Configuration and Administration¶
You can configure your nixbuild.net account using either an SSH-based terminal shell, or using the web UI that you can log in to at nixbuild.net.
The web UI is still limited in its functionality, but you can use it to get started, manage your SSH keys and create access tokens. You can also see information about the builds you've run.
The nixbuild.net Shell¶
nixbuild.net has a terminal-based adminstration shell accessible over SSH, that you can login to 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. 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:
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
••••••• nixbuild.net •••••••
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
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
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 account settings by running settings --show:
nixbuild.net> settings --show
Account settings
----------------
access-tokens <no entries>
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 define settings that is only used when a specific SSH key is used for
accessing nixbuild.net. Those settings will then override the account-level
settings. To set key-specific settings add the option --ssh-key <key id> to
the settings commands. The you can list your SSH key ids with the ssh-keys
list command (the key id is the last column).
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. To revert key-specific settings, run settings --ssh-key
<key id> --reset.
SSH Keys¶
You can list, add and remove ssh keys associated with your account using the
ssh-keys command:
Usage: ssh-keys COMMAND
Manage your public SSH keys
Available options:
-h,--help Show this help text
Available commands:
list List the public SSH keys identifying your
account
add Add a public SSH key to your account
remove Remove a public SSH key from your account
NOTE: Settings for SSH keys are no longer configured here, use the
'settings' commands with the '--ssh-key' option instead.
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 builds list -r to list your currently running builds:
nixbuild.net> builds list -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.