[PATCH] nix 2.16.2 -> 2.16.3 for CVE-2024-27297

Development Patches
1

I have a particular question. When making a pr to nixpkgs, what is common practice? Do I fork master and then PR straight to it? Is there a branch to submit to first? In addition, I’m a noob who would love to know what a .patch file is. Is it just a documentation of the patch? Is it actually code? It looks like a git diff. I understand the patch was to nix, and not nixpkgs, so is it just a diff of that change?

Edit: ok so my first question has been answered very thoroughly :slight_smile: thank you I somehow forgot to check contributing.md

So yeah, what is a .patch file?

context:

2

You would fork from master, create a feature branch and than open a pull request from this feature branch targeting master. The whole workflow should be documented here: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/ebaf43d1633e9783c4681e9632841153dc0335b0/CONTRIBUTING.md#how-to-create-pull-requests

2 Likes
3

Hey, welcome to the discourse :slight_smile:

I can recommend you the following resources for a better understanding of how to contribute and the nixpkgs-flow:

4

Git has powerful functionality for sending your changes (PRs) as files. For example, you can do git diff > my_changes.patch, send it to someone, and someone could apply all your changes by git apply my_changes.patch

You can also send commits as files, see How can I generate a Git patch for a specific commit? - Stack Overflow.

This is because Linus Torvalds (the creator of Linux) created git specifically for Linux kernel needs. And they still use email to send changes. Don’t know anything more about it, but I am sure you can google it.

1 Like
5

Whoa so thats not even a nix thing thats a git thing? git is so cool lol no wonder it looks like a diff

So nix takes the diff and patches itself with git? or well, not itself but its past version?

6

Yes, you can actually patch any package in nixpkgs (even patching nixpkgs itself (e.g. internals or .lib), though it is kind of hard with flakes)

https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Overlays
https://ertt.ca/nix/patch-nixpkgs/

1 Like
7

Ok so I knew about overlays, but this is new to me completely

https://ertt.ca/nix/patch-nixpkgs/

I have 1 more question. nix plugins like this

Where do I find documentation on the nix C++ headers things like this imports to define things like new primops which im assuming means builtins? Is there docs or is it just source code in the nix package manager’s repo? Theres only like 1 short paragraph on it in the manual that I couldnt make heads or tails of.

8

Can’t help with this, didn’t fall into rabbit hole so deep

9

Ah. All good. Well if anyone knows, I am all ears, I wanna make a builtin and learn how all this REALLY works. But yeah thank you so much you just answered questions I didnt know I had

10

For those landing in this thread based on the title, the PRs are on their way into the channels:

unstable: https://nixpk.gs/pr-tracker.html?pr=296670
23.11: Nixpkgs PR #296728 ("[Backport release-23.11] nixVersions.nix_2_16: 2.16.2 -> 2.16.3") progress

1 Like