guix/NEWS

                                                              -*- org -*-
#+TITLE: Guix NEWS – history of user-visible changes
#+STARTUP: content hidestars

Copyright © 2013, 2014 Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>

  Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
  are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
  notice and this notice are preserved.

Please send Guix bug reports to bug-guix@gnu.org.

* Changes in 0.7 (since 0.6)
** Package management
*** ‘guix refresh’ has a new ‘--list-dependent’ options

See “Invoking guix refresh” in the manual.

** Programming interfaces
*** New (guix gexp) module, which implements “G-expressions”

G-expressions are a new mechanism to embed build-side code in host-side
code.  See “G-Expressions” in the manual.

*** (gnu system) and related modules now use G-expressions

This greatly simplifies code, and guarantees that build code carries
references to the packages or derivations it uses.

*** ‘build-expression->derivation’ is deprecated in favor of G-expressions
*** The (gnu system) module has been largely augmented and factorized
*** New (guix build vm) module, support for virtual machine images
*** New (guix build activation) module, for “system activation”
*** New (guix build syscalls) module
*** New (guix build install) and module for whole system installation
*** New (gnu system install) module, for the installation system
*** New (gnu system file-systems) module, for ‘file-system’ declarations
*** New (gnu) module, which aggregates common (gnu …) modules
*** ‘service’ records now have an optional ‘activate’ field

This allows services to specify code to run at system activation time.

** GNU distribution
*** An image to install the GNU system from a USB stick is provided

This is the first time an installation image is provided.  See “System
Installation” in the manual for details.  This is work in progress as noted
in “Limitations”.  Your feedback and help are welcome!

*** Support for more parameters in ‘operating-system’ declarations

Operating system declarations can now provide a list of file systems, a list
of setuid programs, bootloader options, and more.  See “System Configuration”
in the manual.

*** ‘guix system’ supports more actions

Newly supported actions are ‘init’, ‘build’, ‘reconfigure’, and ‘disk-image’.
See “Invoking guix system” in the manual.

*** User accounts and groups are created at system activation time
*** Virtual machine support uses para-virtualized devices
*** GCC package now has an additional ‘lib’ output, for run-time support libs
*** GLib package now has a separate “bin” output (<http://bugs.gnu.org/17853>)
*** XXX new packages
*** XXX package updates

** Native language support
*** New translations: de (German), and hu (Hungarian)
*** Updated translations: eo, pt_BR, sr, vi
*** Package descriptions moved from the ‘guix’ text domain to ‘guix-packages’
** Bugs fixed
*** Downloads are now faster (<http://bugs.gnu.org/15368>)
*** ‘guix authenticate’ properly writes signatures to stdout
    (<http://bugs.gnu.org/17312>)
*** Progress report of downloads is now properly displayed
*** Error reporting of pk-crypto errors has been improved
*** The 'patches' field now works for origins with no extension
*** Synchronization and GC issues fixed in the offload hook
*** (guix ftp-client) emits USER commands suitable for all servers

* Changes in 0.6 (since 0.5)
** Package management
*** Default store directory changed to /gnu/store

Although it is still possible to configure Guix to use the old store
directory, we recommend that you start with a fresh install to /gnu/store.

*** Substitutes from hydra.gnu.org must now be signed and authorized
*** Support for offloading builds to other Guix machines over SSH
*** New ‘guix archive’ command
*** New ‘guix system’ command; it can currently build VM images
*** ‘guix package’ accepts several arguments after -i, -r, and -u
*** Updating a profile with ‘guix package’ is now noticeably faster
*** ‘guix build’ can override a package’s source with the new ‘--with-source’
*** ‘guix build’ has a new ‘--no-build-hook’ option
*** ‘guix’ commands that build packages have a common set of options
*** ‘guix hash’ has a new ‘--recursive’ option
*** Daemon no longer bind-mounts the host’s /dev (improves reproducibility)
** Programming interfaces
*** New (guix pk-crypto) and (guix pki) modules for public key cryptography
*** New #:local-build? parameter for derivations that shouldn’t be offloaded
*** (gnu system vm) has procedures to build VMs that share the host’s store
*** New ‘text-file*’ procedure in (guix monads)
*** System service definitions are now provided by the (guix services) modules
*** New X and SLiM services in (gnu services xorg)
*** New (guix git-download) and (guix svn-download) for git/svn checkouts
** GNU distribution
*** 91 new packages

a2ps, asciidoc, aspell-dict-en, aspell-dict-eo, aspell-dict-es,
aspell-dict-fr, aumix, bitlbee, bogofilter, boost, calcurse, clusterssh,
corkscrew, cursynth, docbook-xml, docbook-xsl, elfutils, enscript, fftwf,
fltk, fuse, gcc-toolchain, giflib, glade, gmime, gnome-desktop, gnubg, gnubik,
gnumach-headers, gnunet, gnuplot, gnurl, gphoto2, gtkglext, guile-json,
guile-reader-for-guile_2.0.11, gxmessage, hdf5, hurd-headers, inkscape, iotop,
isc-dhcp, iso-codes, jnettop, libatomic-ops, libexif, libgphoto2, libmpcdec,
libmpdclient, libotr, libpcap, libpeas, libpipeline, libtirpc, libwebsockets,
ltrace, luajit, lynx, man-db, mc, mig, miniupnpc, moe, mpc123, mpd, ncdc,
ncdu, ncmpc, neon, neon, octave, opus, paperkey, patchutils, perl-tk,
perl-x11-protocol, pinentry, python2-element-tree, python2-pybugz, quilt,
source-highlight, stalonetray, trueprint, ttf-dejavu, unionfs-fuse,
unionfs-fuse-static, uucp, vera, windowmaker, xapian, xterm

*** 90 package updates

apl-1.3, autoconf-2.68, automake-1.14.1, bash-4.3, bash-light-4.3,
bigloo-4.1a, binutils-2.24, binutils-static-stripped-tarball-2.24,
coreutils-8.22, curl-7.35.0, ed-1.10, ffmpeg-2.1.4, file-5.18, freeipmi-1.4.1,
gcc-4.8.2, gcc-4.8.2, gdb-7.7, gdbm-1.11, gettext-0.18.3.2, glib-2.39.1,
glibc-2.19, glibc-stripped-tarball-2.19, global-6.2.12, glpk-4.54,
gnu-pw-mgr-1.2, gnupg-1.4.16, gnutls-3.2.12, gp2c-0.0.8pl1, grep-2.18,
gst-plugins-base-0.10.36, gstreamer-1.0.10, gtk+-3.10.1, gtkmm-2.24.2,
guile-2.0.11, guile-ssh-0.6.0, guile-static-stripped-tarball-2.0.11,
guile-wm-1.0, guile-xcb-1.3, guix-0.5, help2man-1.45.1, icu4c-52.1,
imagemagick-6.8.8-10, inetutils-1.9.2, lapack-3.5.0, libcdio-0.92,
libdrm-2.4.46, libextractor-1.3, libgc-7.2e, libgc-7.4.0, libgcrypt-1.6.1,
libjpeg-9, libmicrohttpd-0.9.34, libssh-0.6.3, libtasn1-3.4, lightning-2.0.3,
linux-libre-3.13.7, mpc-1.0.2, mutt-1.5.23, net-base-5.2, ocrad-0.23,
openssh-6.6p1, openssl-1.0.1g, parallel-20140322, pari-gp-2.7.0, pspp-0.8.2,
pulseaudio-5.0, python-2.7.6, python-3.3.5, python-wrapper-3.3.5,
python2-pysqlite-2.6.3a, qemu-1.7.1, qemu-headless-1.7.1,
qemu-with-multiple-smb-shares-1.7.1, qt-4.8.5, qt-5.2.0, readline-6.3,
recutils-1.7, slim-1.3.6, sqlite-3.8.4.3, subversion-1.7.14, texinfo-4.13a,
tor-0.2.4.21, tzdata-2014a, units-2.11, valgrind-3.9.0, vim-7.4, wget-1.15,
xnee-3.18, xorriso-1.3.6.pl01, zile-2.4.11

*** New ‘gcc-toolchain’ meta-package, makes it easy to install a GCC tool chain
*** libc’s Info manual is now installed
*** Binutils is built with --enable-deterministic-archives
*** Packages that populated man/man* now populate share/man/man*
*** Many other packaging improvements
** Bugs fixed
*** ‘guix pull’ consumes less memory, compiles in parallel
*** ‘guix package --list-*’ gracefully handles EPIPE when used in a pipeline
*** ‘guix package’ handles collisions between a symlink and a directory
    (http://bugs.gnu.org/17083)
*** HTTP downloads provide a ‘User-Agent’ field (http://bugs.gnu.org/16703)
*** ‘guix package’ no longer shows misleading installed package number
    (http://bugs.gnu.org/16484)
*** Manual suggests ‘useradd --system’ (http://bugs.gnu.org/16289)
*** Python is built with ctypes support (http://bugs.gnu.org/16569)
*** HTTP/TLS connection not terminated properly (http://bugs.gnu.org/14884)
*** Gracefully handle poorly behaved HTTP servers (http://bugs.gnu.org/15733)

* Changes in 0.5 (since 0.4)
** Package management
*** GNU package descriptions synchronized with the ‘gnumaint’ repository

In addition to synopses, descriptions of GNU packages are now kept in sync
with the ‘gnumaint’ repository, which is the canonical place for GNU package
meta-data.

** Programming interfaces
*** Patches are now listed as part of ‘origin’

The ‘origin’ form supports two new fields: ‘patches’ (list of patches), and
‘snippet’ (code snippet to modify the source.)  These are applied when running
‘guix build --source’.  See “Defining Packages” in the manual.

*** New (guix monads) monadic interface to operate on the store

See “The Store Monad” in the manual.  The (gnu system …) modules have been
rewritten to use this monadic interface.

*** New (guix profiles) module

It provides an API for dealing with profiles, as with the ‘guix package’
command.

*** New (gnu system) module

This module provides a generic way to describe the system’s configuration,
and to instantiate it, regardless of the final medium (QEMU image, etc.)
See “System Configuration” in the manual.

This is work in progress.  Send feedback to guix-devel@gnu.org!

*** ‘build-expression->derivation’ uses more parameters

Some positional parameters have been changed to keyword parameters.
See “Derivations” in the manual.

** GNU distribution
*** New port to the Loongson MIPS64 processors, n32 ABI (‘mips64el-linux’)

Bootstrap binaries have been built for that architecture, and several
Loongson-specific patches not yet available upstream have been applied to core
packages.  See “GNU Distribution” and “Porting” in the manual.

Pre-built binaries are not yet available via hydra.gnu.org, so Guix will
build from source on this platform.

*** 110 new packages

acct, alive, alsa-utils, apl, at-spi2-atk, at-spi2-core, atkmm, autogen,
automoc4, brasero, bridge-utils, cairomm, catkin, complexity, evince, ffmpeg,
fftw, ftgl, gcc-objc, gcc-objc++, gccgo, gcl, gfortran, glibmm, glpk,
gnome-icon-theme, gnu-pw-mgr, gp2c, gpgme, gsettings-desktop-schemas, gtkmm,
gtksourceview, guile-ssh, guile-wm, gvpe, hicolor-icon-theme, httpd, icecat,
icon-naming-utils, json-c, lapack, libcanberra, libcap, libgnome-keyring,
libmikmod, libnl, libnotify, libsamplerate, libsigc++, libsndfile, libssh,
libtheora, libxkbcommon, mercurial, mtools, netcat, pangomm, parallel,
pavucontrol, pciutils, pem, perl-encode-locale, perl-file-list,
perl-file-listing, perl-html-parser, perl-html-tagset, perl-http-cookies,
perl-http-daemon, perl-http-date, perl-http-message, perl-http-negotiate,
perl-io-html, perl-libwww, perl-libxml, perl-lwp-mediatypes, perl-net-http,
perl-uri, perl-www-robotrules, perl-xml-dom, perl-xml-regexp, perl-xml-simple,
phonon, powertop, pulseaudio, python2-dogtail, python2-empy, qemu-headless,
qt, qt, raptor2, scons, sdl, sdl-gfx, sdl-image, sdl-mixer, sdl-net, sdl-ttf,
sdl2, serveez, shared-mime-info, sharutils, skribilo, slim, soprano, swig,
xcb-util, xcb-util-image, xcb-util-keysyms, xcb-util-renderutil, xcb-util-wm

*** 47 package updates

atk 2.10.0, bison 3.0.2, cmake 2.8.12, dmd 0.1, freeipmi 1.3.3, gcc 4.8.2,
gcc 4.8.2, gcc-cross-mips64el-linux-gnuabi64 4.8.2, gcc-stripped-tarball 4.8.2,
gdb 7.6.2, gettext 0.18.3.1, glib 2.38.0, global 6.2.9, gmp 5.1.3,
gnupg 2.0.22, gobject-introspection 1.38.0, grep 2.15, gsl 1.16,
gtk+ 2.24.21, gtk+ 3.10.1, guile 2.0.9, guile 2.0.9, guile-xcb 1.2,
harfbuzz 0.9.22, hello 2.9, iproute2 3.12.0, libdrm 2.4.46,
libextractor 1.2, libjpeg 9, libmicrohttpd 0.9.32, lightning 2.0.2,
linux-libre 3.12, lzip 1.15, make 4.0, mit-krb5 1.11.3, pari-gp 2.5.5,
pixman 0.32.4, python 3.3.2, qemu 1.6.1,
qemu-with-multiple-smb-shares 1.6.1, rcs 5.9.2, recutils 1.6, rsync 3.1.0,
tar 1.27.1, texinfo 5.2, units 2.02, xorriso 1.3.2

*** Packages are now built with GCC 4.8.2 by default (was 4.7.3)

** Native language support
*** New ‘sr’ (Serbian) translation
*** New ‘vi’ (Vietnamese) translation
*** Updated ‘pt_BR’ (Brazilian Portuguese) translation
** Bugs fixed
*** ‘guix pull’ compiles Guix deterministically and correctly

Previously, the build environment was not cleared in between ‘compile-file’
calls, leading to build errors due to Guile bug http://bugs.gnu.org/15602 .

*** ‘guix package’ allows removal of a specific package output
    (http://bugs.gnu.org/15756)
*** ‘guix-daemon’ always sets umask to 022
    (http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-guix/2013-07/msg00033.html)
*** Files referenced by environment variables are protected from GC
*** Yet unbuilt packages get correctly installed (http://bugs.gnu.org/15283)
*** ‘bootstrap-graph.{png,eps,pdf}’ built in srcdir (http://bugs.gnu.org/15640)

* Changes in 0.4 (since 0.3)

** Package management

*** New ‘--list-generations’ and ‘--delete-generations’ options

The ‘guix package’ command has these two new options, which make it easier to
deal with a profile’s generation.  See “Invoking guix package” in the manual.

*** New ‘guix-register’ program

This program allows the meta-data of a new store to be initialized, by
copying info from an existing store.  It is mostly an internal tool.

** Programming interfaces

*** New API to bootstrap Autotools-based packages

The (guix build-system gnu) has a new ‘dist-package’ procedure that takes a
package object and source directory, and returns a new package object that
runs ‘./bootstrap && make dist’ or anything similar.

*** ‘derivation’ and related procedures have a #:references-graphs parameter

This parameter instructs the build daemon to populate the derivation’s build
tree with files containing the list of references of the given store files.
This is useful to write code that copies a packages and all its dependencies
to another storage device, such as a QEMU disk image.

*** Extended API to build a GNU system virtual machine image

The (gnu system vm) module has been augmented in many ways: the ‘qemu-image’
procedure can now populate and initialize the image’s store; the new
‘system-qemu-image’ procedure returns a QEMU image that runs dmd as its init
system, has ‘login’ running on several consoles, has a set of installed
packages, and where Guix can be used.

New (gnu system …) modules have been added to handle the configuration of the
various parts of a GNU/Linux system.  For instance, (gnu system dmd) provides
support for instantiating dmd services; (gnu system linux) helps with Linux
PAM configuration; and so on.

*** <derivation> objects supersede .drv file names in the API

‘derivation’ and similar procedures no longer return two values (a
<derivation> and a .drv file name); they now return a single value, which is
a <derivation> object.  The <derivation> object embeds the corresponding .drv
file name.  See “Derivations” in the manual for details.

** GNU distribution

*** 60 new packages

apr, apr-util, cdparanoia, dbus-glib, dfc, dmd, dvdisaster, exiv2, fetchmail,
freefont-ttf, freeglut, geeqie, git, gkrellm, glu, gnome-doc-utils,
gst-plugins-base, gstreamer, guile-cairo, guile-lib, guile-xcb, guix, htop,
itstool, lame, libextractor, libmicrohttpd, lightning, lzip, mingetty, mutt,
net-base, net-tools, ocrad, pspp, python-babel, python-dateutil, python-pytz,
python-setuptools, python-simplejson, python-wrapper, python2-babel,
python2-dateutil, python2-mechanize, python2-pyicu, python2-pysqlite,
python2-pytz, python2-setuptools, python2-simplejson, qemu-system-initrd,
qemu-with-multiple-smb-shares, ripperx, shadow, ttf-bitstream-vera, units,
valgrind, xmlto, xnee, yasm

*** 27 package updates

bigloo 4.0b, cairo 1.12.16, ddrescue 1.17, fontconfig 2.10.93, fplll 4.0.4,
gcc 4.7.3, gcc 4.7.3, glibc 2.18, glibc 2.18, glibc-stripped-tarball 2.18,
gnupg 2.0.21, gnutls 3.2.4, guile 2.0.9, guile 2.0.9, harfbuzz 0.9.21,
imagemagick 6.8.6-9, libdrm 2.4.46, libgcrypt 1.5.3, libjpeg 9, libksba 1.3.0,
linux-libre 3.11, m4 1.4.17, mpfrcx 0.4.2, pari-gp 2.5.4, python 2.7.5, python
3.3.2, texlive 2013

*** Fontconfig font search path made more convenient

Fontconfig, the library used by many graphical applications, such as those
based on GTK+, now knows where to find the default set of fonts.  Additional
fonts installed in the user profile are automatically picked up.

*** More GUI applications

The ‘emacs’ and ‘racket’ packages are now linked against GTK+.  New GTK+
applications have been added (see above.)

*** Packaging guidelines

The documentation of packaging guidelines has been augmented.  See the manual
under “GNU Distribution”.

*** Support for Python 3 along with Python 2

Python 3 has been added to the distribution, and Python packages that support
it are now built for both Python 2 and Python 3.  See the “Python Modules”
section of the manual for details.

** Internationalization

Updated translations: eo.

** Bugs fixed

*** Workarounds for Guile 2.0.5 now work on Debian derivatives
*** The dependency graph image has correct size in PDF output
*** 'ldd' now works correctly on x86_64
*** Xorg server test suite no longer fails (http://bugs.gnu.org/15392)
*** module-init-tools now builds (http://bugs.gnu.org/15182, http://bugs.gnu.org/15187)
*** Hop 2.4 builds with newer Bigloo (http://bugs.gnu.org/15194)

* Changes in 0.3 (since 0.2)

** Package management

*** Cross-compilation support

Guix can now cross-build packages.  On the command-line, this is achieved with
the new ‘--target’ command-line option of ‘guix build’.  At the Scheme level,
the guts of this is the ‘package-cross-derivation’ procedure.  Core packages
of the distribution can already be cross-compiled.  See the manual for
details.

*** New ‘--max-silent-time’ option for “guix build” and “guix package”

See the manual for details.

*** New ‘--fallback’ option for “guix build” and “guix package”

This option instructs to fall back to local builds when the substituter fails
to download a substitute.

*** New ‘--requisites’ option for “guix gc”

See the manual for details.

*** New ‘--key-download’ option for “guix refresh”

See the manual for details.

** Programming interfaces

*** New ‘package-cross-derivation’ procedure in (guix derivations)

See the manual for details.

*** New ‘%current-target-system’ SRFI-39 parameter

This parameter is like ‘%current-system’, but for cross-compilation.  It
allows code in package definitions (such as in the ‘arguments’ field) to know
whether it is being cross-compiled, and what the target system is.

*** New (guix hash) module; new ‘open-sha256-port’ and ‘sha256-port’ procedures

This improves performance of SHA256 computations.


** GNU distribution

*** 33 new packages

alsa-lib, babel, cairo, cvs, gcal, gcc-cross-mips64el-linux-gnuabi64, gd,
gdk-pixbuf, graphviz, grue-hunter, gtk+, gts, harfbuzz, imagemagick, iproute2,
iptables, libspectre, mpg321, noweb, pango, plotutils, privoxy, pytz, racket,
rubber, rush, strace, tk, torsocks, unrtf, vc-dwim, wordnet, xlockmore

*** 25 package updates

automake 1.14, ed 1.9, freeipmi 1.2.8, gawk 4.1.0, gcc 4.8.1, gettext 0.18.3,
glib 2.37.1, gmp 5.1.2, gnutls 3.2.1, gzip 1.6, help2man 1.43.3, libapr 1.4.8,
libaprutil 1.5.2, libassuan 2.1.1, libffi 3.0.13, libgc 7.2d, libgpg-error
1.12, libidn 1.28, libpng 1.5.17, lout 3.40, lsh 2.1, nettle 2.7.1, qemu
1.5.1, tzdata 2013d, xorriso 1.3.0

*** Binary packages now available for i686-linux

The build farm at http://hydra.gnu.org now provides 32-bit GNU/Linux binaries
(i686-linux), in addition to the x86_64-linux binaries.  Both can be
transparently used as substitutes for local builds on these platforms.

*** Debug info packages

Some packages now have a “debug” output containing debugging information.  The
“debug” output can be used by GDB, and can be installed separately from the
other outputs of the package.  See “Installing Debugging Files” in the manual.

*** Bootstrap binaries can be cross-compiled

The distribution can now be ported to new architectures (currently
GNU/Linux-only) by cross-compiling the “bootstrap binaries”.  See “Porting”
in the manual.

*** Bootstrapping documented

See “Bootstrapping” in the manual, for information on how the GNU
distribution builds “from scratch”.

** Internationalization

New translations: eo, pt_BR.

** Bugs fixed
*** “guix --help” now works when using Guile 2.0.5
*** Binary substituter multi-threading and pipe issues fixed

These could lead to random substituter crashes while substituting a binary.
See commits 0332386 and 101d9f3 for details.

*** Binary substituter gracefully handles lack of network connectivity

*** Daemon properly handles rebuilds of multiple-output derivations

Previously it would fail when rebuilding a multiple-output derivation when
some (but not all) of its outputs were already present.  See
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-guix/2013-06/msg00038.html and
https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/122 .

*** ‘guix package -i foo:out’ no longer removes other outputs of ‘foo’

Previously only the ‘out’ output of package ‘foo’ would be kept in the
profile.

*** Replacement (srfi srfi-37) provided if the user’s one is broken

When the user’s (srfi srfi-37) is affected by http://bugs.gnu.org/13176 (Guile
< 2.0.9), a replacement with the bug fix is provided.  This bug would affect
command-line argument processing in some cases.

* Changes in 0.2 (since 0.1)

** Package management

*** Guix commands are now sub-commands of the “guix” program

Instead of typing “guix-package”, one now has to type “guix package”, and so
on.  This has allowed us to homogenize the user interface and initial program
setup, and to allow commands to be upgradable through “guix pull”.

*** New “guix package --upgrade” option

As the name implies, this option atomically upgrades all the packages
installed in a profile or the set of packages matching a given regexp.
See “Invoking guix package” in the manual.

*** New “guix package --search” option

Performs a full text search in package synopses and descriptions, and returns
the matching packages in recutils format.  See “Invoking guix package” in the
manual, for details.

*** New “guix pull” command

The command pulls the latest version of Guix–both the package management
modules and the distribution.  See the manual for details.

*** New binary substituter

The “substituter” mechanism allows pre-built binaries to be transparently
downloaded instead of performing a build locally.  Currently binaries are
available for x86_64 Linux-based GNU systems from http://hydra.gnu.org.  The
distribution is continuously built and binaries are made available from there.

See http://hydra.gnu.org/jobset/gnu/master under “Job status” for the list of
available binary packages.

*** New “guix refresh” command

The command is used by Guix maintainers.  It automatically updates the
distribution to the latest upstream releases of GNU software.

*** New “guix hash” command

Convenience command to compute the hash of a file.  See the manual for
details.

*** Nix daemon code updated

The daemon code from Nix, used by the ‘guix-daemon’ command, has been updated
to current Nix ‘master’.

** Programming interfaces

*** (guix download) now supports HTTPS, using GnuTLS

It allows package source tarballs to be retrieved over HTTPS.

*** New ‘native-search-path’ and ‘search-path’ package fields

Packages can define in their ‘native-search-path’ field environment variables
that define search paths and need to be set for proper functioning of the
package.  For instance, GCC has ‘CPATH’ and ‘LIBRARY_PATH’ in its
‘native-search-path’, Perl has ‘PERL5LIB’, Python has ‘PYTHONPATH’, etc.
These environment variables are automatically set when building a package that
uses one of these.

*** Package inputs can be a function of the target system type

The ‘inputs’ field of a package can now be conditional on the value of
(%current-system).  This is useful for packages that take system-dependent
tarballs as inputs, such as GNU/MIT Scheme.

*** New build systems

The ‘perl-build-system’, ‘python-build-system’, and ‘cmake-build-system’ have
been added.  They implement the standard build systems for Perl, Python, and
CMake packages.

*** Tools to build Linux initrds, QEMU images, and more

The (gnu packages linux-initrd) module provides a procedure to build a Linux
initrd (“initial RAM disk”).  The initrd embeds Guile, which is used to
evaluate the given expression.  The example below returns an initrd that
mounts the /proc file system and starts a REPL:

  (expression->initrd
    '(begin
       (mkdir "/proc")
       (mount "none" "/proc" "proc")
       ((@ (system repl repl) start-repl))))

More examples in the linux-initrd.scm file.

Experimental interfaces to produce and use QEMU images are provided by the
(gnu system vm) module.  For instance, the
‘expression->derivation-in-linux-vm’ evaluates the given Scheme expression in
a QEMU virtual machine running the Linux kernel and Guile.

** GNU distribution

Many updates and additions have been made to the distribution.  Here are the
highlights.

*** Major updates

GCC 4.7.3 (the default) and GCC 4.8.0, Binutils 2.23.2, Guile 2.0.9,
Coreutils 8.20, GDB 7.6, Texinfo 5.1.

*** Noteworthy new packages

TeXLive, Xorg, GNU GRUB, GNU Parted, QEMU and QEMU-KVM, Avahi, Bigloo,
CHICKEN, Scheme48, Hugs, Python, Lua, Samba.