109 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
109 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
# The Nix Documentation Situation
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The Nix documentation situation is notorious bad. It's difficult to find
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a concise answer with detailed justification/explanation. And most people
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(myself included) tend resort to the [ArchWiki](https://wiki.archlinux.org).
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> [!NOTE]
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> The [Nix documentation team](https://nixos.org/community/teams/documentation) has an incredibly difficult job.
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Unlike the *centralised* [ArchWiki](https://wiki.archlinux.org), the Nix ecosystem
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is incredibly large:
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1. **Nix** (the package manager)
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2. **Nix/NixLang** (the programming language)
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3. **Nixpkgs** (the package repository)
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4. **NixOS** (the linux distribution)
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5. **Home-Manager** (user environment management)
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6. **NUR** (Nix User Repository, like the AUR but Nix!)
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7. *and **many** more...*
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Often each project has its own website, wiki, styling, etc. There is tonnes
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of information available online but its so hard to find it.
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**Notable organisations:**
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1. NixOS Foundation (*official organisation that maintains Nix/Nixpkgs/NixOS*)
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2. Nix Community (*unofficial community providing infrastructure/hosting/visibility for projects*)
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## About Me
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I love and hate Nix simultaneously.
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Originally *(circa 2023)* I used Windows 10/11 exclusively for programming.
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But this is tedious and my friend started mentioning Arch Linux. So with their
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help I formatted a spare SSD and began my journey.
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But I **REALLY** like computers... I have servers, routers, 3 computers
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actively powered in my bedroom, and *I believe* 8 laptops *currently* in my posession.
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Documenting **every** change I make to a system and spending a week
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setting up a device I don't really care about isn't sustainable.
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And then *(circa October 2024)* I learnt about NixOS... And now life is "easy".
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But learning Nix/NixLang/Nixpkgs/NixOS/Home-Manager/blah-blah-blah was exhausting.
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So now I'll try to simplify this learning curve for other newbies **<3**
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## Nix/NixOS How To
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### NixOS Documentation
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Using "the" NixOS wiki is surprisingly confusing (at least it was for me).
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Why? Because there are multiple and you probably won't realise the difference.
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**Main Wikis:**
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> These are visually and structurally identical... And are both community run.
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> But they're content does differ. [nixos.wiki] was created
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> because ""[wiki.nixos.org] was too limiting with regards to wiki features".
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1. [https://wiki.nixos.org] (the **official** NixOS wiki)
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2. [https://nixos.wiki] (the **unofficial** user's wiki, community run)
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**Other Resources:**
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> [!TODO]
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### Migrate to a Newer Version of Nixpkgs
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```bash
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# Determine the channel name you're using
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nix-channel --list
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nix-channel --remove <OLD_CHANNEL>
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nix-channel --add <NEW_CHANNEL> # ie https://nixos.org/channels/nixos-25.05
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nix-channel --update
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# Now upgrade system profile (log to file in case of failure)
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nixos-rebuild boot --upgrade | tee rebuild.log
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```
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## Security Implications
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### NixOS Default Home Permissions
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```bash
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# Executing from $HOME
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>>> mkdir example.d && ls -l example.d
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-rw-r--r-- 1 me users 1 Jul 25 10:13 example.d
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>>> echo > example.f && ls -l example.f
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-rw-r--r-- 1 me users 1 Jul 25 10:15 example.f
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## But these ignore facl?
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>>> getfacl "$HOME"
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# file: home/me
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# owner: me
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# group: users
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user::rwx
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group::---
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other::---
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```
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Many commands default to permissions that ignore the file access control listl (file ACLs).
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This is not a NixOS specific issue. However this isn't ideal from a security perspective.
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The simplest solution is a recursive `chmod -R 600 ~` but there are plenty of files we
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intentionally want to be different.
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> [!TODO]
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> Solution: Make a Nix/Home-Manager package allowing for control over folder permissions.
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> SOlution: Also it should warn if any files owned by $USER have a 2
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## Further Reading
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### Finding New Things to Do
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`man 5 configuration.nix` is incredibly useful
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similar info can be found at https://mynixos.com/options
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### For your curiosity
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1. https://wiki.nixos.org/wiki/Firejail
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