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* Documented multi-user Nix.

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Eelco Dolstra 2007-10-31 18:01:56 +00:00
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11
doc/manual/env-common.xml
View file

@ -263,6 +263,17 @@ $ mount -o bind /mnt/otherdisk/nix /nix</screen>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry xml:id="envar-remote"><term><envar>NIX_REMOTE</envar></term>
<listitem><para>This variable should be set to
<literal>daemon</literal> if you want to use the Nix daemon to
executed Nix operations, which is necessary in <link
linkend="ssec-multi-user">multi-user Nix installations</link>.
Otherwise, it should be left unset.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

248
doc/manual/installation.xml
View file

@ -100,14 +100,16 @@ ubiquitous 2.5.4a won't. Note that these are only required if you
modify the parser or when you are building from the Subversion
repository.</para>
<para>Nix uses Sleepycat's Berkeley DB and CWI's ATerm library. These
are included in the Nix source distribution. If you build from the
Subversion repository, you must download them yourself and place them
in the <filename>externals/</filename> directory. See
<para>Nix uses Sleepycat's Berkeley DB, CWI's ATerm library and the
bzip2 compressor (including the bzip2 library). These are included in
the Nix source distribution. If you build from the Subversion
repository, you must download them yourself and place them in the
<filename>externals/</filename> directory. See
<filename>externals/Makefile.am</filename> for the precise URLs of
these packages. Alternatively, if you already have them installed,
you can use <command>configure</command>'s <option>--with-bdb</option>
and <option>--with-aterm</option> options to point to their respective
you can use <command>configure</command>'s
<option>--with-bdb</option>, <option>--with-aterm</option> and
<option>--with-bzip2</option> options to point to their respective
locations. Note that Berkeley DB <emphasis>must</emphasis> be version
4.5; other versions may not have compatible database formats.</para>
@ -118,19 +120,21 @@ locations. Note that Berkeley DB <emphasis>must</emphasis> be version
<para>After unpacking or checking out the Nix sources, issue the
following commands:
</para>
<screen>
$ ./configure <replaceable>options...</replaceable>
$ make
$ make install</screen>
<para>When building from the Subversion repository, these should be
preceded by the command:
</para>
<para>When building from the Subversion repository, these should be
preceded by the command:
<screen>
$ ./boostrap</screen>
$ ./bootstrap</screen>
</para>
<para>The installation path can be specified by passing the
<option>--prefix=<replaceable>prefix</replaceable></option> to
@ -165,20 +169,24 @@ Hat Linux. They have been known to work work on SuSE Linux 8.1 and
distribution based on <literal>glibc</literal> 2.3 or later.</para>
<para>Once downloaded, the RPMs can be installed or upgraded using
<command>rpm -U</command>. For example,</para>
<command>rpm -U</command>. For example,
<screen>
$ rpm -U nix-0.5pre664-1.i386.rpm</screen>
</para>
<para>The RPMs install into the directory <filename>/nix</filename>.
Nix can be uninstalled using <command>rpm -e nix</command>. After
this it will be necessary to manually remove the Nix store and other
auxiliary data:</para>
auxiliary data:
<screen>
$ rm -rf /nix/store
$ rm -rf /nix/var</screen>
</para>
</section>
@ -231,33 +239,215 @@ class="username">root</systemitem> all the time.</para>
</section>
<section><title>Multi-user mode</title>
<section xml:id="ssec-multi-user"><title>Multi-user mode</title>
<para></para>
<para>To allow a Nix store to be shared safely among multiple users,
it is important that users are not able to run builders that modify
the Nix store or database in arbitrary ways, or that interfere with
builds started by other users. If they could do so, they could
install a Trojan horse in some package and compromise the accounts of
other users.</para>
<!--
warning: the nix-builders group should contain *only* the Nix
builders, and nothing else. If the Nix account is compromised, you
can execute programs under the accounts in the nix-builders group, so
it obviously shouldn’t contain any “real” user accounts. So don’t use
an existing group like <literal>users</literal> — just create a new
one.
-->
<para>To prevent this, the Nix store and database are owned by some
privileged user (usually <literal>root</literal>) and builders are
executed under special user accounts (usually named
<literal>nixbld1</literal>, <literal>nixbld2</literal>, etc.). When a
unprivileged user runs a Nix command, actions that operate on the Nix
store (such as builds) are forwarded to a <emphasis>Nix
daemon</emphasis> running under the owner of the Nix store/database
that performs the operation.</para>
<note><para>Multi-user mode has one important limitation: only
<systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> can run <command
linkend="sec-nix-pull">nix-pull</command> to register the availability
of pre-built binaries. However, those registrations
<emphasis>are</emphasis> used by all users to speed up
builds.</para></note>
of pre-built binaries. However, those registrations are shared by all
users, so they still get the benefit from <command>nix-pull</command>s
done by <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem>.</para></note>
<section><title>Setting up the build users</title>
<para>The <emphasis>build users</emphasis> are the special UIDs under
which builds are performed. They should all be members of the
<emphasis>build users group</emphasis> (usually called
<literal>nixbld</literal>). This group should have no other members.
The build users should not be members of any other group.</para>
<para>Here is a typical <filename>/etc/group</filename> definition of
the build users group with 10 build users:
<programlisting>
nixbld:!:30000:nixbld1,nixbld2,nixbld3,nixbld4,nixbld5,nixbld6,nixbld7,nixbld8,nixbld9,nixbld10
</programlisting>
In this example the <literal>nixbld</literal> group has UID 30000, but
of course it can be anything that doesn’t collide with an existing
group.</para>
<para>Here is the corresponding part of
<filename>/etc/passwd</filename>:
<programlisting>
nixbld1:x:30001:65534:Nix build user 1:/var/empty:/noshell
nixbld2:x:30002:65534:Nix build user 2:/var/empty:/noshell
nixbld3:x:30003:65534:Nix build user 3:/var/empty:/noshell
...
nixbld10:x:30010:65534:Nix build user 10:/var/empty:/noshell
</programlisting>
The home directory of the build users should not exist or should be an
empty directory to which they do not have write access.</para>
<para>The build users should have write access to the Nix store, but
they should not have the right to delete files. Thus the Nix store’s
group should be the build users group, and it should have the sticky
bit turned on (like <filename>/tmp</filename>):
<screen>
$ chgrp nixbld /nix/store
$ chmod 1777 /nix/store
</screen>
</para>
<para>Finally, you should tell Nix to use the build users by
specifying the build users group in the <link
linkend="conf-build-users-group"><literal>build-users-group</literal>
option</link> in the <link linkend="sec-conf-file">Nix configuration
file</link> (<literal>/nix/etc/nix/nix.conf</literal>):
<programlisting>
build-users-group = nixbld
</programlisting>
</para>
</section>
</section> <!-- end of permissions section -->
<section><title>Nix store/database owned by root</title>
<para>The simplest setup is to let <literal>root</literal> own the Nix
store and database. I.e.,
<screen>
$ chown -R root /nix/store /nix/var/nix</screen>
</para>
<para>The Nix daemon should be started as follows (as
<literal>root</literal>):
<screen>
$ nix-worker --daemon</screen>
You’ll want to put that line somewhere in your system’s boot
scripts.</para>
<para>To let unprivileged users use the daemon, they should set the
<link linkend="envar-remote"><envar>NIX_REMOTE</envar> environment
variable</link> to <literal>daemon</literal>. So you should put a
line like
<programlisting>
export NIX_REMOTE=daemon</programlisting>
into the users’ login scripts.</para>
</section>
<section><title>Nix store/database not owned by root</title>
<para>It is also possible to let the Nix store and database be owned
by a non-root user, which should be more secure<footnote><para>Note
however that even when the Nix daemon runs as root, not
<emphasis>that</emphasis> much code is executed as root: Nix
expression evaluation is performed by the calling (unprivileged) user,
and builds are performed under the special build user accounts. So
only the code that accesses the database and starts builds is executed
as <literal>root</literal>.</para></footnote>. Typically, this user
is a special account called <literal>nix</literal>, but it can be
named anything. It should own the Nix store and database:
<screen>
$ chown -R root /nix/store /nix/var/nix</screen>
and of course <command>nix-worker --daemon</command> should be started
under that user, e.g.,
<screen>
$ su - nix -c "exec /nix/bin/nix-worker --daemon"</screen>
</para>
<para>There is a catch, though: non-<literal>root</literal> users
cannot start builds under the build user accounts, since the
<function>setuid</function> system call is obviously privileged. To
allow a non-<literal>root</literal> Nix daemon to use the build user
feature, it calls a setuid-root helper program,
<command>nix-setuid-helper</command>. This program is installed in
<filename><replaceable>prefix</replaceable>/libexec/nix-setuid-helper</filename>.
To set the permissions properly (Nix’s <command>make install</command>
doesn’t do this, since we don’t want to ship setuid-root programs
out-of-the-box):
<screen>
$ chown root.root /nix/libexec/nix-setuid-helper
$ chmod 4755 /nix/libexec/nix-setuid-helper
</screen>
(This example assumes that the Nix binaries are installed in
<filename>/nix</filename>.)</para>
<para>Of course, the <command>nix-setuid-helper</command> command
should not be usable by just anybody, since then anybody could run
commands under the Nix build user accounts. For that reason there is
a configuration file <filename>/etc/nix-setuid.conf</filename> that
restricts the use of the helper. This file should be a text file
containing precisely two lines, the first being the Nix daemon user
and the second being the build users group, e.g.,
<programlisting>
nix
nixbld
</programlisting>
The setuid-helper barfs if it is called by a user other than the one
specified on the first line, or if it is asked to execute a build
under a user who is not a member of the group specified on the second
line. The file <filename>/etc/nix-setuid.conf</filename> must be
owned by root, and must not be group- or world-writable. The
setuid-helper barfs if this is not the case.</para>
</section>
<section><title>Restricting access</title>
<para>To limit which users can perform Nix operations, you can use the
permissions on the directory
<filename>/nix/var/nix/daemon-socket</filename>. For instance, if you
want to restrict the use of Nix to the members of a group called
<literal>nix-users</literal>, do
<screen>
$ chgrp nix-users /nix/var/nix/daemon-socket
$ chmod ug=rwx,o= /nix/var/nix/daemon-socket
</screen>
This way, users who are not in the <literal>nix-users</literal> group
cannot connect to the Unix domain socket
<filename>/nix/var/nix/daemon-socket/socket</filename>, so they cannot
perform Nix operations.</para>
</section>
</section> <!-- end of multi-user -->
</section> <!-- end of security -->
<section><title>Using Nix</title>

43
doc/manual/nix-env.xml
View file

@ -19,13 +19,6 @@
<command>nix-env</command>
<xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="opt-common-syn.xml#xmlns(db=http://docbook.org/ns/docbook)xpointer(/db:nop/*)" />
<arg><option>--arg</option> <replaceable>name</replaceable> <replaceable>value</replaceable></arg>
<arg>
<group choice='req'>
<arg choice='plain'><option>--attr</option></arg>
<arg choice='plain'><option>-A</option></arg>
</group>
<replaceable>attrPath</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg>
<group choice='req'>
<arg choice='plain'><option>--file</option></arg>
@ -45,9 +38,6 @@
<replaceable>system</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg><option>--dry-run</option></arg>
<arg><option>--from-expression</option></arg>
<arg><option>-E</option></arg>
<arg><option>--from-profile</option> <replaceable>path</replaceable></arg>
<arg choice='plain'><replaceable>operation</replaceable></arg>
<arg rep='repeat'><replaceable>options</replaceable></arg>
<arg rep='repeat'><replaceable>arguments</replaceable></arg>
@ -190,6 +180,7 @@ linkend="sec-common-options" />.</para>
<arg choice='plain'><option>--install</option></arg>
<arg choice='plain'><option>-i</option></arg>
</group>
<xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="opt-inst-syn.xml#xmlns(db=http://docbook.org/ns/docbook)xpointer(/db:nop/*)" />
<group choice='opt'>
<arg choice='plain'><option>--preserve-installed</option></arg>
<arg choice='plain'><option>-P</option></arg>
@ -397,6 +388,7 @@ the following paths will be substituted:
<arg choice='plain'><option>--upgrade</option></arg>
<arg choice='plain'><option>-u</option></arg>
</group>
<xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="opt-inst-syn.xml#xmlns(db=http://docbook.org/ns/docbook)xpointer(/db:nop/*)" />
<group choice='opt'>
<arg choice='plain'><option>--lt</option></arg>
<arg choice='plain'><option>--leq</option></arg>
@ -592,25 +584,21 @@ $ nix-env -e '*' <lineannotation>(remove everything)</lineannotation></screen>
<arg choice='plain'><option>--query</option></arg>
<arg choice='plain'><option>-q</option></arg>
</group>
<arg><option>--xml</option></arg>
<group choice='opt'>
<arg choice='plain'><option>--installed</option></arg>
<arg choice='plain'><option>--available</option></arg>
<arg choice='plain'><option>-a</option></arg>
</group>
<sbr />
<arg>
<group choice='req'>
<arg choice='plain'><option>--status</option></arg>
<arg choice='plain'><option>-s</option></arg>
</group>
</arg>
<arg>
<group choice='req'>
<arg choice='plain'><option>--attr</option></arg>
<arg choice='plain'><option>-A</option></arg>
</group>
</arg>
<arg><option>--attr-path</option></arg>
<arg><option>--no-name</option></arg>
<arg>
<group choice='req'>
@ -622,6 +610,27 @@ $ nix-env -e '*' <lineannotation>(remove everything)</lineannotation></screen>
<arg><option>--drv-path</option></arg>
<arg><option>--out-path</option></arg>
<arg><option>--description</option></arg>
<arg><option>--meta</option></arg>
<sbr />
<arg><option>--xml</option></arg>
<arg>
<group choice='req'>
<arg choice='plain'><option>--prebuilt-only</option></arg>
<arg choice='plain'><option>-b</option></arg>
</group>
</arg>
<arg>
<group choice='req'>
<arg choice='plain'><option>--attr</option></arg>
<arg choice='plain'><option>-A</option></arg>
</group>
<replaceable>attribute-path</replaceable>
</arg>
<sbr />
<arg choice='plain' rep='repeat'><replaceable>names</replaceable></arg>
</cmdsynopsis>

15
doc/manual/opt-inst-syn.xml Normal file
View file

@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
<nop xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook">
<arg>
<group choice='req'>
<arg choice='plain'><option>--attr</option></arg>
<arg choice='plain'><option>-A</option></arg>
</group>
</arg>
<arg><option>--from-expression</option></arg>
<arg><option>-E</option></arg>
<arg><option>--from-profile</option> <replaceable>path</replaceable></arg>
</nop>

3
src/libexpr/primops.cc
View file

@ -789,6 +789,7 @@ static Expr prim_listToAttrs(EvalState & state, const ATermVector & args)
}
}
static Expr prim_removeAttrs(EvalState & state, const ATermVector & args)
{
ATermMap attrs;
@ -803,6 +804,7 @@ static Expr prim_removeAttrs(EvalState & state, const ATermVector & args)
return makeAttrs(attrs);
}
/* Determine whether the argument is a list. */
static Expr prim_isAttrs(EvalState & state, const ATermVector & args)
{
@ -810,6 +812,7 @@ static Expr prim_isAttrs(EvalState & state, const ATermVector & args)
return makeBool(matchAttrs(evalExpr(state, args[0]), list));
}
/*************************************************************
* Lists
*************************************************************/