Most functions now take a StorePath argument rather than a Path (which
is just an alias for std::string). The StorePath constructor ensures
that the path is syntactically correct (i.e. it looks like
<store-dir>/<base32-hash>-<name>). Similarly, functions like
buildPaths() now take a StorePathWithOutputs, rather than abusing Path
by adding a '!<outputs>' suffix.
Note that the StorePath type is implemented in Rust. This involves
some hackery to allow Rust values to be used directly in C++, via a
helper type whose destructor calls the Rust type's drop()
function. The main issue is the dynamic nature of C++ move semantics:
after we have moved a Rust value, we should not call the drop function
on the original value. So when we move a value, we set the original
value to bitwise zero, and the destructor only calls drop() if the
value is not bitwise zero. This should be sufficient for most types.
Also lots of minor cleanups to the C++ API to make it more modern
(e.g. using std::optional and std::string_view in some places).
This adds a command 'nix make-content-addressable' that rewrites the
specified store paths into content-addressable paths. The advantage of
such paths is that 1) they can be imported without signatures; 2) they
can enable deduplication in cases where derivation changes do not
cause output changes (apart from store path hashes).
For example,
$ nix make-content-addressable -r nixpkgs.cowsay
rewrote '/nix/store/g1g31ah55xdia1jdqabv1imf6mcw0nb1-glibc-2.25-49' to '/nix/store/48jfj7bg78a8n4f2nhg269rgw1936vj4-glibc-2.25-49'
...
rewrote '/nix/store/qbi6rzpk0bxjw8lw6azn2mc7ynnn455q-cowsay-3.03+dfsg1-16' to '/nix/store/iq6g2x4q62xp7y7493bibx0qn5w7xz67-cowsay-3.03+dfsg1-16'
We can then copy the resulting closure to another store without
signatures:
$ nix copy --trusted-public-keys '' ---to ~/my-nix /nix/store/iq6g2x4q62xp7y7493bibx0qn5w7xz67-cowsay-3.03+dfsg1-16
In order to support self-references in content-addressable paths,
these paths are hashed "modulo" self-references, meaning that
self-references are zeroed out during hashing. Somewhat annoyingly,
this means that the NAR hash stored in the Nix database is no longer
necessarily equal to the output of "nix hash-path"; for
content-addressable paths, you need to pass the --modulo flag:
$ nix path-info --json /nix/store/iq6g2x4q62xp7y7493bibx0qn5w7xz67-cowsay-3.03+dfsg1-16 | jq -r .[].narHash
sha256:0ri611gdilz2c9rsibqhsipbfs9vwcqvs811a52i2bnkhv7w9mgw
$ nix hash-path --type sha256 --base32 /nix/store/iq6g2x4q62xp7y7493bibx0qn5w7xz67-cowsay-3.03+dfsg1-16
1ggznh07khq0hz6id09pqws3a8q9pn03ya3c03nwck1kwq8rclzs
$ nix hash-path --type sha256 --base32 /nix/store/iq6g2x4q62xp7y7493bibx0qn5w7xz67-cowsay-3.03+dfsg1-16 --modulo iq6g2x4q62xp7y7493bibx0qn5w7xz67
0ri611gdilz2c9rsibqhsipbfs9vwcqvs811a52i2bnkhv7w9mgw
* Buffer the HashSink. This speeds up hashing a bit because it
prevents lots of calls to the hash update functions (e.g. nix-hash
went from 9.3s to 8.7s of user time on the closure of my
/var/run/current-system).
bits, then encode them in a radix-32 representation (using digits
and letters except e, o, u, and t). This produces store paths like
/nix/store/4i0zb0z7f88mwghjirkz702a71dcfivn-aterm-2.3.1. The nice
thing about this is that the hash part of the file name is still 32
characters, as before with MD5.
(Of course, shortening SHA-256 to 160 bits makes it no better than
SHA-160 in theory, but hopefully it's a bit more resistant to
attacks; it's certainly a lot slower.)
Nix. This is to prevent Berkeley DB from becoming wedged.
Unfortunately it is not possible to throw C++ exceptions from a
signal handler. In fact, you can't do much of anything except
change variables of type `volatile sig_atomic_t'. So we set an
interrupt flag in the signal handler and check it at various
strategic locations in the code (by calling checkInterrupt()).
Since this is unlikely to cover all cases (e.g., (semi-)infinite
loops), sometimes SIGTERM may now be required to kill Nix.
path of the Nix expression to be used with the import, upgrade, and
query commands. For instance,
$ nix-env -I ~/nixpkgs/pkgs/system/i686-linux.nix
$ nix-env --query --available [aka -qa]
sylpheed-0.9.7
bison-1.875
pango-1.2.5
subversion-0.35.1
...
$ nix-env -i sylpheed
$ nix-env -u subversion
There can be only one default at a time.
* If the path to a Nix expression is a symlink, follow the symlink
prior to resolving relative path references in the expression.
Eelco Dolstra