Unverified Commit 8bf0396b authored by Fernando Rodrigues's avatar Fernando Rodrigues
Browse files

nixos/doc: alter wording to explain the usage of --use-remote-sudo 



Also recommends the usage of sudo's -E flag if --use-remote-sudo cannot
be used. This should still be discouraged IMO, as it means Nix may write
root-owned files to the user's home directory.

Signed-off-by: default avatarFernando Rodrigues <alpha@sigmasquadron.net>
parent 116f14ed

nixos/doc/manual/installation/changing-config.chapter.md

+15 −5
Original line number Diff line number Diff line
@@ -8,9 +8,10 @@ something](#ch-configuration) in that file, you should do 
$ nixos-rebuild switch --use-remote-sudo

```



to build the new configuration, make it the default configuration for

booting, and try to realise the configuration in the running system

(e.g., by restarting system services).

to build the new configuration as your current user, and as the root user,

make it the default configuration for booting. `switch` will also try to

realise the configuration in the running system (e.g., by restarting system

services).



::: {.warning}

This command doesn't start/stop [user services](#opt-systemd.user.services)
@@ -19,8 +20,17 @@ user services. 
:::



::: {.warning}

These commands must be executed as root, so you should either run them

from a root shell or by prefixing them with `sudo -i`.

Applying a configuration is an action that must be done by the root user, so the

`switch`, `boot` and `test` commands should be ran with the `--use-remote-sudo`

flag. Despite its odd name, this flag runs the activation script with elevated

permissions, regardless of whether or not the target system is remote, without

affecting the other stages of the `nixos-rebuild` call. This allows unprivileged

users to rebuild the system and only elevate their permissions when necessary.



Alternatively, one can run the whole command as root while preserving user

environment variables by prefixing the command with `sudo -E`. However, this

method may create root-owned files in `$HOME/.cache` if Nix decides to use the

cache during evaluation.

:::



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