[Nix-dev] nix-build building (too much) stuff?

[Eelco Dolstra]

Hi,

On 02/24/2011 08:46 AM, Tobias Hunger wrote:

> Once I add a single space into one of the parameters passed when configuring 
> perl I get this instead:
> 
> /etc/nixos/nixpkgs/pkgs/development/interpreters/perl-5.10]# nix-build -K 
> /etc/nixos/nixpkgs -A perl            
> these derivations will be built:
>   /nix/store/090c3fnffv4ys8a0jdvfjr3l2bsdk2b1-ed-1.4.drv
...

That's because Perl is a dependency of stdenv.  So if you change Perl, stdenv
will be rebuilt.  To prevent this, just make a clone of the Perl Nix expression,
e.g. copy .../perl-5.10/default.nix to .../perl-5.10/new.nix and add a call like

  perlNew = callPackage ../development/interpreters/perl-5.10 { };

to all-packages.nix.

-- 
Eelco Dolstra | http://www.st.ewi.tudelft.nl/~dolstra/