diff --git a/doc/release-notes.xml b/doc/release-notes.xml index d447863b28e..09a1047835a 100644 --- a/doc/release-notes.xml +++ b/doc/release-notes.xml @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ This release of Nixpkgs requires Nix -0.10. +0.10 or higher. This release has the following improvements: @@ -24,8 +24,36 @@ xlink:href='http://nix.cs.uu.nl/dist/nix/nix-0.10/'>Nix override this by specifying a different system argument. - TODO: user configurability. Configuration file in - ~/.nixpkgs/config.nix. + Certain packages in Nixpkgs are now + user-configurable through a configuration file, i.e., without having + to edit the Nix expressions in Nixpkgs. For instance, the Firefox + provided in the Nixpkgs channel is built without the RealPlayer + plugin (for legal reasons). Previously, you could easily enable + RealPlayer support by editing the call to the Firefox function in + all-packages.nix, but such changes are not + respected when Firefox is subsequently updated through the Nixpkgs + channel. + + The Nixpkgs configuration file (found in + ~/.nixpkgs/config.nix or through the + NIXPKGS_CONFIG environment variable) is an attribute + set that contains configuration options that + all-packages.nix reads and uses for certain + packages. For instance, the following configuration file: + + +{ + firefox = { + enableRealPlayer = true; + }; +} + + persistently enables RealPlayer support in the Firefox + build. + + (Actually, firefox.enableRealPlayer is the + only configuration option currently available, + but more are sure to be added.) Support for new platforms: @@ -113,6 +141,24 @@ exult = import ../games/exult { + + It has also become much easier to experiment with + changes to the stdenv setup script (which notably + contains the generic builder). Since edits to + pkgs/stdenv/generic/setup.sh trigger a rebuild + of everything, this was formerly quite painful. + But now stdenv contains a function to + “regenerate” stdenv with a different setup + script, allowing the use of a different setup script for specific + packages: + + +pkg = import ... { + stdenv = stdenv.regenerate ./my-setup.sh; + ... +} + +