Release 2.8 (2022-04-19)
-
New experimental command:
nix fmt
, which applies a formatter defined by theformatter.<system>
flake output to the Nix expressions in a flake. -
Various Nix commands can now read expressions from standard input using
--file -
. -
New experimental builtin function
builtins.fetchClosure
that copies a closure from a binary cache at evaluation time and rewrites it to content-addressed form (if it isn't already). Likebuiltins.storePath
, this allows importing pre-built store paths; the difference is that it doesn't require the user to configure binary caches and trusted public keys.This function is only available if you enable the experimental feature
fetch-closure
. -
New experimental feature: impure derivations. These are derivations that can produce a different result every time they're built. Here is an example:
stdenv.mkDerivation { name = "impure"; __impure = true; # marks this derivation as impure buildCommand = "date > $out"; }
Running
nix build
twice on this expression will build the derivation twice, producing two different content-addressed store paths. Like fixed-output derivations, impure derivations have access to the network. Only fixed-output derivations and impure derivations can depend on an impure derivation. -
nix store make-content-addressable
has been renamed tonix store make-content-addressed
. -
The
nixosModule
flake output attribute has been renamed consistent with the.default
renames in Nix 2.7.nixosModule
→nixosModules.default
As before, the old output will continue to work, but
nix flake check
will issue a warning about it. -
nix run
is now stricter in what it accepts: members of theapps
flake output are now required to be apps (as defined in the manual), and members ofpackages
orlegacyPackages
must be derivations (not apps).