[Nix-dev] How can a normal user use nix?

[Eelco Dolstra]

Hi,

Clemens Tolboom wrote:

> Is it possible for a normal user to subscribe to nix packages?
> 
> What i want is that user clemens is unable to expand the content
> of /nix/store but must be able to use content already available.
> 
> Using /nix/etc/profile.d/nix.sh gives me only the default profile?
> 
> But what about having diffent users/services in need for different
> profiles?
> 
> Do i miss something or is it possible?

This is currently possible by installing the Nix binaries as setuid, see

   http://nix.cs.uu.nl/dist/nix/nix-0.10pre4960/manual/#id2459080

In fact this is what we use in our student lab for several courses. 
However, it's not secure: the users who are in the Nix group have to 
trust each other.

The eventual goal is to allow untrusted users to share a Nix store in 
such a way that anybody can install software.  The trunk of the Nix 
repository (0.10pre) contains code to securely allow anybody to install 
Nix expressions from source (so without downloading pre-built binaries 
from a server - there of course you have the problem that you don't know 
whether the binaries correspond to the sources, and haven't been 
tampered with).  There is also an experimental branch 
(nix/branches/secure in the repository) that also allows secure binary 
installation, but it's not in a useable state yet.

By the way, on most single-user installations (like my laptop), we 
typically just chown the /nix directory to the actual user, so you don't 
have to be root for Nix operations.

-- 
Eelco Dolstra | http://www.cs.uu.nl/~eelco