NixOS NSpawn Manager

Rewrite of the Nix RFC 108 POC imperative container manager.

Installation

You will need the following tools to get started:

• Systemd version 256 or newer.
• Nix (optionally with flake support enabled).

nixos_nspawn can be installed as a flake from this repository. A super quick way to get started is:

nix run github:m1cr0man/python-nixos-nspawn -- --help

Usage + Commands

Creating a container

• Run the example container, which creates a system with python installed.

$ sudo nixos-nspawn create --flake github:m1cr0man/python-nixos-nspawn#example example
nixos_nspawn.container.example: Building configuration from flake github:m1cr0man/python-nixos-nspawn#example
nixos_nspawn.container.example: Writing nspawn unit file
nixos_nspawn.container.example: Starting
Container example created successfully. Details:
Container example
  Unit File: /etc/systemd/nspawn/example.nspawn
  Imperative: True
  State: running
$ sudo machinectl enter
[root@example:~]#

Listing containers

• Use the list command to see all configured containers.

$ sudo nixos-nspawn list
Showing 1 of 1 containers:
Container example
  Unit File: /etc/systemd/nspawn/example.nspawn
  Imperative: True
  State: running

Development environment setup

This repository uses Poetry. You can

# Get poetry in your environment
nix develop
# Create the virtualenv.
poetry install --no-root
# (VS Code) Open the workspace file
code python-nixos-nspawn.code-workspace
# Build and run the project
nix run

Updating dependencies

Note: Due to a bug, ensure Poetry is >= 1.1.14.

# Update poetry lockfile
nix develop
poetry lock
# Update flake lockfile
nix flake update