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Document the Nix32 base-32 variant used for store path digests and hash output. The new page covers: - The 32-character alphabet (omitting e, o, u, t) - Byte order differences from base-16 encoding Also update references throughout the manual to link to the new page.
784 B
784 B
Nix32 Encoding
Nix32 is Nix's variant of base-32 encoding, used for store path digests, hash output via nix hash, and the outputHash derivation attribute.
Alphabet
The Nix32 alphabet consists of these 32 characters:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d f g h i j k l m n p q r s v w x y z
The letters e, o, u, and t are omitted.
Byte Order
Nix32 encoding processes the hash bytes from the end (last byte first), while base-16 encoding processes from the beginning (first byte first).
Consequently, the string sort order is determined primarily by the first bytes for base-16, and by the last bytes for Nix32.