Install System Requirements

Tarook only has a single primary dependency: Nix. Everything else is fetched or built automatically.

Nix is a declarative package manager which powers NixOS but can also be installed as an additional separate package manager on any other GNU/Linux distribution. This repository contains a flake.nix which references all necessary dependencies locked to specific versions so everybody can produce the same identical environment.

Install Nix on a non NixOS system

Note

nix (Nix) >= 2.9.0 is required.
Follow the Nix documentation on how to install.
Nix can also be installed from the Debian/Ubuntu repositories.
$ # Run installation for debian managed nix multi-user package $ sudo apt update && sudo apt install git nix-setup-systemd $ # Add current user to nix group $ sudo adduser $(whoami) nix-users
Re-login to your seat (desktop session) or run the following command to use Nix right away:
$ newgrp nix-users
Note that the newgrp command starts a new shell and will only have effect within that shell.

The Nix version provided by Debian/Ubuntu is quite old and (at the time of writing) has known vulnerabilities that don’t get patched. Tarook provides Nix packages that are up-to-date with what we use in our CI. To upgrade to our Nix package, run
$ nix run --extra-experimental-features "nix-command flakes" git+https://gitlab.com/alasca.cloud/tarook/nix#upgrade
This will build and install our version of the nix-bin package.
Enable Flake support by adding the following line to either ~/.config/nix/nix.conf or /etc/nix/nix.conf.
```
experimental-features = nix-command flakes
```
(Optional) Add our binary cache in /etc/nix/nix.conf so you won’t have to build anything from source
```
extra-substituters = https://nix-cache.tarook.cloud
extra-trusted-public-keys = nix-cache.tarook.cloud-2:2X2yPTrpwmakhSgS83FVB2fKkG6IzfOJ1AGIIcvNyM0=
```
Note

The binary cache must be configured in /etc/nix/nix.conf. Adding it to ~/.config/nix/nix.conf is only doable if the current user is added as trusted-user in /etc/nix/nix.conf which would have security implications.
Restart the systemd service in order for the changes in nix.conf to take effect.
```
$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
$ sudo systemctl restart nix-daemon
```
Install direnv and configure its hook for your shell. This is not strictly necessary, but the rest of the guide assumes that direnv is available. You can enter the virtual environments and set all necessary environment variables manually instead, but then you’re on your own.