Manual: Update chapter on remote builds

Alos add a command "nix ping-store" to make it easier to see if Nix
can connect to a remote builder (e.g. 'nix ping-store --store
ssh://mac').

2 files changed, 156 insertions, 70 deletions

diff --git a/doc/manual/advanced-topics/distributed-builds.xml b/doc/manual/advanced-topics/distributed-builds.xml
index 1957e1105e68..20fd6a0cfb0d 100644
--- a/doc/manual/advanced-topics/distributed-builds.xml
+++ b/doc/manual/advanced-topics/distributed-builds.xml
@@ -4,71 +4,109 @@
       version="5.0"
       xml:id='chap-distributed-builds'>
 
-<title>Distributed Builds</title>
-
-<para>Nix supports distributed builds, where a local Nix installation can
-forward Nix builds to other machines over the network.  This allows
-multiple builds to be performed in parallel (thus improving
-performance) and allows Nix to perform multi-platform builds in a
-semi-transparent way.  For instance, if you perform a build for a
-<literal>x86_64-darwin</literal> on an <literal>i686-linux</literal>
-machine, Nix can automatically forward the build to a
-<literal>x86_64-darwin</literal> machine, if available.</para>
-
-<para>You can enable distributed builds by setting the environment
-variable <envar>NIX_BUILD_HOOK</envar> to point to a program that Nix
-will call whenever it wants to build a derivation.  The build hook
-(typically a shell or Perl script) can decline the build, in which Nix
-will perform it in the usual way if possible, or it can accept it, in
-which case it is responsible for somehow getting the inputs of the
-build to another machine, doing the build there, and getting the
-results back.</para>
-
-<example xml:id='ex-remote-systems'><title>Remote machine configuration:
-<filename>remote-systems.conf</filename></title>
-<programlisting>
-nix@mcflurry.labs.cs.uu.nl  x86_64-darwin   /home/nix/.ssh/id_quarterpounder_auto  2
-nix@scratchy.labs.cs.uu.nl  i686-linux      /home/nix/.ssh/id_scratchy_auto        8 1 kvm
-nix@itchy.labs.cs.uu.nl     i686-linux      /home/nix/.ssh/id_scratchy_auto        8 2
-nix@poochie.labs.cs.uu.nl   i686-linux      /home/nix/.ssh/id_scratchy_auto        8 2 kvm perf
-</programlisting>
-</example>
-
-<para>Nix ships with a build hook that should be suitable for most
-purposes.  It uses <command>ssh</command> and
-<command>nix-copy-closure</command> to copy the build inputs and
-outputs and perform the remote build.  To use it, you should set
-<envar>NIX_BUILD_HOOK</envar> to
-<filename><replaceable>prefix</replaceable>/libexec/nix/build-remote</filename>.
-You should also define a list of available build machines and point
-the environment variable <envar>NIX_REMOTE_SYSTEMS</envar> to
-it. <envar>NIX_REMOTE_SYSTEMS</envar> must be an absolute path. An
-example configuration is shown in <xref linkend='ex-remote-systems'
-/>.  Each line in the file specifies a machine, with the following
-bits of information:
+<title>Remote Builds</title>
+
+<para>Nix supports remote builds, where a local Nix installation can
+forward Nix builds to other machines.  This allows multiple builds to
+be performed in parallel and allows Nix to perform multi-platform
+builds in a semi-transparent way.  For instance, if you perform a
+build for a <literal>x86_64-darwin</literal> on an
+<literal>i686-linux</literal> machine, Nix can automatically forward
+the build to a <literal>x86_64-darwin</literal> machine, if
+available.</para>
+
+<para>To forward a build to a remote machine, it’s required that the
+remote machine is accessible via SSH and that it has Nix
+installed. You can test whether connecting to the remote Nix instance
+works, e.g.
+
+<screen>
+$ nix ping-store --store ssh://mac
+</screen>
+
+will try to connect to the machine named <literal>mac</literal>. It is
+possible to specify an SSH identity file as part of the remote store
+URI, e.g.
+
+<screen>
+$ nix ping-store --store ssh://mac?ssh-key=/home/alice/my-key
+</screen>
+
+Since builds should be non-interactive, the key should not have a
+passphrase. Alternatively, you can load identities ahead of time into
+<command>ssh-agent</command> or <command>gpg-agent</command>.</para>
+
+<para>If you get the error
+
+<screen>
+bash: nix-store: command not found
+error: cannot connect to 'mac'
+</screen>
+
+then you need to ensure that the <envar>PATH</envar> of
+non-interactive login shells contains Nix.</para>
+
+<warning><para>If you are building via the Nix daemon, it is the Nix
+daemon user account (that is, <literal>root</literal>) that should
+have SSH access to the remote machine. If you can’t or don’t want to
+configure <literal>root</literal> to be able to access to remote
+machine, you can use a private Nix store instead by passing
+e.g. <literal>--store ~/my-nix</literal>.</para></warning>
+
+<para>The list of remote machines can be specified on the command line
+or in the Nix configuration file. The former is convenient for
+testing. For example, the following command allows you to build a
+derivation for <literal>x86_64-darwin</literal> on a Linux machine:
+
+<screen>
+$ uname
+Linux
+
+$ nix build \
+  '(with import &lt;nixpkgs> { system = "x86_64-darwin"; }; runCommand "foo" {} "uname > $out")' \
+  --builders 'ssh://mac x86_64-darwin'
+[1/0/1 built, 0.0 MiB DL] building foo on ssh://mac
+
+$ cat ./result
+Darwin
+</screen>
+
+It is possible to specify multiple builders separated by a semicolon
+or a newline, e.g.
+
+<screen>
+  --builders 'ssh://mac x86_64-darwin ; ssh://beastie x86_64-freebsd'
+</screen>
+</para>
+
+<para>Each machine specification consists of the following elements,
+separated by spaces. Only the first element is required.
 
 <orderedlist>
 
-  <listitem><para>The name of the remote machine, with optionally the
-  user under which the remote build should be performed.  This is
-  actually passed as an argument to <command>ssh</command>, so it can
-  be an alias defined in your
+  <listitem><para>The URI of the remote store in the format
+  <literal>ssh://[<replaceable>username</replaceable>@]<replaceable>hostname</replaceable></literal>,
+  e.g. <literal>ssh://nix@mac</literal> or
+  <literal>ssh://mac</literal>. For backward compatibility,
+  <literal>ssh://</literal> may be omitted. The hostname may be an
+  alias defined in your
   <filename>~/.ssh/config</filename>.</para></listitem>
 
   <listitem><para>A comma-separated list of Nix platform type
   identifiers, such as <literal>x86_64-darwin</literal>.  It is
   possible for a machine to support multiple platform types, e.g.,
-  <literal>i686-linux,x86_64-linux</literal>.</para></listitem>
+  <literal>i686-linux,x86_64-linux</literal>. If omitted, this
+  defaults to the local platform type.</para></listitem>
 
-  <listitem><para>The SSH private key to be used to log in to the
-  remote machine.  Since builds should be non-interactive, this key
-  should not have a passphrase!</para></listitem>
+  <listitem><para>The SSH identity file to be used to log in to the
+  remote machine. If omitted, SSH will use its regular
+  identities.</para></listitem>
 
-  <listitem><para>The maximum number of builds that
-  <filename>build-remote</filename> will execute in parallel on the
-  machine.  Typically this should be equal to the number of CPU cores.
-  For instance, the machine <literal>itchy</literal> in the example
-  will execute up to 8 builds in parallel.</para></listitem>
+  <listitem><para>The maximum number of builds that Nix will execute
+  in parallel on the machine.  Typically this should be equal to the
+  number of CPU cores.  For instance, the machine
+  <literal>itchy</literal> in the example will execute up to 8 builds
+  in parallel.</para></listitem>
 
   <listitem><para>The “speed factor”, indicating the relative speed of
   the machine.  If there are multiple machines of the right type, Nix
@@ -76,30 +114,69 @@ bits of information:
 
   <listitem><para>A comma-separated list of <emphasis>supported
   features</emphasis>.  If a derivation has the
-  <varname>requiredSystemFeatures</varname> attribute, then
-  <filename>build-remote</filename> will only perform the
-  derivation on a machine that has the specified features.  For
-  instance, the attribute
+  <varname>requiredSystemFeatures</varname> attribute, then Nix will
+  only perform the derivation on a machine that has the specified
+  features.  For instance, the attribute
 
 <programlisting>
 requiredSystemFeatures = [ "kvm" ];
 </programlisting>
 
   will cause the build to be performed on a machine that has the
-  <literal>kvm</literal> feature (i.e., <literal>scratchy</literal> in
-  the example above).</para></listitem>
+  <literal>kvm</literal> feature.</para></listitem>
 
   <listitem><para>A comma-separated list of <emphasis>mandatory
   features</emphasis>.  A machine will only be used to build a
   derivation if all of the machine’s mandatory features appear in the
-  derivation’s <varname>requiredSystemFeatures</varname> attribute.
-  Thus, in the example, the machine <literal>poochie</literal> will
-  only do derivations that have
-  <varname>requiredSystemFeatures</varname> set to <literal>["kvm"
-  "perf"]</literal> or <literal>["perf"]</literal>.</para></listitem>
+  derivation’s <varname>requiredSystemFeatures</varname>
+  attribute..</para></listitem>
 
 </orderedlist>
 
-</para>
+For example, the machine specification
+
+<programlisting>
+nix@scratchy.labs.cs.uu.nl  i686-linux      /home/nix/.ssh/id_scratchy_auto        8 1 kvm
+nix@itchy.labs.cs.uu.nl     i686-linux      /home/nix/.ssh/id_scratchy_auto        8 2
+nix@poochie.labs.cs.uu.nl   i686-linux      /home/nix/.ssh/id_scratchy_auto        1 2 kvm benchmark
+</programlisting>
+
+specifies several machines that can perform
+<literal>i686-linux</literal> builds. However,
+<literal>poochie</literal> will only do builds that have the attribute
+
+<programlisting>
+requiredSystemFeatures = [ "benchmark" ];
+</programlisting>
+
+or
+
+<programlisting>
+requiredSystemFeatures = [ "benchmark" "kvm" ];
+</programlisting>
+
+<literal>itchy</literal> cannot do builds that require
+<literal>kvm</literal>, but <literal>scratchy</literal> does support
+such builds. For regular builds, <literal>itchy</literal> will be
+preferred over <literal>scratchy</literal> because it has a higher
+speed factor.</para>
+
+<para>Remote builders can also be configured in
+<filename>nix.conf</filename>, e.g.
+
+<programlisting>
+builders = ssh://mac x86_64-darwin ; ssh://beastie x86_64-freebsd
+</programlisting>
+
+Finally, remote builders can be configured in a separate configuration
+file included in <option>builders</option> via the syntax
+<literal>@<replaceable>file</replaceable></literal>. For example,
+
+<programlisting>
+builders = @/etc/nix/machines
+</programlisting>
+
+causes the list of machines in <filename>/etc/nix/machines</filename>
+to be included. (This is the default.)</para>
 
 </chapter>
diff --git a/doc/manual/command-ref/conf-file.xml b/doc/manual/command-ref/conf-file.xml
index c14a4d206b8d..f658058994c0 100644
--- a/doc/manual/command-ref/conf-file.xml
+++ b/doc/manual/command-ref/conf-file.xml
@@ -763,7 +763,7 @@ builtins.fetchurl {
         more details.
       </para>
       <para>
-	Since these files are loaded into the same address space as
+        Since these files are loaded into the same address space as
         Nix itself, they must be DSOs compatible with the instance of
         Nix running at the time (i.e. compiled against the same
         headers, not linked to any incompatible libraries). They
@@ -771,14 +771,23 @@ builtins.fetchurl {
         be available already at load time.
       </para>
       <para>
-	If an entry in the list is a directory, all files in the
-	directory are loaded as plugins (non-recursively).
+        If an entry in the list is a directory, all files in the
+        directory are loaded as plugins (non-recursively).
       </para>
     </listitem>
 
   </varlistentry>
 
 
+  <varlistentry xml:id="conf-builders">
+    <term><literal>builders</literal></term>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>A list of machines on which to perform builds. <phrase
+      condition="manual">See <xref linkend="chap-distributed-builds"
+      /> for details.</phrase></para>
+    </listitem>
+  </varlistentry>
+
 </variablelist>
 
 </para>