Channel branches: Difference between revisions
wording and formatting |
use and explain a more distinctive terminology for how releases are produced |
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Nixpkgs is the Git repository containing all package reciptes and NixOS module declarations. Installing packages directly from the <code>master</code> branch of the Nixpkgs repository is possible but risky, since Git commits are merged into <code>master</code> before being heavily tested. That's where channel branches are useful. | Nixpkgs is the Git repository containing all package reciptes and NixOS module declarations. Installing packages directly from the <code>master</code> branch of the Nixpkgs repository is possible but risky, since Git commits are merged into <code>master</code> before being heavily tested. That's where channel branches are useful. | ||
A "channel" is | A "channel branch" is Git branch with the "verified" Git commits in Nixpkgs that is exposed on [https://channels.nixos.org channels.nixos.org]. There is also a [https://status.nixos.org channel status webpage] that tracks the age of channel branches. | ||
Each channel branch has a different definition of what "verified" means. Each time a new Git commit is "verified", the corresponding channel branch gets updated. Contrary to users of the <code>master</code> branch, channel branch users will benefit from both "verified" commits and pre-built packages from the [https://cache.nixos.org public binary cache]. | |||
There are several | There are several types of channel branches, each with its own use case and verification phase. | ||
== The official channels == | == The official channels == | ||