nixos-config VS agenix

balsoft: https://github.com/balsoft/nixos-config

Examples: - https://github.com/gmarmstrong/dotfiles/blob/master/nixpkgs/home.nix - https://github.com/balsoft/nixos-config/blob/master/profiles/applications-setup.nix - https://github.com/gytis-ivaskevicius/nixfiles/blob/master/home-manager/common.nix - https://github.com/xtruder/nix-profiles/blob/master/home-manager/roles/desktop/work.nix

I am not in a state to write a detailed recommendation list for all the things you've mentioned, but: - There is indeed an official Matrix room: #nix:nixos.org . I believe this is the most popular Nix community out there. - As for multiple hosts, there are different approaches out there. Typically you will write NixOS "modules" (which are like pieces of configuration) and then merge (combine) them together, along with some machine-specific overrides, to get configurations for all your machines. I do something similar for my config. Here are the modules: https://github.com/balsoft/nixos-config/tree/master/profiles which configure different pieces of my system, then those modules are combined into "roles" (e.g. here's a desktop role: https://github.com/balsoft/nixos-config/blob/master/roles/desktop.nix) and then those roles are imported from actual machine configs with some overrides (e.g. here's the config for the box I'm writing this from: https://github.com/balsoft/nixos-config/blob/master/machines/AMD-Workstation/default.nix)

Hey, inkscape build seems to be broken, but I have made a new working derivation that uses resvg instead: https://github.com/balsoft/nixos-config/blob/master/modules/workspace/gtk.nix#L32

I use a custom pass-based hack: https://github.com/balsoft/nixos-config/blob/master/modules/secrets.nix and https://github.com/balsoft/nixos-config/blob/master/modules/secrets-envsubst.nix. My actual GPG key is on my yubi.

Adding self to local registry is done here: https://github.com/balsoft/nixos-config/blob/master/modules/nix.nix#L6

Ok, just checked with that nix version and my nixos-config, and I can build my configuration without .git in it.

How about: https://github.com/ryantm/agenix

I've heard good things about and seen sops-nix used on a few really solid configs. Others tend to use Age or Homeage.

I don't have a write-up, just my code in git. But it's not public. I'm not using anything out of the ordinary - Nix containers, modules, and functions, and the Agenix module with uses a private key to decrypt secrets at start. The Nix language is inherently composable. Here are some links that explain:

Containers:

https://nixos.wiki/wiki/NixOS_Containers

Modules:

https://nixos.wiki/wiki/NixOS_modules

Functions:

https://www.reddit.com/r/NixOS/comments/zzstun/please_help_m...

Agenix:

https://github.com/ryantm/agenix

For passwords I am using agenix which is also pretty awesome, an alternative could have been sops.nix.

Alternatively, you could simply add the wireless connection files to the Networkmanager dir in /etc using environment.etc. Though keep in mind that any file declared in your config is readable by any user in your system. agenix would be the solution to that.

One think I saw that I don't recommend is to change your password after installing; that's not very reporoducible, use users.users..hashedPassword or users.users..passwordFile with agenix or sops-nix.

Answering your broader question (secret management) colmena does that for me outside the Nix store. I also use git-crypt to store secrets in the repo. There are also more Nix-y alternatives like agenix.

I feel that trying to make SSH keys short-lived is becoming more painful each year because there's an increase of tools that use SSH keys for purposes other than SSH logins. For example, age [1] encrypts files with SSH keys, agenix [2] does secrets management with it, Git can now sign commits with it [3], and even ssh-keygen can now sign arbitrary data [4]. All of these become useless the moment you start using short-lived keys.

[1]: https://github.com/FiloSottile/age

[2]: https://github.com/ryantm/agenix

[3]: https://calebhearth.com/sign-git-with-ssh

[4]: https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/ssh-keygen.1.html

I built this because I try to keep as much as possible outside of my system config but all of the secret managers I found were system only. I had no idea how to solve this until I found RaitoBezarius' awesome pull request to agenix where it all clicked. It also exposed me to the inner workings of home-manager which has definitely made me appreciate it more! I kept this separate from agenix because I am interested only in a module rather than a CLI and thus see it as having a different fit.

I've been thinking about the same thing. I haven't gotten around to it yet but agenix looked the most promising to me so far