Nix can now automatically run the garbage collector during builds or
while adding paths to the store. The option "min-free = <bytes>"
specifies that Nix should run the garbage collector whenever free
space in the Nix store drops below <bytes>. It will then delete
garbage until "max-free" bytes are available.
Garbage collection during builds is asynchronous; running builds are
not paused and new builds are not blocked. However, there also is a
synchronous GC run prior to the first build/substitution.
Currently, no old GC roots are deleted (as in "nix-collect-garbage
-d").
Without this, substitute info is fetched sequentially, which is
superslow. In the old UI (e.g. nix-build), we call printMissing(),
which calls queryMissing(), thereby preheating the binary cache
cache. But the new UI doesn't do that.
In particular, drop the "build-" and "gc-" prefixes which are
pointless. So now you can say
nix build --no-sandbox
instead of
nix build --no-build-use-sandbox
This allows builds to call setuid binaries. This was previously
possible until we started using seccomp. Turns out that seccomp by
default disallows processes from acquiring new privileges. Generally,
any use of setuid binaries (except those created by the builder
itself) is by definition impure, but some people were relying on this
ability for certain tests.
Example:
$ nix build '(with import <nixpkgs> {}; runCommand "foo" {} "/run/wrappers/bin/ping -c 1 8.8.8.8; exit 1")' --no-allow-new-privileges
builder for ‘/nix/store/j0nd8kv85hd6r4kxgnwzvr0k65ykf6fv-foo.drv’ failed with exit code 1; last 2 log lines:
cannot raise the capability into the Ambient set
: Operation not permitted
$ nix build '(with import <nixpkgs> {}; runCommand "foo" {} "/run/wrappers/bin/ping -c 1 8.8.8.8; exit 1")' --allow-new-privileges
builder for ‘/nix/store/j0nd8kv85hd6r4kxgnwzvr0k65ykf6fv-foo.drv’ failed with exit code 1; last 6 log lines:
PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=46 time=15.2 ms
Fixes#1429.
Functions like copyClosure() had 3 bool arguments, which creates a
severe risk of mixing up arguments.
Also, implement copyClosure() using copyPaths().
Sandboxes cannot be nested, so if Nix's build runs inside a sandbox,
it cannot use a sandbox itself. I don't see a clean way to detect
whether we're in a sandbox, so use a test-specific hack.
https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/1413
Even with "build-use-sandbox = false", we now use sandboxing with a
permissive profile that allows everything except the creation of
setuid/setgid binaries.
Also, add rules to allow fixed-output derivations to access the
network.
These rules are sufficient to build stdenvDarwin without any
__sandboxProfile magic.
The filename used was not unique and owned by the build user, so
builds could fail with
error: while setting up the build environment: cannot unlink ‘/nix/store/99i210ihnsjacajaw8r33fmgjvzpg6nr-bison-3.0.4.drv.sb’: Permission denied
Fixes
src/libstore/build.cc:2321:45: error: non-constant-expression cannot be narrowed from type 'int' to 'scmp_datum_t' (aka 'unsigned long') in initializer list [-Wc++11-narrowing]
This prevents builders from setting the S_ISUID or S_ISGID bits,
preventing users from using a nixbld* user to create a setuid/setgid
binary to interfere with subsequent builds under the same nixbld* uid.
This is based on aszlig's seccomp code
(47f587700d).
Reported by Linus Heckemann.
This is useful when we're using a diverted store (e.g. "--store
local?root=/tmp/nix") in conjunction with a statically-linked sh from
the host store (e.g. "sandbox-paths =/bin/sh=/nix/store/.../bin/busybox").
There is a security issue when a build accidentally stores its $TMPDIR
in some critical place, such as an RPATH. If
TMPDIR=/tmp/nix-build-..., then any user on the system can recreate
that directory and inject libraries into the RPATH of programs
executed by other users. Since /build probably doesn't exist (or isn't
world-writable), this mitigates the issue.
This is useful for one-off situations where you want to specify a
builder on the command line instead of having to mess with
nix.machines. E.g.
$ nix-build -A hello --argstr system x86_64-darwin \
--option builders 'root@macstadium1 x86_64-darwin'
will perform the specified build on "macstadium1".
It also removes the need for a separate nix.machines file since you
can specify builders in nix.conf directly. (In fact nix.machines is
yet another hack that predates the general nix.conf configuration
file, IIRC.)
Note: this option is supported by the daemon for trusted users. The
fact that this allows trusted users to specify paths to SSH keys to
which they don't normally have access is maybe a bit too much trust...
For backwards compatibility, if the URI is just a hostname, ssh://
(i.e. LegacySSHStore) is prepended automatically.
Also, all fields except the URI are now optional. For example, this is
a valid nix.machines file:
local?root=/tmp/nix
This is useful for testing the remote build machinery since you don't
have to mess around with ssh.
Jörg Thalheim