The nixbuild.net shell¶

The nixbuild.net shell can be accessed over ssh by running:

ssh beta.nixbuild.net shell

It doesn't matter what user name you connect with, but you need to use an ssh key associated to your account. If you've followed the Getting Started guide, shell access should be working.

readline support¶

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 beta.nixbuild.net shell

This will make things like Up/Down arrow keys and CTRL-R to work as you would expect.

Commands¶

The greeting screen showed each time you log in to the shell also includes a list of all top-level commands:

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
••••••• nixbuild.net •••••••
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Welcome to nixbuild.net!

This shell allows you to administer your account
and retrieve information about your nix builds.

Account name: bob
Unbilled CPU hours: 0
Free build time left: 49:59:59

Available shell commands:

  help       Show help
  get        Show all account settings
  set        Set an account settings
  unset      Revert an account setting to default
  list       List entities
  show       Show details about entities
  usage      Show resource usage
  ssh-keys   Manage your public SSH keys

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/nixbuild-shell

Check Your 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.

Configure Settings¶

You can get and set nixbuild.net settings with the get and set commands.

Show all settings by just running get:

nixbuild.net> get
Account Settings
----------------

cache-build-failures  true
cache-build-timeouts  false
keep-builds-running   false
always-substitute     false
never-substitute      false

Settings overrides from your SSH client environment are not
included above.

Set individual settings with set:

nixbuild.net> set keep-builds-running true

nixbuild.net> get
Account Settings
----------------

cache-build-failures  true
cache-build-timeouts  false
keep-builds-running   true
always-substitute     false
never-substitute      false

Settings overrides from your SSH client environment are not
included above.

You can revert account settings back to default with unset:

nixbuild.net> unset keep-builds-running

Manage 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

Manage 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.