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authorMikey Ariel <mariel@redhat.com>2014-08-27T16·41+0200
committerMikey Ariel <mariel@redhat.com>2014-08-27T16·41+0200
commit8901acc97664aa8ebf687ee904428aa57a5192be (patch)
treef7bfefccbc2a08cc49eb37b424758a6158b29b58 /doc/manual/command-ref/nix-copy-closure.xml
parent3f0a4bf0e7254edddaa864d23893d98da23c2977 (diff)
Restructuring the Nix manual
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+<refentry xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
+          xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
+          xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
+          xml:id="sec-nix-copy-closure">
+
+<refmeta>
+  <refentrytitle>nix-copy-closure</refentrytitle>
+  <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
+  <refmiscinfo class="source">Nix</refmiscinfo>
+  <refmiscinfo class="version"><xi:include href="version.txt" parse="text"/></refmiscinfo>
+</refmeta>
+
+<refnamediv>
+  <refname>nix-copy-closure</refname>
+  <refpurpose>copy a closure to or from a remote machine via SSH</refpurpose>
+</refnamediv>
+
+<refsynopsisdiv>
+  <cmdsynopsis>
+    <command>nix-copy-closure</command>
+    <group>
+      <arg choice='plain'><option>--to</option></arg>
+      <arg choice='plain'><option>--from</option></arg>
+    </group>
+    <arg><option>--sign</option></arg>
+    <arg><option>--gzip</option></arg>
+    <!--
+    <arg><option>- -show-progress</option></arg>
+    -->
+    <arg><option>--include-outputs</option></arg>
+    <arg><option>--use-substitutes</option></arg>
+    <arg><option>-s</option></arg>
+    <arg choice='plain'>
+      <replaceable>user@</replaceable><replaceable>machine</replaceable>
+    </arg>
+    <arg choice='plain'><replaceable>paths</replaceable></arg>
+  </cmdsynopsis>
+</refsynopsisdiv>
+
+
+<refsection><title>Description</title>
+
+<para><command>nix-copy-closure</command> gives you an easy and
+efficient way to exchange software between machines.  Given one or
+more Nix store paths <replaceable>paths</replaceable> on the local
+machine, <command>nix-copy-closure</command> computes the closure of
+those paths (i.e. all their dependencies in the Nix store), and copies
+all paths in the closure to the remote machine via the
+<command>ssh</command> (Secure Shell) command.  With the
+<option>--from</option>, the direction is reversed:
+the closure of <replaceable>paths</replaceable> on a remote machine is
+copied to the Nix store on the local machine.</para>
+
+<para>This command is efficient because it only sends the store paths
+that are missing on the target machine.</para>
+
+<para>Since <command>nix-copy-closure</command> calls
+<command>ssh</command>, you may be asked to type in the appropriate
+password or passphrase.  In fact, you may be asked
+<emphasis>twice</emphasis> because <command>nix-copy-closure</command>
+currently connects twice to the remote machine, first to get the set
+of paths missing on the target machine, and second to send the dump of
+those paths.  If this bothers you, use
+<command>ssh-agent</command>.</para>
+
+
+<refsection><title>Options</title>
+
+<variablelist>
+
+  <varlistentry><term><option>--to</option></term>
+
+    <listitem><para>Copy the closure of
+    <replaceable>paths</replaceable> from the local Nix store to the
+    Nix store on <replaceable>machine</replaceable>.  This is the
+    default.</para></listitem>
+
+  </varlistentry>
+
+  <varlistentry><term><option>--from</option></term>
+
+    <listitem><para>Copy the closure of
+    <replaceable>paths</replaceable> from the Nix store on
+    <replaceable>machine</replaceable> to the local Nix
+    store.</para></listitem>
+
+  </varlistentry>
+
+  <varlistentry><term><option>--sign</option></term>
+
+    <listitem><para>Let the sending machine cryptographically sign the
+    dump of each path with the key in
+    <filename><replaceable>sysconfdir</replaceable>/nix/signing-key.sec</filename>.
+    If the user on the target machine does not have direct access to
+    the Nix store (i.e., if the target machine has a multi-user Nix
+    installation), then the target machine will check the dump against
+    <filename><replaceable>sysconfdir</replaceable>/nix/signing-key.pub</filename>
+    before unpacking it in its Nix store.  This allows secure sharing
+    of store paths between untrusted users on two machines, provided
+    that there is a trust relation between the Nix installations on
+    both machines (namely, they have matching public/secret
+    keys).</para></listitem>
+
+  </varlistentry>
+
+  <varlistentry><term><option>--gzip</option></term>
+
+    <listitem><para>Enable compression of the SSH
+    connection.</para></listitem>
+
+  </varlistentry>
+
+  <!--
+  <varlistentry><term><option>- -show-progress</option></term>
+
+    <listitem><para>Show the progress of each path's transfer as it's made.
+    This requires the <command>pv</command> utility to be in <envar>PATH</envar>.</para></listitem>
+
+  </varlistentry>
+  -->
+
+  <varlistentry><term><option>--include-outputs</option></term>
+
+    <listitem><para>Also copy the outputs of store derivations
+    included in the closure.</para></listitem>
+
+  </varlistentry>
+
+  <varlistentry><term><option>--use-substitutes</option> / <option>-s</option></term>
+
+    <listitem><para>Attempt to download missing paths on the target
+    machine using Nix’s substitute mechanism.  Any paths that cannot
+    be substituted on the target are still copied normally from the
+    source.  This is useful, for instance, if the connection between
+    the source and target machine is slow, but the connection between
+    the target machine and <literal>nixos.org</literal> (the default
+    binary cache server) is fast.</para></listitem>
+
+  </varlistentry>
+
+</variablelist>
+
+</refsection>
+
+
+<refsection><title>Environment variables</title>
+
+<variablelist>
+
+  <varlistentry><term><envar>NIX_SSHOPTS</envar></term>
+
+    <listitem><para>Additional options to be passed to
+    <command>ssh</command> on the command line.</para></listitem>
+
+  </varlistentry>
+
+</variablelist>
+
+</refsection>
+
+
+<refsection><title>Examples</title>
+
+<para>Copy Firefox with all its dependencies to a remote machine:
+
+<screen>
+$ nix-copy-closure --to alice@itchy.labs $(type -tP firefox)</screen>
+
+</para>
+
+<para>Copy Subversion from a remote machine and then install it into a
+user environment:
+
+<screen>
+$ nix-copy-closure --from alice@itchy.labs \
+    /nix/store/0dj0503hjxy5mbwlafv1rsbdiyx1gkdy-subversion-1.4.4
+$ nix-env -i /nix/store/0dj0503hjxy5mbwlafv1rsbdiyx1gkdy-subversion-1.4.4
+</screen>
+
+</para>
+
+</refsection>
+
+
+</refsection>
+
+</refentry>