RFC: Standardize magic properties

schuelermine · May 26, 2022, 4:01pm

I wrote an RFC about attribute names that are treated specially by Nix.

Read the text here:

schuelermine/nix-rfcs/blob/e660a3935e1d91b27347ece794cd120fe8b06330/rfcs/0126-standardize-magic-properties.md

---
feature: standardize-magic-properties
start-date: 2022-05-26
author: Anselm Schüler
co-authors: None
shepherd-team: None
shepherd-leader: None
related-issues: None
---

# Summary
[summary]: #summary

Rename attrset attribute names treated specially by Nix to start with a double underscore.
Add a builtin function `guardMagic` that returns `null` for double underscore prefixed strings.

# Motivation
[motivation]: #motivation

Nix treats many attributes specially with unique behaviours. Some of these are prefixed with double underscores to disambiguate them from everything else. But some aren’t: `recurseForDerivations` isn’t, `type`, when set to `"derivation"`, changes visual output.

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schuelermine · May 29, 2022, 5:42pm

It’s been updated to talk about “special” properties instead

github.com

schuelermine/nix-rfcs/blob/8cb6cb80b985591f589e37fcb134d083ddb3c005/rfcs/0126-standardize-special-properties.md

---
feature: standardize-special-properties
start-date: 2022-05-26
author: Anselm Schüler
co-authors: None
shepherd-team: None
shepherd-leader: None
related-issues: None
---

# Summary
[summary]: #summary

Rename attrset attribute names treated specially by Nix to start with a double underscore.
Add a builtin function `guardSpecial` that returns `null` for double underscore prefixed strings.

# Motivation
[motivation]: #motivation

Nix treats many attributes specially with unique behaviours. Some of these are prefixed with double underscores to disambiguate them from everything else. But some aren’t: `recurseForDerivations` isn’t, `type`, when set to `"derivation"`, changes visual output.

This file has been truncated. show original