. It searches the available packages for occurrences of a + search string in the attribute name, package name or + description. Unlike `nix-env -qa`, it has a cache to speed up + subsequent searches. + + - `nix copy` copies paths between arbitrary Nix stores, + generalising `nix-copy-closure` and `nix-push`. + + - `nix repl` replaces the external program `nix-repl`. It provides + an interactive environment for evaluating and building Nix + expressions. Note that it uses `linenoise-ng` instead of GNU + Readline. + + - `nix upgrade-nix` upgrades Nix to the latest stable version. + This requires that Nix is installed in a profile. (Thus it won’t + work on NixOS, or if it’s installed outside of the Nix store.) + + - `nix verify` checks whether store paths are unmodified and/or + “trusted” (see below). It replaces `nix-store --verify` and + `nix-store + --verify-path`. + + - `nix log` shows the build log of a package or path. If the build + log is not available locally, it will try to obtain it from the + configured substituters (such as + [cache.nixos.org](cache.nixos.org), which now provides build + logs). + + - `nix edit` opens the source code of a package in your editor. + + - `nix eval` replaces `nix-instantiate --eval`. + + - `nix + why-depends` shows why one store path has another in its + closure. This is primarily useful to finding the causes of + closure bloat. For example, + + nix why-depends nixpkgs.vlc nixpkgs.libdrm.dev + + shows a chain of files and fragments of file contents that cause + the VLC package to have the “dev” output of `libdrm` in its + closure — an undesirable situation. + + - `nix path-info` shows information about store paths, replacing + `nix-store -q`. A useful feature is the option `--closure-size` + (`-S`). For example, the following command show the closure + sizes of every path in the current NixOS system closure, sorted + by size: + + nix path-info -rS /run/current-system | sort -nk2 + + - `nix optimise-store` replaces `nix-store --optimise`. The main + difference is that it has a progress indicator. + + A number of low-level (“plumbing”) commands are also available: + + - `nix ls-store` and `nix + ls-nar` list the contents of a store path or NAR file. The + former is primarily useful in conjunction with remote stores, + e.g. + + nix ls-store --store https://cache.nixos.org/ -lR /nix/store/0i2jd68mp5g6h2sa5k9c85rb80sn8hi9-hello-2.10 + + lists the contents of path in a binary cache. + + - `nix cat-store` and `nix + cat-nar` allow extracting a file from a store path or NAR file. + + - `nix dump-path` writes the contents of a store path to stdout in + NAR format. This replaces `nix-store --dump`. + + - `nix + show-derivation` displays a store derivation in JSON format. + This is an alternative to `pp-aterm`. + + - `nix + add-to-store` replaces `nix-store + --add`. + + - `nix sign-paths` signs store paths. + + - `nix copy-sigs` copies signatures from one store to another. + + - `nix show-config` shows all configuration options and their + current values. + + - The store abstraction that Nix has had for a long time to support + store access via the Nix daemon has been extended significantly. In + particular, substituters (which used to be external programs such as + `download-from-binary-cache`) are now subclasses of the abstract + `Store` class. This allows many Nix commands to operate on such + store types. For example, `nix path-info` shows information about + paths in your local Nix store, while `nix path-info --store + https://cache.nixos.org/` shows information about paths in the + specified binary cache. Similarly, `nix-copy-closure`, `nix-push` + and substitution are all instances of the general notion of copying + paths between different kinds of Nix stores. + + Stores are specified using an URI-like syntax, e.g. + <https://cache.nixos.org/> or <ssh://machine>. The following store + types are supported: + + - `LocalStore` (stori URI `local` or an absolute path) and the + misnamed `RemoteStore` (`daemon`) provide access to a local Nix + store, the latter via the Nix daemon. You can use `auto` or the + empty string to auto-select a local or daemon store depending on + whether you have write permission to the Nix store. It is no + longer necessary to set the NIX\_REMOTE environment variable to + use the Nix daemon. + + As noted above, `LocalStore` now supports chroot builds, + allowing the “physical” location of the Nix store (e.g. + `/home/alice/nix/store`) to differ from its “logical” location + (typically `/nix/store`). This allows non-root users to use Nix + while still getting the benefits from prebuilt binaries from + [cache.nixos.org](cache.nixos.org). + + - `BinaryCacheStore` is the abstract superclass of all binary + cache stores. It supports writing build logs and NAR content + listings in JSON format. + + - `HttpBinaryCacheStore` (`http://`, `https://`) supports binary + caches via HTTP or HTTPS. If the server supports `PUT` requests, + it supports uploading store paths via commands such as `nix + copy`. + + - `LocalBinaryCacheStore` (`file://`) supports binary caches in + the local filesystem. + + - `S3BinaryCacheStore` (`s3://`) supports binary caches stored in + Amazon S3, if enabled at compile time. + + - `LegacySSHStore` (`ssh://`) is used to implement remote builds + and `nix-copy-closure`. + + - `SSHStore` (`ssh-ng://`) supports arbitrary Nix operations on a + remote machine via the same protocol used by `nix-daemon`. + + - Security has been improved in various ways: + + - Nix now stores signatures for local store paths. When paths are + copied between stores (e.g., copied from a binary cache to a + local store), signatures are propagated. + + Locally-built paths are signed automatically using the secret + keys specified by the `secret-key-files` store option. + Secret/public key pairs can be generated using `nix-store + --generate-binary-cache-key`. + + In addition, locally-built store paths are marked as “ultimately + trusted”, but this bit is not propagated when paths are copied + between stores. + + - Content-addressable store paths no longer require signatures — + they can be imported into a store by unprivileged users even if + they lack signatures. + + - The command `nix verify` checks whether the specified paths are + trusted, i.e., have a certain number of trusted signatures, are + ultimately trusted, or are content-addressed. + + - Substitutions from binary caches + [now](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/ecbc3fedd3d5bdc5a0e1a0a51b29062f2874ac8b) + require signatures by default. This was already the case on + NixOS. + + - In Linux sandbox builds, we + [now](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/eba840c8a13b465ace90172ff76a0db2899ab11b) + use `/build` instead of `/tmp` as the temporary build directory. + This fixes potential security problems when a build accidentally + stores its TMPDIR in some security-sensitive place, such as an + RPATH. + + - *Pure evaluation mode*. With the `--pure-eval` flag, Nix enables a + variant of the existing restricted evaluation mode that forbids + access to anything that could cause different evaluations of the + same command line arguments to produce a different result. This + includes builtin functions such as `builtins.getEnv`, but more + importantly, *all* filesystem or network access unless a content + hash or commit hash is specified. For example, calls to + `builtins.fetchGit` are only allowed if a `rev` attribute is + specified. + + The goal of this feature is to enable true reproducibility and + traceability of builds (including NixOS system configurations) at + the evaluation level. For example, in the future, `nixos-rebuild` + might build configurations from a Nix expression in a Git repository + in pure mode. That expression might fetch other repositories such as + Nixpkgs via `builtins.fetchGit`. The commit hash of the top-level + repository then uniquely identifies a running system, and, in + conjunction with that repository, allows it to be reproduced or + modified. + + - There are several new features to support binary reproducibility + (i.e. to help ensure that multiple builds of the same derivation + produce exactly the same output). When `enforce-determinism` is set + to `false`, it’s [no + longer](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/8bdf83f936adae6f2c907a6d2541e80d4120f051) + a fatal error if build rounds produce different output. Also, a hook + named `diff-hook` is + [provided](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/9a313469a4bdea2d1e8df24d16289dc2a172a169) + to allow you to run tools such as `diffoscope` when build rounds + produce different output. + + - Configuring remote builds is a lot easier now. Provided you are not + using the Nix daemon, you can now just specify a remote build + machine on the command line, e.g. `--option builders + 'ssh://my-mac x86_64-darwin'`. The environment variable + NIX\_BUILD\_HOOK has been removed and is no longer needed. The + environment variable NIX\_REMOTE\_SYSTEMS is still supported for + compatibility, but it is also possible to specify builders in + `nix.conf` by setting the option `builders = + @path`. + + - If a fixed-output derivation produces a result with an incorrect + hash, the output path is moved to the location corresponding to the + actual hash and registered as valid. Thus, a subsequent build of the + fixed-output derivation with the correct hash is unnecessary. + + - `nix-shell` + [now](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/ea59f39326c8e9dc42dfed4bcbf597fbce58797c) + sets the `IN_NIX_SHELL` environment variable during evaluation and + in the shell itself. This can be used to perform different actions + depending on whether you’re in a Nix shell or in a regular build. + Nixpkgs provides `lib.inNixShell` to check this variable during + evaluation. + + - NIX\_PATH is now lazy, so URIs in the path are only downloaded if + they are needed for evaluation. + + - You can now use <channel:> as a short-hand for + <https://nixos.org/channels//nixexprs.tar.xz>. For example, + `nix-build channel:nixos-15.09 -A hello` will build the GNU Hello + package from the `nixos-15.09` channel. In the future, this may use + Git to fetch updates more efficiently. + + - When `--no-build-output` is given, the last 10 lines of the build + log will be shown if a build fails. + + - Networking has been improved: + + - HTTP/2 is now supported. This makes binary cache lookups [much + more + efficient](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/90ad02bf626b885a5dd8967894e2eafc953bdf92). + + - We now retry downloads on many HTTP errors, making binary caches + substituters more resilient to temporary failures. + + - HTTP credentials can now be configured via the standard `netrc` + mechanism. + + - If S3 support is enabled at compile time, <s3://> URIs are + [supported](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/9ff9c3f2f80ba4108e9c945bbfda2c64735f987b) + in all places where Nix allows URIs. + + - Brotli compression is now supported. In particular, + [cache.nixos.org](cache.nixos.org) build logs are now compressed + using Brotli. + + - `nix-env` + [now](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/b0cb11722626e906a73f10dd9a0c9eea29faf43a) + ignores packages with bad derivation names (in particular those + starting with a digit or containing a dot). + + - Many configuration options have been renamed, either because they + were unnecessarily verbose (e.g. `build-use-sandbox` is now just + `sandbox`) or to reflect generalised behaviour (e.g. `binary-caches` + is now `substituters` because it allows arbitrary store URIs). The + old names are still supported for compatibility. + + - The `max-jobs` option can + [now](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/7251d048fa812d2551b7003bc9f13a8f5d4c95a5) + be set to `auto` to use the number of CPUs in the system. + + - Hashes can + [now](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/c0015e87af70f539f24d2aa2bc224a9d8b84276b) + be specified in base-64 format, in addition to base-16 and the + non-standard base-32. + + - `nix-shell` now uses `bashInteractive` from Nixpkgs, rather than the + `bash` command that happens to be in the caller’s PATH. This is + especially important on macOS where the `bash` provided by the + system is seriously outdated and cannot execute `stdenv`’s setup + script. + + - Nix can now automatically trigger a garbage collection if free disk + space drops below a certain level during a build. This is configured + using the `min-free` and `max-free` options. + + - `nix-store -q --roots` and `nix-store --gc --print-roots` now show + temporary and in-memory roots. + + - Nix can now be extended with plugins. See the documentation of the + `plugin-files` option for more details. + +The Nix language has the following new features: + + - It supports floating point numbers. They are based on the C++ + `float` type and are supported by the existing numerical operators. + Export and import to and from JSON and XML works, too. + + - Derivation attributes can now reference the outputs of the + derivation using the `placeholder` builtin function. For example, + the attribute + + configureFlags = "--prefix=${placeholder "out"} --includedir=${placeholder "dev"}"; + + will cause the configureFlags environment variable to contain the + actual store paths corresponding to the `out` and `dev` outputs. + +The following builtin functions are new or extended: + + - `builtins.fetchGit` allows Git repositories to be fetched at + evaluation time. Thus it differs from the `fetchgit` function in + Nixpkgs, which fetches at build time and cannot be used to fetch Nix + expressions during evaluation. A typical use case is to import + external NixOS modules from your configuration, e.g. + + imports = [ (builtins.fetchGit https://github.com/edolstra/dwarffs + "/module.nix") ]; + + - Similarly, `builtins.fetchMercurial` allows you to fetch Mercurial + repositories. + + - `builtins.path` generalises `builtins.filterSource` and path + literals (e.g. `./foo`). It allows specifying a store path name that + differs from the source path name (e.g. `builtins.path { path = + ./foo; name = "bar"; + }`) and also supports filtering out unwanted files. + + - `builtins.fetchurl` and `builtins.fetchTarball` now support `sha256` + and `name` attributes. + + - `builtins.split` splits a string using a POSIX extended regular + expression as the separator. + + - `builtins.partition` partitions the elements of a list into two + lists, depending on a Boolean predicate. + + - `<nix/fetchurl.nix>` now uses the content-addressable tarball cache + at <http://tarballs.nixos.org/>, just like `fetchurl` in Nixpkgs. + (f2682e6e18a76ecbfb8a12c17e3a0ca15c084197) + + - In restricted and pure evaluation mode, builtin functions that + download from the network (such as `fetchGit`) are permitted to + fetch underneath a list of URI prefixes specified in the option + `allowed-uris`. + +The Nix build environment has the following changes: + + - Values such as Booleans, integers, (nested) lists and attribute sets + can + [now](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/6de33a9c675b187437a2e1abbcb290981a89ecb1) + be passed to builders in a non-lossy way. If the special attribute + `__structuredAttrs` is set to `true`, the other derivation + attributes are serialised in JSON format and made available to the + builder via the file .attrs.json in the builder’s temporary + directory. This obviates the need for `passAsFile` since JSON files + have no size restrictions, unlike process environments. + + [As a convenience to Bash + builders](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/2d5b1b24bf70a498e4c0b378704cfdb6471cc699), + Nix writes a script named .attrs.sh to the builder’s directory that + initialises shell variables corresponding to all attributes that are + representable in Bash. This includes non-nested (associative) + arrays. For example, the attribute `hardening.format = + true` ends up as the Bash associative array element + `${hardening[format]}`. + + - Builders can + [now](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/88e6bb76de5564b3217be9688677d1c89101b2a3) + communicate what build phase they are in by writing messages to the + file descriptor specified in NIX\_LOG\_FD. The current phase is + shown by the `nix` progress indicator. + + - In Linux sandbox builds, we + [now](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/a2d92bb20e82a0957067ede60e91fab256948b41) + provide a default `/bin/sh` (namely `ash` from BusyBox). + + - In structured attribute mode, `exportReferencesGraph` + [exports](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/c2b0d8749f7e77afc1c4b3e8dd36b7ee9720af4a) + extended information about closures in JSON format. In particular, + it includes the sizes and hashes of paths. This is primarily useful + for NixOS image builders. + + - Builds are + [now](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/21948deed99a3295e4d5666e027a6ca42dc00b40) + killed as soon as Nix receives EOF on the builder’s stdout or + stderr. This fixes a bug that allowed builds to hang Nix + indefinitely, regardless of timeouts. + + - The `sandbox-paths` configuration option can now specify optional + paths by appending a `?`, e.g. `/dev/nvidiactl?` will bind-mount + `/dev/nvidiactl` only if it exists. + + - On Linux, builds are now executed in a user namespace with UID 1000 + and GID 100. + +A number of significant internal changes were made: + + - Nix no longer depends on Perl and all Perl components have been + rewritten in C++ or removed. The Perl bindings that used to be part + of Nix have been moved to a separate package, `nix-perl`. + + - All `Store` classes are now thread-safe. `RemoteStore` supports + multiple concurrent connections to the daemon. This is primarily + useful in multi-threaded programs such as `hydra-queue-runner`. + +This release has contributions from Adrien Devresse, Alexander Ried, +Alex Cruice, Alexey Shmalko, AmineChikhaoui, Andy Wingo, Aneesh Agrawal, +Anthony Cowley, Armijn Hemel, aszlig, Ben Gamari, Benjamin Hipple, +Benjamin Staffin, Benno Fünfstück, Bjørn Forsman, Brian McKenna, Charles +Strahan, Chase Adams, Chris Martin, Christian Theune, Chris Warburton, +Daiderd Jordan, Dan Connolly, Daniel Peebles, Dan Peebles, davidak, +David McFarland, Dmitry Kalinkin, Domen Kožar, Eelco Dolstra, Emery +Hemingway, Eric Litak, Eric Wolf, Fabian Schmitthenner, Frederik +Rietdijk, Gabriel Gonzalez, Giorgio Gallo, Graham Christensen, Guillaume +Maudoux, Harmen, Iavael, James Broadhead, James Earl Douglas, Janus +Troelsen, Jeremy Shaw, Joachim Schiele, Joe Hermaszewski, Joel Moberg, +Johannes 'fish' Ziemke, Jörg Thalheim, Jude Taylor, kballou, Keshav +Kini, Kjetil Orbekk, Langston Barrett, Linus Heckemann, Ludovic Courtès, +Manav Rathi, Marc Scholten, Markus Hauck, Matt Audesse, Matthew Bauer, +Matthias Beyer, Matthieu Coudron, N1X, Nathan Zadoks, Neil Mayhew, +Nicolas B. Pierron, Niklas Hambüchen, Nikolay Amiantov, Ole Jørgen +Brønner, Orivej Desh, Peter Simons, Peter Stuart, Pyry Jahkola, regnat, +Renzo Carbonara, Rhys, Robert Vollmert, Scott Olson, Scott R. Parish, +Sergei Trofimovich, Shea Levy, Sheena Artrip, Spencer Baugh, Stefan +Junker, Susan Potter, Thomas Tuegel, Timothy Allen, Tristan Hume, Tuomas +Tynkkynen, tv, Tyson Whitehead, Vladimír Čunát, Will Dietz, wmertens, +Wout Mertens, zimbatm and Zoran Plesivčak. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-2.1.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-2.1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..08986ef9d --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-2.1.md @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +# Release 2.1 (2018-09-02) + +This is primarily a bug fix release. It also reduces memory consumption +in certain situations. In addition, it has the following new features: + + - The Nix installer will no longer default to the Multi-User + installation for macOS. You can still [instruct the installer to run + in multi-user mode](#sect-multi-user-installation). + + - The Nix installer now supports performing a Multi-User installation + for Linux computers which are running systemd. You can [select a + Multi-User installation](#sect-multi-user-installation) by passing + the `--daemon` flag to the installer: `sh <(curl + https://nixos.org/nix/install) --daemon`. + + The multi-user installer cannot handle systems with SELinux. If your + system has SELinux enabled, you can [force the installer to run in + single-user mode](#sect-single-user-installation). + + - New builtin functions: `builtins.bitAnd`, `builtins.bitOr`, + `builtins.bitXor`, `builtins.fromTOML`, `builtins.concatMap`, + `builtins.mapAttrs`. + + - The S3 binary cache store now supports uploading NARs larger than 5 + GiB. + + - The S3 binary cache store now supports uploading to S3-compatible + services with the `endpoint` option. + + - The flag `--fallback` is no longer required to recover from + disappeared NARs in binary caches. + + - `nix-daemon` now respects `--store`. + + - `nix run` now respects `nix-support/propagated-user-env-packages`. + +This release has contributions from Adrien Devresse, Aleksandr Pashkov, +Alexandre Esteves, Amine Chikhaoui, Andrew Dunham, Asad Saeeduddin, +aszlig, Ben Challenor, Ben Gamari, Benjamin Hipple, Bogdan Seniuc, Corey +O'Connor, Daiderd Jordan, Daniel Peebles, Daniel Poelzleithner, Danylo +Hlynskyi, Dmitry Kalinkin, Domen Kožar, Doug Beardsley, Eelco Dolstra, +Erik Arvstedt, Félix Baylac-Jacqué, Gleb Peregud, Graham Christensen, +Guillaume Maudoux, Ivan Kozik, John Arnold, Justin Humm, Linus +Heckemann, Lorenzo Manacorda, Matthew Justin Bauer, Matthew O'Gorman, +Maximilian Bosch, Michael Bishop, Michael Fiano, Michael Mercier, +Michael Raskin, Michael Weiss, Nicolas Dudebout, Peter Simons, Ryan +Trinkle, Samuel Dionne-Riel, Sean Seefried, Shea Levy, Symphorien Gibol, +Tim Engler, Tim Sears, Tuomas Tynkkynen, volth, Will Dietz, Yorick van +Pelt and zimbatm. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-2.2.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-2.2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3667a48dc --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-2.2.md @@ -0,0 +1,82 @@ +# Release 2.2 (2019-01-11) + +This is primarily a bug fix release. It also has the following changes: + + - In derivations that use structured attributes (i.e. that specify set + the `__structuredAttrs` attribute to `true` to cause all attributes + to be passed to the builder in JSON format), you can now specify + closure checks per output, e.g.: + + outputChecks."out" = { + # The closure of 'out' must not be larger than 256 MiB. + maxClosureSize = 256 * 1024 * 1024; + + # It must not refer to C compiler or to the 'dev' output. + disallowedRequisites = [ stdenv.cc "dev" ]; + }; + + outputChecks."dev" = { + # The 'dev' output must not be larger than 128 KiB. + maxSize = 128 * 1024; + }; + + - The derivation attribute `requiredSystemFeatures` is now enforced + for local builds, and not just to route builds to remote builders. + The supported features of a machine can be specified through the + configuration setting `system-features`. + + By default, `system-features` includes `kvm` if `/dev/kvm` exists. + For compatibility, it also includes the pseudo-features + `nixos-test`, `benchmark` and `big-parallel` which are used by + Nixpkgs to route builds to particular Hydra build machines. + + - Sandbox builds are now enabled by default on Linux. + + - The new command `nix doctor` shows potential issues with your Nix + installation. + + - The `fetchGit` builtin function now uses a caching scheme that puts + different remote repositories in distinct local repositories, rather + than a single shared repository. This may require more disk space + but is faster. + + - The `dirOf` builtin function now works on relative paths. + + - Nix now supports [SRI hashes](https://www.w3.org/TR/SRI/), allowing + the hash algorithm and hash to be specified in a single string. For + example, you can write: + + import <nix/fetchurl.nix> { + url = https://nixos.org/releases/nix/nix-2.1.3/nix-2.1.3.tar.xz; + hash = "sha256-XSLa0FjVyADWWhFfkZ2iKTjFDda6mMXjoYMXLRSYQKQ="; + }; + + instead of + + import <nix/fetchurl.nix> { + url = https://nixos.org/releases/nix/nix-2.1.3/nix-2.1.3.tar.xz; + sha256 = "5d22dad058d5c800d65a115f919da22938c50dd6ba98c5e3a183172d149840a4"; + }; + + In fixed-output derivations, the `outputHashAlgo` attribute is no + longer mandatory if `outputHash` specifies the hash. + + `nix hash-file` and `nix + hash-path` now print hashes in SRI format by default. They also use + SHA-256 by default instead of SHA-512 because that's what we use + most of the time in Nixpkgs. + + - Integers are now 64 bits on all platforms. + + - The evaluator now prints profiling statistics (enabled via the + NIX\_SHOW\_STATS and NIX\_COUNT\_CALLS environment variables) in + JSON format. + + - The option `--xml` in `nix-store + --query` has been removed. Instead, there now is an option + `--graphml` to output the dependency graph in GraphML format. + + - All `nix-*` commands are now symlinks to `nix`. This saves a bit of + disk space. + + - `nix repl` now uses `libeditline` or `libreadline`. diff --git a/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-2.3.md b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-2.3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a4bb6ebb0 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/manual/src/release-notes/rl-2.3.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +# Release 2.3 (2019-09-04) + +This is primarily a bug fix release. However, it makes some incompatible +changes: + + - Nix now uses BSD file locks instead of POSIX file locks. Because of + this, you should not use Nix 2.3 and previous releases at the same + time on a Nix store. + +It also has the following changes: + + - `builtins.fetchGit`'s `ref` argument now allows specifying an + absolute remote ref. Nix will automatically prefix `ref` with + `refs/heads` only if `ref` doesn't already begin with `refs/`. + + - The installer now enables sandboxing by default on Linux when the + system has the necessary kernel support. + + - The `max-jobs` setting now defaults to 1. + + - New builtin functions: `builtins.isPath`, `builtins.hashFile`. + + - The `nix` command has a new `--print-build-logs` (`-L`) flag to + print build log output to stderr, rather than showing the last log + line in the progress bar. To distinguish between concurrent builds, + log lines are prefixed by the name of the package. + + - Builds are now executed in a pseudo-terminal, and the TERM + environment variable is set to `xterm-256color`. This allows many + programs (e.g. `gcc`, `clang`, `cmake`) to print colorized log + output. + + - Add `--no-net` convenience flag. This flag disables substituters; + sets the `tarball-ttl` setting to infinity (ensuring that any + previously downloaded files are considered current); and disables + retrying downloads and sets the connection timeout to the minimum. + This flag is enabled automatically if there are no configured + non-loopback network interfaces. + + - Add a `post-build-hook` setting to run a program after a build has + succeeded. + + - Add a `trace-function-calls` setting to log the duration of Nix + function calls to stderr. |