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authorLudovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>2012-12-14 18:15:37 +0100
committerLudovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>2012-12-14 18:15:37 +0100
commite1b7096acdd3dedbdca92a6d20ade94b21d8561d (patch)
treefb72d4fb70e265033bd66793446c1af9f0cd969d /README
parentb3a53fb3610ff23b75f11d58325110d29451a726 (diff)
daemon: Build `nix-setuid-helper'.
* daemon.am (libexec_PROGRAMS, nix_setuid_helper_SOURCES, nix_setuid_helper_CPPFLAGS, nix_setuid_helper_LDADD): New variables. * test-env.in: Set and export `NIX_SETUID_HELPER'. * README (Installing Guix as non-root): New section.
Diffstat (limited to 'README')
-rw-r--r--README27
1 files changed, 23 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/README b/README
index d2bbfacd5a..09433586be 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -59,10 +59,29 @@ the promise of a build; it is stored as a text file under
`derivation' primitive, as well as higher-level wrappers such as
`build-expression->derivation'.
-Guix does remote procedure calls (RPCs) to the Nix daemon (the
-=nix-worker --daemon= command), which in turn performs builds and
-accesses to the Nix store on its behalf. The RPCs are implemented in
-the (guix store) module.
+Guix does remote procedure calls (RPCs) to the Guix or Nix daemon (the
+=guix-daemon= or =nix-daemon= command), which in turn performs builds
+and accesses to the Nix store on its behalf. The RPCs are implemented
+in the (guix store) module.
+
+* Installing Guix as non-root
+
+The Guix daemon allows software builds to be performed under alternate
+user accounts, which are normally created specifically for this
+purpose. For instance, you may have a pool of accounts in the
+=guixbuild= group, and then you can instruct =guix-daemon= to use them
+like this:
+
+ $ guix-daemon --build-users-group=guixbuild
+
+However, unless it is run as root, =guix-daemon= cannot switch users.
+In that case, it falls back to using a setuid-root helper program call
+=nix-setuid-helper=. That program is not setuid-root by default when
+you install it; instead you should run a command along these lines
+(assuming Guix is installed under /usr/local):
+
+ # chown root.root /usr/local/libexec/nix-setuid-helper
+ # chmod 4755 /usr/local/libexec/nix-setuid-helper
* Contact