The nixos/nix docker image is built using `buildLayeredImage`, which spreads the nix store over a configured number of layers. This number was set to create an image with 100 layers. Because there is a limit of (typically) 127 layers in AUFS, this only left 27 layers to build on top. At the same time, nearly half of the created layers were only <100kb in size, many even <10kb, negating the intended advantage in cachability.
This commit moves the tradeoff a bit by reducing the number of layers to 70.
Layer sizes for the 2.28.3 nixos/nix image: https://hub.docker.com/layers/nixos/nix/2.28.3/images/sha256-d078d7153763895fce17c5fbbdeb86fcfcac414ca0ba875d413c1df57be19931
When you apply `builtins.toString` to a path value representing a path
in the Nix store (as is the case with flake inputs), historically you
got a string without context (e.g. `/nix/store/...-source`). This is
broken, since it allows you to pass a store path to a
derivation/toFile without a proper store reference. This is especially
a problem with lazy trees, since the store path is a virtual path that
doesn't exist and can be different every time.
For backwards compatibility, and to warn users about this unsafe use
of `toString`, we now keep track of such strings as a special type of
context.
As it turns out using `std::regex` is actually the bottleneck
for root discovery. Just substituting `std::` -> `boost::`
makes root discovery twice as fast (3x if counting only userspace time).
Some rather ad-hoc measurements to motivate the switch:
(On master)
```
nix build github:nixos/nix/1e822bd4149a8bce1da81ee2ad9404986b07914c#nix-cli --out-link result-1e822bd4149a8bce1da81ee2ad9404986b07914c
taskset -c 2,3 hyperfine "result-1e822bd4149a8bce1da81ee2ad9404986b07914c/bin/nix store gc --dry-run --max 0"
Benchmark 1: result-1e822bd4149a8bce1da81ee2ad9404986b07914c/bin/nix store gc --dry-run --max 0
Time (mean ± σ): 481.6 ms ± 3.9 ms [User: 336.2 ms, System: 142.0 ms]
Range (min … max): 474.6 ms … 487.7 ms 10 runs
```
(After this patch)
```
taskset -c 2,3 hyperfine "result/bin/nix store gc --dry-run --max 0"
Benchmark 1: result/bin/nix store gc --dry-run --max 0
Time (mean ± σ): 254.7 ms ± 9.7 ms [User: 111.1 ms, System: 141.3 ms]
Range (min … max): 246.5 ms … 281.3 ms 10 runs
```
`boost::regex` is a drop-in replacement for `std::regex`, but much faster.
Doing a simple before/after comparison doesn't surface any change in behavior:
```
result/bin/nix store gc --dry-run -vvvvv --max 0 |& grep "got additional" | wc -l
result-1e822bd4149a8bce1da81ee2ad9404986b07914c/bin/nix store gc --dry-run -vvvvv --max 0 |& grep "got additional" | wc -l
```
