NEWS

   1                                                               -*- org -*-
   2 #+TITLE: Guix NEWS – history of user-visible changes
   3 #+STARTUP: content hidestars
   4
   5 Copyright © 2013, 2014 Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>
   6
   7   Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
   8   are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
   9   notice and this notice are preserved.
  10
  11 Please send Guix bug reports to bug-guix@gnu.org.
  12
  13 * Changes in 0.6 (since 0.5)
  14 ** Package management
  15 *** Default store directory changed to /gnu/store
  16
  17 Although it is still possible to configure Guix to use the old store
  18 directory, we recommend that you start with a fresh install to /gnu/store.
  19
  20 *** Substitutes from hydra.gnu.org must now be signed and authorized
  21 *** Support for offloading builds to other Guix machines over SSH
  22 *** New ‘guix archive’ command
  23 *** New ‘guix system’ command; it can currently build VM images
  24 *** ‘guix package’ accepts several arguments after -i, -r, and -u
  25 *** Updating a profile with ‘guix package’ is now noticeably faster
  26 *** ‘guix build’ can override a package’s source with the new ‘--with-source’
  27 *** ‘guix build’ has a new ‘--no-build-hook’ option
  28 *** ‘guix’ commands that build packages have a common set of options
  29 *** ‘guix hash’ has a new ‘--recursive’ option
  30 *** Daemon no longer bind-mounts the host’s /dev (improves reproducibility)
  31 ** Programming interfaces
  32 *** New (guix pk-crypto) and (guix pki) modules for public key cryptography
  33 *** New #:local-build? parameter for derivations that shouldn’t be offloaded
  34 *** (gnu system vm) has procedures to build VMs that share the host’s store
  35 *** New ‘text-file*’ procedure in (guix monads)
  36 *** System service definitions are now provided by the (guix services) modules
  37 *** New X and SLiM services in (gnu services xorg)
  38 *** New (guix git-download) and (guix svn-download) for git/svn checkouts
  39 ** GNU distribution
  40 *** 91 new packages
  41
  42 a2ps, asciidoc, aspell-dict-en, aspell-dict-eo, aspell-dict-es,
  43 aspell-dict-fr, aumix, bitlbee, bogofilter, boost, calcurse, clusterssh,
  44 corkscrew, cursynth, docbook-xml, docbook-xsl, elfutils, enscript, fftwf,
  45 fltk, fuse, gcc-toolchain, giflib, glade, gmime, gnome-desktop, gnubg, gnubik,
  46 gnumach-headers, gnunet, gnuplot, gnurl, gphoto2, gtkglext, guile-json,
  47 guile-reader-for-guile_2.0.11, gxmessage, hdf5, hurd-headers, inkscape, iotop,
  48 isc-dhcp, iso-codes, jnettop, libatomic-ops, libexif, libgphoto2, libmpcdec,
  49 libmpdclient, libotr, libpcap, libpeas, libpipeline, libtirpc, libwebsockets,
  50 ltrace, luajit, lynx, man-db, mc, mig, miniupnpc, moe, mpc123, mpd, ncdc,
  51 ncdu, ncmpc, neon, neon, octave, opus, paperkey, patchutils, perl-tk,
  52 perl-x11-protocol, pinentry, python2-element-tree, python2-pybugz, quilt,
  53 source-highlight, stalonetray, trueprint, ttf-dejavu, unionfs-fuse,
  54 unionfs-fuse-static, uucp, vera, windowmaker, xapian, xterm
  55
  56 *** 90 package updates
  57
  58 apl-1.3, autoconf-2.68, automake-1.14.1, bash-4.3, bash-light-4.3,
  59 bigloo-4.1a, binutils-2.24, binutils-static-stripped-tarball-2.24,
  60 coreutils-8.22, curl-7.35.0, ed-1.10, ffmpeg-2.1.4, file-5.18, freeipmi-1.4.1,
  61 gcc-4.8.2, gcc-4.8.2, gdb-7.7, gdbm-1.11, gettext-0.18.3.2, glib-2.39.1,
  62 glibc-2.19, glibc-stripped-tarball-2.19, global-6.2.12, glpk-4.54,
  63 gnu-pw-mgr-1.2, gnupg-1.4.16, gnutls-3.2.12, gp2c-0.0.8pl1, grep-2.18,
  64 gst-plugins-base-0.10.36, gstreamer-1.0.10, gtk+-3.10.1, gtkmm-2.24.2,
  65 guile-2.0.11, guile-ssh-0.6.0, guile-static-stripped-tarball-2.0.11,
  66 guile-wm-1.0, guile-xcb-1.3, guix-0.5, help2man-1.45.1, icu4c-52.1,
  67 imagemagick-6.8.8-10, inetutils-1.9.2, lapack-3.5.0, libcdio-0.92,
  68 libdrm-2.4.46, libextractor-1.3, libgc-7.2e, libgc-7.4.0, libgcrypt-1.6.1,
  69 libjpeg-9, libmicrohttpd-0.9.34, libssh-0.6.3, libtasn1-3.4, lightning-2.0.3,
  70 linux-libre-3.13.7, mpc-1.0.2, mutt-1.5.23, net-base-5.2, ocrad-0.23,
  71 openssh-6.6p1, openssl-1.0.1g, parallel-20140322, pari-gp-2.7.0, pspp-0.8.2,
  72 pulseaudio-5.0, python-2.7.6, python-3.3.5, python-wrapper-3.3.5,
  73 python2-pysqlite-2.6.3a, qemu-1.7.1, qemu-headless-1.7.1,
  74 qemu-with-multiple-smb-shares-1.7.1, qt-4.8.5, qt-5.2.0, readline-6.3,
  75 recutils-1.7, slim-1.3.6, sqlite-3.8.4.3, subversion-1.7.14, texinfo-4.13a,
  76 tor-0.2.4.21, tzdata-2014a, units-2.11, valgrind-3.9.0, vim-7.4, wget-1.15,
  77 xnee-3.18, xorriso-1.3.6.pl01, zile-2.4.11
  78
  79 *** New ‘gcc-toolchain’ meta-package, makes it easy to install a GCC tool chain
  80 *** libc’s Info manual is now installed
  81 *** Binutils is built with --enable-deterministic-archives
  82 *** Packages that populated man/man* now populate share/man/man*
  83 *** Many other packaging improvements
  84 ** Bugs fixed
  85 *** ‘guix pull’ consumes less memory, compiles in parallel
  86 *** ‘guix package --list-*’ gracefully handles EPIPE when used in a pipeline
  87 *** ‘guix package’ handles collisions between a symlink and a directory
  88     (http://bugs.gnu.org/17083)
  89 *** HTTP downloads provide a ‘User-Agent’ field (http://bugs.gnu.org/16703)
  90 *** ‘guix package’ no longer shows misleading installed package number
  91     (http://bugs.gnu.org/16484)
  92 *** Manual suggests ‘useradd --system’ (http://bugs.gnu.org/16289)
  93 *** Python is built with ctypes support (http://bugs.gnu.org/16569)
  94 *** HTTP/TLS connection not terminated properly (http://bugs.gnu.org/14884)
  95 *** Gracefully handle poorly behaved HTTP servers (http://bugs.gnu.org/15733)
  96
  97 * Changes in 0.5 (since 0.4)
  98 ** Package management
  99 *** GNU package descriptions synchronized with the ‘gnumaint’ repository
 100
 101 In addition to synopses, descriptions of GNU packages are now kept in sync
 102 with the ‘gnumaint’ repository, which is the canonical place for GNU package
 103 meta-data.
 104
 105 ** Programming interfaces
 106 *** Patches are now listed as part of ‘origin’
 107
 108 The ‘origin’ form supports two new fields: ‘patches’ (list of patches), and
 109 ‘snippet’ (code snippet to modify the source.)  These are applied when running
 110 ‘guix build --source’.  See “Defining Packages” in the manual.
 111
 112 *** New (guix monads) monadic interface to operate on the store
 113
 114 See “The Store Monad” in the manual.  The (gnu system …) modules have been
 115 rewritten to use this monadic interface.
 116
 117 *** New (guix profiles) module
 118
 119 It provides an API for dealing with profiles, as with the ‘guix package’
 120 command.
 121
 122 *** New (gnu system) module
 123
 124 This module provides a generic way to describe the system’s configuration,
 125 and to instantiate it, regardless of the final medium (QEMU image, etc.)
 126 See “System Configuration” in the manual.
 127
 128 This is work in progress.  Send feedback to guix-devel@gnu.org!
 129
 130 *** ‘build-expression->derivation’ uses more parameters
 131
 132 Some positional parameters have been changed to keyword parameters.
 133 See “Derivations” in the manual.
 134
 135 ** GNU distribution
 136 *** New port to the Loongson MIPS64 processors, n32 ABI (‘mips64el-linux’)
 137
 138 Bootstrap binaries have been built for that architecture, and several
 139 Loongson-specific patches not yet available upstream have been applied to core
 140 packages.  See “GNU Distribution” and “Porting” in the manual.
 141
 142 Pre-built binaries are not yet available via hydra.gnu.org, so Guix will
 143 build from source on this platform.
 144
 145 *** 110 new packages
 146
 147 acct, alive, alsa-utils, apl, at-spi2-atk, at-spi2-core, atkmm, autogen,
 148 automoc4, brasero, bridge-utils, cairomm, catkin, complexity, evince, ffmpeg,
 149 fftw, ftgl, gcc-objc, gcc-objc++, gccgo, gcl, gfortran, glibmm, glpk,
 150 gnome-icon-theme, gnu-pw-mgr, gp2c, gpgme, gsettings-desktop-schemas, gtkmm,
 151 gtksourceview, guile-ssh, guile-wm, gvpe, hicolor-icon-theme, httpd, icecat,
 152 icon-naming-utils, json-c, lapack, libcanberra, libcap, libgnome-keyring,
 153 libmikmod, libnl, libnotify, libsamplerate, libsigc++, libsndfile, libssh,
 154 libtheora, libxkbcommon, mercurial, mtools, netcat, pangomm, parallel,
 155 pavucontrol, pciutils, pem, perl-encode-locale, perl-file-list,
 156 perl-file-listing, perl-html-parser, perl-html-tagset, perl-http-cookies,
 157 perl-http-daemon, perl-http-date, perl-http-message, perl-http-negotiate,
 158 perl-io-html, perl-libwww, perl-libxml, perl-lwp-mediatypes, perl-net-http,
 159 perl-uri, perl-www-robotrules, perl-xml-dom, perl-xml-regexp, perl-xml-simple,
 160 phonon, powertop, pulseaudio, python2-dogtail, python2-empy, qemu-headless,
 161 qt, qt, raptor2, scons, sdl, sdl-gfx, sdl-image, sdl-mixer, sdl-net, sdl-ttf,
 162 sdl2, serveez, shared-mime-info, sharutils, skribilo, slim, soprano, swig,
 163 xcb-util, xcb-util-image, xcb-util-keysyms, xcb-util-renderutil, xcb-util-wm
 164
 165 *** 47 package updates
 166
 167 atk 2.10.0, bison 3.0.2, cmake 2.8.12, dmd 0.1, freeipmi 1.3.3, gcc 4.8.2,
 168 gcc 4.8.2, gcc-cross-mips64el-linux-gnuabi64 4.8.2, gcc-stripped-tarball 4.8.2,
 169 gdb 7.6.2, gettext 0.18.3.1, glib 2.38.0, global 6.2.9, gmp 5.1.3,
 170 gnupg 2.0.22, gobject-introspection 1.38.0, grep 2.15, gsl 1.16,
 171 gtk+ 2.24.21, gtk+ 3.10.1, guile 2.0.9, guile 2.0.9, guile-xcb 1.2,
 172 harfbuzz 0.9.22, hello 2.9, iproute2 3.12.0, libdrm 2.4.46,
 173 libextractor 1.2, libjpeg 9, libmicrohttpd 0.9.32, lightning 2.0.2,
 174 linux-libre 3.12, lzip 1.15, make 4.0, mit-krb5 1.11.3, pari-gp 2.5.5,
 175 pixman 0.32.4, python 3.3.2, qemu 1.6.1,
 176 qemu-with-multiple-smb-shares 1.6.1, rcs 5.9.2, recutils 1.6, rsync 3.1.0,
 177 tar 1.27.1, texinfo 5.2, units 2.02, xorriso 1.3.2
 178
 179 *** Packages are now built with GCC 4.8.2 by default (was 4.7.3)
 180
 181 ** Native language support
 182 *** New ‘sr’ (Serbian) translation
 183 *** New ‘vi’ (Vietnamese) translation
 184 *** Updated ‘pt_BR’ (Brazilian Portuguese) translation
 185 ** Bugs fixed
 186 *** ‘guix pull’ compiles Guix deterministically and correctly
 187
 188 Previously, the build environment was not cleared in between ‘compile-file’
 189 calls, leading to build errors due to Guile bug http://bugs.gnu.org/15602 .
 190
 191 *** ‘guix package’ allows removal of a specific package output
 192     (http://bugs.gnu.org/15756)
 193 *** ‘guix-daemon’ always sets umask to 022
 194     (http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-guix/2013-07/msg00033.html)
 195 *** Files referenced by environment variables are protected from GC
 196 *** Yet unbuilt packages get correctly installed (http://bugs.gnu.org/15283)
 197 *** ‘bootstrap-graph.{png,eps,pdf}’ built in srcdir (http://bugs.gnu.org/15640)
 198
 199 * Changes in 0.4 (since 0.3)
 200
 201 ** Package management
 202
 203 *** New ‘--list-generations’ and ‘--delete-generations’ options
 204
 205 The ‘guix package’ command has these two new options, which make it easier to
 206 deal with a profile’s generation.  See “Invoking guix package” in the manual.
 207
 208 *** New ‘guix-register’ program
 209
 210 This program allows the meta-data of a new store to be initialized, by
 211 copying info from an existing store.  It is mostly an internal tool.
 212
 213 ** Programming interfaces
 214
 215 *** New API to bootstrap Autotools-based packages
 216
 217 The (guix build-system gnu) has a new ‘dist-package’ procedure that takes a
 218 package object and source directory, and returns a new package object that
 219 runs ‘./bootstrap && make dist’ or anything similar.
 220
 221 *** ‘derivation’ and related procedures have a #:references-graphs parameter
 222
 223 This parameter instructs the build daemon to populate the derivation’s build
 224 tree with files containing the list of references of the given store files.
 225 This is useful to write code that copies a packages and all its dependencies
 226 to another storage device, such as a QEMU disk image.
 227
 228 *** Extended API to build a GNU system virtual machine image
 229
 230 The (gnu system vm) module has been augmented in many ways: the ‘qemu-image’
 231 procedure can now populate and initialize the image’s store; the new
 232 ‘system-qemu-image’ procedure returns a QEMU image that runs dmd as its init
 233 system, has ‘login’ running on several consoles, has a set of installed
 234 packages, and where Guix can be used.
 235
 236 New (gnu system …) modules have been added to handle the configuration of the
 237 various parts of a GNU/Linux system.  For instance, (gnu system dmd) provides
 238 support for instantiating dmd services; (gnu system linux) helps with Linux
 239 PAM configuration; and so on.
 240
 241 *** <derivation> objects supersede .drv file names in the API
 242
 243 ‘derivation’ and similar procedures no longer return two values (a
 244 <derivation> and a .drv file name); they now return a single value, which is
 245 a <derivation> object.  The <derivation> object embeds the corresponding .drv
 246 file name.  See “Derivations” in the manual for details.
 247
 248 ** GNU distribution
 249
 250 *** 60 new packages
 251
 252 apr, apr-util, cdparanoia, dbus-glib, dfc, dmd, dvdisaster, exiv2, fetchmail,
 253 freefont-ttf, freeglut, geeqie, git, gkrellm, glu, gnome-doc-utils,
 254 gst-plugins-base, gstreamer, guile-cairo, guile-lib, guile-xcb, guix, htop,
 255 itstool, lame, libextractor, libmicrohttpd, lightning, lzip, mingetty, mutt,
 256 net-base, net-tools, ocrad, pspp, python-babel, python-dateutil, python-pytz,
 257 python-setuptools, python-simplejson, python-wrapper, python2-babel,
 258 python2-dateutil, python2-mechanize, python2-pyicu, python2-pysqlite,
 259 python2-pytz, python2-setuptools, python2-simplejson, qemu-system-initrd,
 260 qemu-with-multiple-smb-shares, ripperx, shadow, ttf-bitstream-vera, units,
 261 valgrind, xmlto, xnee, yasm
 262
 263 *** 27 package updates
 264
 265 bigloo 4.0b, cairo 1.12.16, ddrescue 1.17, fontconfig 2.10.93, fplll 4.0.4,
 266 gcc 4.7.3, gcc 4.7.3, glibc 2.18, glibc 2.18, glibc-stripped-tarball 2.18,
 267 gnupg 2.0.21, gnutls 3.2.4, guile 2.0.9, guile 2.0.9, harfbuzz 0.9.21,
 268 imagemagick 6.8.6-9, libdrm 2.4.46, libgcrypt 1.5.3, libjpeg 9, libksba 1.3.0,
 269 linux-libre 3.11, m4 1.4.17, mpfrcx 0.4.2, pari-gp 2.5.4, python 2.7.5, python
 270 3.3.2, texlive 2013
 271
 272 *** Fontconfig font search path made more convenient
 273
 274 Fontconfig, the library used by many graphical applications, such as those
 275 based on GTK+, now knows where to find the default set of fonts.  Additional
 276 fonts installed in the user profile are automatically picked up.
 277
 278 *** More GUI applications
 279
 280 The ‘emacs’ and ‘racket’ packages are now linked against GTK+.  New GTK+
 281 applications have been added (see above.)
 282
 283 *** Packaging guidelines
 284
 285 The documentation of packaging guidelines has been augmented.  See the manual
 286 under “GNU Distribution”.
 287
 288 *** Support for Python 3 along with Python 2
 289
 290 Python 3 has been added to the distribution, and Python packages that support
 291 it are now built for both Python 2 and Python 3.  See the “Python Modules”
 292 section of the manual for details.
 293
 294 ** Internationalization
 295
 296 Updated translations: eo.
 297
 298 ** Bugs fixed
 299
 300 *** Workarounds for Guile 2.0.5 now work on Debian derivatives
 301 *** The dependency graph image has correct size in PDF output
 302 *** 'ldd' now works correctly on x86_64
 303 *** Xorg server test suite no longer fails (http://bugs.gnu.org/15392)
 304 *** module-init-tools now builds (http://bugs.gnu.org/15182, http://bugs.gnu.org/15187)
 305 *** Hop 2.4 builds with newer Bigloo (http://bugs.gnu.org/15194)
 306
 307 * Changes in 0.3 (since 0.2)
 308
 309 ** Package management
 310
 311 *** Cross-compilation support
 312
 313 Guix can now cross-build packages.  On the command-line, this is achieved with
 314 the new ‘--target’ command-line option of ‘guix build’.  At the Scheme level,
 315 the guts of this is the ‘package-cross-derivation’ procedure.  Core packages
 316 of the distribution can already be cross-compiled.  See the manual for
 317 details.
 318
 319 *** New ‘--max-silent-time’ option for “guix build” and “guix package”
 320
 321 See the manual for details.
 322
 323 *** New ‘--fallback’ option for “guix build” and “guix package”
 324
 325 This option instructs to fall back to local builds when the substituter fails
 326 to download a substitute.
 327
 328 *** New ‘--requisites’ option for “guix gc”
 329
 330 See the manual for details.
 331
 332 *** New ‘--key-download’ option for “guix refresh”
 333
 334 See the manual for details.
 335
 336 ** Programming interfaces
 337
 338 *** New ‘package-cross-derivation’ procedure in (guix derivations)
 339
 340 See the manual for details.
 341
 342 *** New ‘%current-target-system’ SRFI-39 parameter
 343
 344 This parameter is like ‘%current-system’, but for cross-compilation.  It
 345 allows code in package definitions (such as in the ‘arguments’ field) to know
 346 whether it is being cross-compiled, and what the target system is.
 347
 348 *** New (guix hash) module; new ‘open-sha256-port’ and ‘sha256-port’ procedures
 349
 350 This improves performance of SHA256 computations.
 351
 352
 353 ** GNU distribution
 354
 355 *** 33 new packages
 356
 357 alsa-lib, babel, cairo, cvs, gcal, gcc-cross-mips64el-linux-gnuabi64, gd,
 358 gdk-pixbuf, graphviz, grue-hunter, gtk+, gts, harfbuzz, imagemagick, iproute2,
 359 iptables, libspectre, mpg321, noweb, pango, plotutils, privoxy, pytz, racket,
 360 rubber, rush, strace, tk, torsocks, unrtf, vc-dwim, wordnet, xlockmore
 361
 362 *** 25 package updates
 363
 364 automake 1.14, ed 1.9, freeipmi 1.2.8, gawk 4.1.0, gcc 4.8.1, gettext 0.18.3,
 365 glib 2.37.1, gmp 5.1.2, gnutls 3.2.1, gzip 1.6, help2man 1.43.3, libapr 1.4.8,
 366 libaprutil 1.5.2, libassuan 2.1.1, libffi 3.0.13, libgc 7.2d, libgpg-error
 367 1.12, libidn 1.28, libpng 1.5.17, lout 3.40, lsh 2.1, nettle 2.7.1, qemu
 368 1.5.1, tzdata 2013d, xorriso 1.3.0
 369
 370 *** Binary packages now available for i686-linux
 371
 372 The build farm at http://hydra.gnu.org now provides 32-bit GNU/Linux binaries
 373 (i686-linux), in addition to the x86_64-linux binaries.  Both can be
 374 transparently used as substitutes for local builds on these platforms.
 375
 376 *** Debug info packages
 377
 378 Some packages now have a “debug” output containing debugging information.  The
 379 “debug” output can be used by GDB, and can be installed separately from the
 380 other outputs of the package.  See “Installing Debugging Files” in the manual.
 381
 382 *** Bootstrap binaries can be cross-compiled
 383
 384 The distribution can now be ported to new architectures (currently
 385 GNU/Linux-only) by cross-compiling the “bootstrap binaries”.  See “Porting”
 386 in the manual.
 387
 388 *** Bootstrapping documented
 389
 390 See “Bootstrapping” in the manual, for information on how the GNU
 391 distribution builds “from scratch”.
 392
 393 ** Internationalization
 394
 395 New translations: eo, pt_BR.
 396
 397 ** Bugs fixed
 398 *** “guix --help” now works when using Guile 2.0.5
 399 *** Binary substituter multi-threading and pipe issues fixed
 400
 401 These could lead to random substituter crashes while substituting a binary.
 402 See commits 0332386 and 101d9f3 for details.
 403
 404 *** Binary substituter gracefully handles lack of network connectivity
 405
 406 *** Daemon properly handles rebuilds of multiple-output derivations
 407
 408 Previously it would fail when rebuilding a multiple-output derivation when
 409 some (but not all) of its outputs were already present.  See
 410 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-guix/2013-06/msg00038.html and
 411 https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/122 .
 412
 413 *** ‘guix package -i foo:out’ no longer removes other outputs of ‘foo’
 414
 415 Previously only the ‘out’ output of package ‘foo’ would be kept in the
 416 profile.
 417
 418 *** Replacement (srfi srfi-37) provided if the user’s one is broken
 419
 420 When the user’s (srfi srfi-37) is affected by http://bugs.gnu.org/13176 (Guile
 421 < 2.0.9), a replacement with the bug fix is provided.  This bug would affect
 422 command-line argument processing in some cases.
 423
 424 * Changes in 0.2 (since 0.1)
 425
 426 ** Package management
 427
 428 *** Guix commands are now sub-commands of the “guix” program
 429
 430 Instead of typing “guix-package”, one now has to type “guix package”, and so
 431 on.  This has allowed us to homogenize the user interface and initial program
 432 setup, and to allow commands to be upgradable through “guix pull”.
 433
 434 *** New “guix package --upgrade” option
 435
 436 As the name implies, this option atomically upgrades all the packages
 437 installed in a profile or the set of packages matching a given regexp.
 438 See “Invoking guix package” in the manual.
 439
 440 *** New “guix package --search” option
 441
 442 Performs a full text search in package synopses and descriptions, and returns
 443 the matching packages in recutils format.  See “Invoking guix package” in the
 444 manual, for details.
 445
 446 *** New “guix pull” command
 447
 448 The command pulls the latest version of Guix–both the package management
 449 modules and the distribution.  See the manual for details.
 450
 451 *** New binary substituter
 452
 453 The “substituter” mechanism allows pre-built binaries to be transparently
 454 downloaded instead of performing a build locally.  Currently binaries are
 455 available for x86_64 Linux-based GNU systems from http://hydra.gnu.org.  The
 456 distribution is continuously built and binaries are made available from there.
 457
 458 See http://hydra.gnu.org/jobset/gnu/master under “Job status” for the list of
 459 available binary packages.
 460
 461 *** New “guix refresh” command
 462
 463 The command is used by Guix maintainers.  It automatically updates the
 464 distribution to the latest upstream releases of GNU software.
 465
 466 *** New “guix hash” command
 467
 468 Convenience command to compute the hash of a file.  See the manual for
 469 details.
 470
 471 *** Nix daemon code updated
 472
 473 The daemon code from Nix, used by the ‘guix-daemon’ command, has been updated
 474 to current Nix ‘master’.
 475
 476 ** Programming interfaces
 477
 478 *** (guix download) now supports HTTPS, using GnuTLS
 479
 480 It allows package source tarballs to be retrieved over HTTPS.
 481
 482 *** New ‘native-search-path’ and ‘search-path’ package fields
 483
 484 Packages can define in their ‘native-search-path’ field environment variables
 485 that define search paths and need to be set for proper functioning of the
 486 package.  For instance, GCC has ‘CPATH’ and ‘LIBRARY_PATH’ in its
 487 ‘native-search-path’, Perl has ‘PERL5LIB’, Python has ‘PYTHONPATH’, etc.
 488 These environment variables are automatically set when building a package that
 489 uses one of these.
 490
 491 *** Package inputs can be a function of the target system type
 492
 493 The ‘inputs’ field of a package can now be conditional on the value of
 494 (%current-system).  This is useful for packages that take system-dependent
 495 tarballs as inputs, such as GNU/MIT Scheme.
 496
 497 *** New build systems
 498
 499 The ‘perl-build-system’, ‘python-build-system’, and ‘cmake-build-system’ have
 500 been added.  They implement the standard build systems for Perl, Python, and
 501 CMake packages.
 502
 503 *** Tools to build Linux initrds, QEMU images, and more
 504
 505 The (gnu packages linux-initrd) module provides a procedure to build a Linux
 506 initrd (“initial RAM disk”).  The initrd embeds Guile, which is used to
 507 evaluate the given expression.  The example below returns an initrd that
 508 mounts the /proc file system and starts a REPL:
 509
 510   (expression->initrd
 511     '(begin
 512        (mkdir "/proc")
 513        (mount "none" "/proc" "proc")
 514        ((@ (system repl repl) start-repl))))
 515
 516 More examples in the linux-initrd.scm file.
 517
 518 Experimental interfaces to produce and use QEMU images are provided by the
 519 (gnu system vm) module.  For instance, the
 520 ‘expression->derivation-in-linux-vm’ evaluates the given Scheme expression in
 521 a QEMU virtual machine running the Linux kernel and Guile.
 522
 523 ** GNU distribution
 524
 525 Many updates and additions have been made to the distribution.  Here are the
 526 highlights.
 527
 528 *** Major updates
 529
 530 GCC 4.7.3 (the default) and GCC 4.8.0, Binutils 2.23.2, Guile 2.0.9,
 531 Coreutils 8.20, GDB 7.6, Texinfo 5.1.
 532
 533 *** Noteworthy new packages
 534
 535 TeXLive, Xorg, GNU GRUB, GNU Parted, QEMU and QEMU-KVM, Avahi, Bigloo,
 536 CHICKEN, Scheme48, Hugs, Python, Lua, Samba.