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# 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>).
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