EPNix 25.05 released

[NICOLE Rémi via Tech-talk <tech-talk@aps.anl.gov>]

I'm happy to announce the release 25.05 of EPNix.

EPNix is a project that enables you to build, package, deploy IOCs and other EPICS-related software by using the Nix package manager.

For more information about this approach, we've made a new Advantages / disadvantages page in the documentation.

Another new addition to the documentation, is the Cheatsheet page, available as a PDF file. It has the most commonly used commands, Nix code, and documentation pages, for developing EPICS IOCs, or deploying NixOS systems.

EPNix 25.05 includes the latest Phoebus 5.0 release, and includes a new set of Phoebus NixOS options for declaring your settings.ini, directly in Nix, including fonts and colors. Read the Phoebus client NixOS guide for more information.

EPNix 25.05 also includes the 2.0 Archiver Appliance release, and adapted its NixOS module. None of the breaking changes should affect users of these NixOS options.

A new module environment.epics was added to configure common EPICS parameters. This enables configuring the EPICS CA address list, in a single location, for every EPNix module, such as IOCs, Archiver Appliance, Phoebus services, etc. Read the EPICS environment NixOS guide for more information.

A new set of options was added for declaring IOCs systemd services in your NixOS system. Using these options, your IOC automatically uses procServ with a sensible set of default options, environment variables, and systemd hardening options. It also creates a telnet-myIoc command for connecting to the shell of your IOC. Read the IOC services NixOS guide for more information.

From the IOC development side, declaring your IOC by using "NixOS-like options" was deprecated. Now, declaring your IOCs should be much more similar to the Nix code you can find in the wild, which makes public documentation more applicable to EPNix developments. Follow the Migrating from modules development guide for upgrading your IOCs.

This is it for the announcement, but you can find more in the EPNix 25.05 release notes.

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Rémi NICOLE remi.nicole@cea.fr
CEA/DRF/IRFU/DIS/LDISC