[Nix-dev] sudo and nix-channel (was: Re: NixOS channel)

[Kirill Elagin]

Ahh... I don't get how this works. According to `man sudoers`, env_reset is
enabled by default, so $HOME should be set to the target user's home (and,
indeed, that happens in my Gentoo box).
On the other hand, description of `-H` option in `man sudo` states that “By
default, sudo does not modify HOME (see set_home and always_set_home in
sudoers(5))“, while `man sudoers` says that always_set_home “is off by
default”. Who to trust??

Either the environment should be reset or nix-channel should use $USER
instead of $HOME to find the path to .nix-channels.

--
Кирилл Елагин


2012/6/17 Florian Friesdorf <flo at chaoflow.net>

> On Tue, 15 May 2012 14:11:43 -0400, Eelco Dolstra <
> eelco.dolstra at logicblox.com> wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Since a few weeks there is a NixOS channel, which is now the default
> mechanism
> > for keeping NixOS up to date.  (A channel is a Nix mechanism for
> distributing a
> > consistent set of Nix expressions and binaries.)  A quick summary on how
> to use it:
> >
> > $ nix-channel --add
> http://nixos.org/releases/nixos/channels/nixos-unstable
> > $ nix-channel --update
>
> $ sudo nix-channel --add ...
>
> creates the ~/.nix-channels in the HOME of the user running sudo, not
> /root.
>
> $ sudo nix-channel --update
>
> creates ~/.nix-defexpr/channels in the HOME of the user running sudo,
> not /root.
>
>
> $ sudo -i
> # nix-channel --add ...
> # nix-channel --update
>
> work like expected inside /root.
>
>
> It feels not many people are using sudo to directly run commands or to
> rephrase: is anybody except me using sudo without -i?
>
> Do we want to support running commands with sudo and if, what is the
> expected behaviour?
>
> Use user config but do things as root?
> Use root config and do things as root?
>
> I think the latter, as using user config as root is dangerous and
> especially in case of the channels, feels wrong.
>
> better:
>
> $ nix-channel --add  (adds a channel for the current user)
> $ sudo nix-channel --add (adds a channel for root)
>
>
> regards
> florian
> --
> Florian Friesdorf <flo at chaoflow.net>
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>
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