Configuration and Administration¶
The nixbuild.net Shell¶
nixbuild.net does not have a web frontend for administrating your account. Instead all administration and configuration is done through a terminal-based shell accessible over SSH like this:
ssh eu.nixbuild.net shell
By default, the SSH key you used when registering is used both for performing Nix builds and for accessing the administration shell. You can, however, add more SSH keys to your account and give the keys different permissions within your account. It doesn't matter what user name you connect with, only your SSH key will be checked. This also means that the same SSH keys can't be added to multiple nixbuild.net accounts.
The nixbuild.net shell doesn't yet have support for command history or many other features that you could expect from a proper shell. However, you can use the rlwrap program to mitigate this:
rlwrap ssh eu.nixbuild.net shell
This will make things like Up/Down arrow keys and CTRL-R work as you would expect.
The greeting screen showed each time you log in to the shell also includes a list of all top-level commands, and instructions on how the help system works:
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••••••• nixbuild.net •••••••
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Welcome to nixbuild.net!
This shell allows you to administer your account
and retrieve information about your nix builds.
Account id: IIERI7
Unbilled CPU hours: 0
Free build time left: 49:59:59
Available shell commands:
help Show help
settings Configure account or SSH key
settings
usage Show resource usage
ssh-keys Manage your public SSH keys
billing Billing activation and info
signing-keys Manage Nix signing keys
tokens Manage auth tokens
builds Manage builds
Run 'help COMMAND' for help on individual shell commands.
For help on subcommands run 'COMMAND SUBCOMMAND --help'.
For more documentation, see:
https://docs.nixbuild.net/configuration
Account Usage¶
To see how much you've been using nixbuild.net, run the usage command:
nixbuild.net> usage
Resources used since 2021-03-01
--------------------
Build count : 51
Successful builds : 51
Wall time : 5.79 s
CPU time : 6.26 s
The usage metrics only includes non-discarded builds and includes any free build time consumed.
To find out your currently accumulated cost, or see past invoices, use the 'billing info' command.
By default, the usage command will show your usage during the current month.
You can also show the previous month's usage with the -l option and the total
usage with the -t option:
nixbuild.net> usage -h
usage - Show resource usage
Usage: usage [(-t|--total) | (-l|--last-month) | (-m|--this-month)]
Available options:
-t,--total Show total usage
-l,--last-month Show last month's usage
-m,--this-month Show this month's usage (default)
-h,--help Show this help text
To get information on how much money you've spent on builds, use the billing commands.
Settings¶
You can manage your nixbuild.net settings with the settings
command.
Show all settings by running settings --show:
nixbuild.net> settings --show
Account settings
----------------
access-tokens <no entries>
allow-build true
allow-shell true
always-substitute true
caches <no entries>
inject-fs-randomness false
+ keep-builds-running true
max-cpu-hours-per-month 2000
reuse-build-failures true
reuse-build-timeouts false
substituters https://cache.nixos.org
trusted-public-keys cache.nixos.org-1:6NCHdD59X431o0gWypbMrAURkbJ16ZPMQFGspcDShjY=
settings-from-drv-env false
settings-from-ssh-env true
Settings with a '+' sign have been assigned a value, others are using system defaults.
Set, get and reset individual settings with settings <SETTING>:
nixbuild.net> settings keep-builds-running --set true
nixbuild.net> settings keep-builds-running --show
keep-builds-running true
nixbuild.net> settings keep-builds-running --reset
nixbuild.net> settings keep-builds-running --show
keep-builds-running false
Complex settings like lists have the options --add and --remove instead of
--set.
You can revert all account settings by running settings --reset. Note that this
doesn't revert any of the settings you might have configured for individual SSH
keys.
SSH Keys¶
You can list, add and remove ssh keys associated with your account using the
ssh-keys command:
ssh-keys - Manage your public SSH keys
Usage: ssh-keys SUBCOMMAND
Available options:
-h,--help Show this help text
Available subcommands:
list List SSH keys
add Add a key
remove Remove a key
get Get settings overrides for an SSH key
set Set settings overrides for an SSH key
unset Unset settings overrides for an SSH key
Binary Caches¶
Substitution¶
nixbuild.net supports fetching build dependencies from binary caches. This can make builds a lot faster, especially if your network upload speed is poor.
By default nixbuild.net uses cache.nixos.org to
perform substitution, just like an ordinary Nix installation does. You can
disable substitution by setting substituters to an
empty list. You can also add other substituters that you want nixbuild.net to
use when it runs your builds. Remember that when adding new substituters you
also need to add their public keys using the
trusted-public-keys setting. The
substituters and trusted-public-keys settings work the same in nixbuild.net
as they do for a local Nix installation.
nixbuild.net only supports substituting from publicly available HTTP caches. If you need support for using private substituters, contact [email protected].
You can use public Cachix caches for substitution. Simply
add a substituter with an URL on the form https://<cache name>.cachix.org.
You see the public key of a cache if you visit https://<cache name>.cachix.org
in your browser.
Uploading to external caches¶
nixbuild.net also supports uploading store paths to external caches. Any cache added to the caches setting will be populated with the transitive closure of the build's inputs and outputs. Uploading of a build's inputs happens in parallel to running the build, and the outputs are uploaded as soon as the build finishes.
Utilizing nixbuild.net for performing cache uploads means that you don't have to do that yourself as an extra step after the build is done. If also combined with remote store building, you can cut down network traffic to a minimum which can really improve performance in some cases.
Currently, nixbuild.net only supports uploading to Cachix caches. See the documentation of the caches setting for instruction on how to configure Cachix caches. If you would like to see support for additional cache types in nixbuild.net, please contact [email protected].
Using nixbuild.net as a substituter¶
You can set up Nix to use nixbuild.net as a substituter on your local machine or CI builder. This can improve performance in some situtations, and it is very useful in custom CI setups where you want to integrate nixbuild.net. Note that even if you set up nixbuild.net as a substituter, you still need to use an SSH key to access it.
To set up nixbuild.net as a substituter, first fetch your public signing key through the shell:
nixbuild.net> signing-keys account-keys
nixbuild.net/bob-1:8tJU22/XxyINhP+wM65gwSIlg0rrQrmWhFf5+8u8F/s=
Then add the substituter and signing key to your existing configuration in
nix.conf:
substituters = ... ssh://eu.nixbuild.net
trusted-public-keys = ... nixbuild.net/bob-1:8tJU22/XxyINhP+wM65gwSIlg0rrQrmWhFf5+8u8F/s=
You can use trusted-substituters instead of substituters to not use nixbuild.net as a substituter by default, but make it available for selection on the command line.
Billing¶
The billing commands let you manage billing for your account:
nixbuild.net> billing --help
billing - Billing activation and info
Usage: billing SUBCOMMAND
Available options:
-h,--help Show this help text
Available subcommands:
activate Enable non-free usage
edit Edit your credit card details
info Display billing details
To be able to use nixbuild.net beyond the initial free build hours you need
to enable billing by running billing activate. You can do this at any time,
and as soon as you've done it your account will be able to run non-free builds.
If you run out of free build hours before you have activated billing, you will
not be able to run any more builds. As soon as you activate billing, you will
be able to run builds again.
When activating billing, you will be directed to a
Stripe-hosted web page where you can enter your billing
address and credit card details. When running billing activate you need to
provide your company name or full name (for personal accounts) like this:
nixbuild.net> billing activate Acme LLC
Billing has been activated for your account.
You will now be able to use nixbuild.net beyond your free CPU hours.
If you still have free CPU hours left, you will not be charged until they have been used up.
IMPORTANT: Visit the time-limited url below to enter your credit card details and billing address.
https://billing.stripe.com/session/_J7U1XtINfG0dMoQayAJegz3kcfSsryu
If you want to change your payment method after the above url has expired, use the command 'billing edit'.
If you need to make any other billing changes, please contact [email protected].
If you fail to provide valid billing details your account may be locked.
If you need to change your credit card details at any time, you can use the
billing edit command. If you need to change any other billing details, you
must contact [email protected].
The billing info command lets you see the amount of the upcoming invoice, as
well as past invoices.
List Builds¶
Use the command list builds -r to list your currently running builds:
nixbuild.net> list builds -r
70196 2020-08-23 21:05:10Z 3.21 s 1 CPU [In queue]
/nix/store/ky3fzyaw0hibjpkpyx8s89fhaprxhrba-zlib-1.2.11.drv
70195 2020-08-23 21:05:10Z 3.66 s 1 CPU [In queue]
/nix/store/k8ir9nqbqhlriqs6r97vi19im5rn9nkd-xz-5.2.5.drv
70194 2020-08-23 21:05:09Z 3.40 s 4 CPUs [Running]
/nix/store/5k1i3j15dzqkf8rcga0ap7fjk1q7xj9a-perl-5.30.3.drv
70193 2020-08-23 21:05:08Z 4.18 s 2 CPUs [Running]
/nix/store/7cgb9m0dm9facpzqbyfkz1i0snd2n1y7-gnum4-1.4.18.drv
Remove the -r option to also show historic builds. By default, at most 500
builds are listed, but that can be adjusted with the -l option.