NIX_USER_CONF_FILES #3458

zimbatm · 2020-03-30T14:57:23Z

add NIX_USER_CONF_FILES

Motivation: maintain project-level configuration files.

Document the whole situation a bit better so that it corresponds to the
implementation, and add NIX_USER_CONF_FILES that allows overriding
which user files Nix will load during startup.

domenkozar · 2020-04-01T08:09:31Z

The manual generation is currently failing. I tried understanding the error and bisecting the documentation and wasn't able to reduce the error to something actionable.

If this isn't a proof for NixOS/rfcs#64 then I don't know what is :)

edolstra · 2020-04-01T08:41:47Z

It's actually the opposite: DocBook at least has a concept of an "error". Markdown is garbage in, garbage out.

zimbatm · 2020-04-01T08:56:10Z

I can fix the doc error with some more elbow grease. Can I get feedback on the PR instead? :D

@edolstra does the PR make sense to you overall?

edolstra · 2020-04-01T10:57:45Z

@zimbatm Yes, makes sense. However it may make more sense to add an environment variable NIX_CONF_FILE so you don't need to create a directory just for your configuration file. (E.g. a per-project config file could be in <project-dir>/.nix.conf).

edolstra · 2020-04-01T10:59:48Z

Or generalize this to a list of configuration files (e.g. NIX_CONF_FILES = my-project.conf /etc/nix/nix.conf ~/.config/nix/nix.conf ). After all, it may not be desirable to have the per-project config file completely override the user config file.

lheckemann · 2020-04-01T12:50:40Z

What advantage does this have over using the existing XDG_CONF_DIRS support?

edolstra · 2020-04-01T12:58:09Z

@lheckemann Good point, that might be the way to go.

roberth · 2020-04-01T13:24:16Z

@lheckemann

This is useful because sometimes it is desirable to be more selective than changing the config home of all XDG-respecting programs.

For example, you'll want your editor to read the usual configuration files.

lheckemann · 2020-04-01T13:51:52Z

You don't need to change the config home (where programs write their config to), only add a dir to the config path (where they read their config from) — and if the extra entry in the config path only contains relevant config (i.e. nix config) it'll only affect nix.

andir · 2020-04-01T14:45:39Z

On 06:52 01.04.20, Linus Heckemann wrote: You don't need to change the config home (where programs write their config to), only add a dir to the config path (where they read their config from) — and if the extra entry in the config path only contains relevant config (i.e. nix config) it'll only affect nix.

Yeah, I am just setting that as part of my .envrc:

export XDG_CONFIG_DIRS="$(pwd)/.config:$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS"

It has served me well for a while now. If there was another variable on the nix end it should probably just allow a list of files (as eelco suggested).

roberth · 2020-04-01T14:57:46Z

I was focused on NIX_USER_CONF_DIR so I didn't notice the plural in XDG_CONFIG_DIRS. This does seem adequate for most cases. If you don't want an extra ".config" directory in your project, it seems like you could generate it in a shell.nix dependency.

zimbatm · 2020-04-01T16:51:47Z

@lheckemann XDG_CONFIG_DIRS is loaded before XDG_CONFIG_HOME as per the XDG spec. If the user has set any configuration they will take precedence over XDG_CONFIG_DIRS.

guibou

I don't know if I'm authorized to approve, but this looks really nice and solves an important use case. Bonus point for documentation.

zimbatm · 2020-04-06T17:42:00Z

A variation on the XDG idea would be to push XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=$XDG_CACHE_HOME:$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS and then override XDG_CACHE_HOME=$PWD/config where $PWD is the project root. Unfortunately, the first thing I noticed is that git only implements the XDG spec partially and doesn't look at XDG_CONFIG_DIRS. So I think this PR is really needed.

doc/manual/command-ref/conf-file.xml

zimbatm · 2020-04-06T19:29:32Z

I fixed the doc generation and added a minimal test. The last thing to address is @edolstra's comment on NIX_CONF_FILE and NIX_CONF_FILES (which make a lot of sense to me).

zimbatm · 2020-04-07T16:46:06Z

@edolstra the env has been renamed to NIX_CONF_FILES and now appends to the existing config paths.

matthewbauer · 2020-04-10T17:59:50Z

Does this override the system configuration or just append to it? For instance, what happens when a local config has substituters = .... Is https://cache.nixos.org/ still loaded?

zimbatm · 2020-04-13T11:59:21Z

Keys get overridden and the last writer wins. For example, if /etc/nix/nix.conf sets the substituters key and ~/.config/nix/nix.conf as well, then the user config will take precedence. It's a valid concern but I think that should be handled in a separate PR as it extends the scope of the work and is not a new issue introduced by this PR.

domenkozar · 2020-04-13T12:11:26Z

That's #2149

zimbatm · 2020-04-13T16:19:50Z

Who is able to give this PR another substantial review? Does it make sense how I changed the code structure to load all the config files?

PkmX · 2020-04-13T19:37:15Z

doc/manual/command-ref/conf-file.xml

+  <listitem>
+    <para>
+      And finally, every files pointed to by
+      <envar>NIX_EXTRA_CONF_FILES</envar>, separated by <literal>:</literal>


Is this implemented?

yes? You can see it in action in the admittedly minimal test.

It only uses NIX_CONF_FILES, not NIX_EXTRA_CONF_FILES.

oh ok. This is a typo. Fixed in 976ead5

PkmX · 2020-04-13T20:02:09Z

It also seems like the NIX_CONF_FILES as implemented are actually extra conf files that are read after $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS and $XDG_CONFIG_HOME, but I think @edolstra's comment about NIX_CONF_FILES is that it specifies the absolute list of conf files to be loaded ignoring $NIX_CONF_DIR/nix.conf and all users config files. This would fit my use case where my build system is essentially a wrapper over Nix and needs exact control over the config, and I don't want any system-wide or user-wide nix.conf to be loaded.

doc/manual/command-ref/conf-file.xml

edolstra · 2020-04-14T12:41:35Z

doc/manual/command-ref/conf-file.xml

+    <para>
+      And finally, every files pointed to by
+      <envar>NIX_CONF_FILES</envar>, separated by <literal>:</literal>
+      if that environment variable exists.


This is phrased awkwardly (it's the contents of NIX_CONF_FILE that's separated by :).

doc/manual/command-ref/env-common.xml

src/libstore/globals.cc

src/libutil/util.hh

Motivation: maintain project-level configuration files. Document the whole situation a bit better so that it corresponds to the implementation, and add NIX_USER_CONF_FILES that allows overriding which user files Nix will load during startup.

zimbatm · 2020-04-14T16:47:40Z

This is ready for another round of review.

I changed NIX_CONF_FILES to NIX_USER_CONF_FILES to be more specific and also indicate that it overrides the user configuration.
I changed the logic so that NIX_USER_CONF_FILES replaces the default locations where user config is being loaded. The system /etc/nix/nix.conf is still being loaded in any case as it plays a special role.
Fixed the docs, probably introduced some more language issues

zimbatm force-pushed the nix-user-conf-dir branch from 6f62825 to 3a9d3d0 Compare March 30, 2020 15:08

roberth mentioned this pull request Apr 1, 2020

Source ./nix.conf file if exists #2704

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guibou approved these changes Apr 2, 2020

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zimbatm force-pushed the nix-user-conf-dir branch 3 times, most recently from 56ce053 to a1cba71 Compare April 6, 2020 19:24

zimbatm force-pushed the nix-user-conf-dir branch 3 times, most recently from 4b13d54 to 62b0d3d Compare April 7, 2020 14:26

PkmX reviewed Apr 13, 2020

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zimbatm force-pushed the nix-user-conf-dir branch 3 times, most recently from 0a1fd9f to a648322 Compare April 14, 2020 16:44

zimbatm changed the title ~~NIX_USER_CONF_DIR~~ NIX_USER_CONF_FILES Apr 14, 2020

add NIX_USER_CONF_FILES

895516c

Motivation: maintain project-level configuration files. Document the whole situation a bit better so that it corresponds to the implementation, and add NIX_USER_CONF_FILES that allows overriding which user files Nix will load during startup.

zimbatm force-pushed the nix-user-conf-dir branch from a648322 to 895516c Compare April 14, 2020 16:45

edolstra merged commit a118293 into NixOS:master Apr 15, 2020

zimbatm deleted the nix-user-conf-dir branch April 15, 2020 11:11

ldesgoui mentioned this pull request Aug 1, 2021

Write Nix 2.4 release notes #4521

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Introduce nix Qarik-Group/disruptor#2

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NIX_USER_CONF_FILES #3458

NIX_USER_CONF_FILES #3458

zimbatm commented Mar 30, 2020 •

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domenkozar commented Apr 1, 2020

edolstra commented Apr 1, 2020

zimbatm commented Apr 1, 2020

edolstra commented Apr 1, 2020

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lheckemann commented Apr 1, 2020

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zimbatm commented Apr 6, 2020 •

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zimbatm commented Apr 14, 2020

NIX_USER_CONF_FILES #3458

NIX_USER_CONF_FILES #3458

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zimbatm commented Mar 30, 2020 • edited

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zimbatm commented Mar 30, 2020 •

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