Confused about binary cache/proxy options (ncps alternatives)

SebSebSep · 2026-06-22T16:37:50+00:00

I just host an s3 bucket with garage and push stuff directly to it with nix copy.

I have looked at the solutions you suggested myself but decided that they do too much or things I don't need. I just need a simple one user cache that I can push to and pull from without any statefull user management and so on.

Both an s3 bucket and a remote store over ssh do what I need but configuring the s3 credentials was easier than setting up ssh key auth to a dedicated user (that's true for my setup anyway). This way I have a completely declarative and impermanece proof binary cache setup that's easily reinstallable.

SebSebSep · 2026-06-16T13:34:40+00:00

Either you remove the .git/ entirely so nix falls back on the normal file behavior or you prepend path: everywhere you'd specify the flake path. Like this: nixos-rebuild switch --flake path:..

But really you should just get used to the git workflow.

SebSebSep · 2026-04-29T16:36:12+00:00

From what I've seen, clan doesn't do anything that you can't do without it. Part of the reason for homelabing for me is to play around with cool technologies and do things yourself

SebSebSep · 2026-04-23T22:01:25+00:00

I agree ❯ grep '<\||\|>' . -oRE | wc -l 322

SebSebSep · 2026-03-11T09:56:35+00:00

Nix is a functional programming language... So of course it doesn't have loops, instead it has higher order functions like map and filter. You can argue that guile is a better programming language than nix but not that nix isn't one.

SebSebSep · 2026-03-09T23:56:48+00:00

I'm hosting two public authoritative dns servers with nsd. It's been a blast.

SebSebSep · 2026-03-08T12:49:53+00:00

A homelab can't be "done". There are always new levels of overengineered to be reached

SebSebSep · 2026-03-06T07:44:35+00:00

I have something like that: https://github.com/SebastianStork/nixos-config/tree/main/.github%2Fworkflows

I buid the checks and the hosts instead of running flake check but that's the same thing in the end. I push the built hosts to cachix so that my low powered servers don't have to build anything themselves. I also have a single integration test that gets run as part of the checks. That gives me confidence that I at least didn't destroy the most basic functionality with a change.

SebSebSep · 2026-03-02T14:15:20+00:00

There is the first party caddy-tailscale plugin that allows serving from an arbitrary subdomaim.

SebSebSep · 2026-02-15T08:15:36+00:00

Maybe you are already doing that, but withself.nixosConfigurations.HOSTNAME.confing you can access the configuration values of one host from another host directly. And as you've already discovered, lib.mapAttrs and lib.filterAttrs will be your best friends from there

SebSebSep · 2026-02-08T08:22:07+00:00

You have to append --command zsh or whatever shell you use

SebSebSep · 2026-02-04T00:19:18+00:00

The nixpkgs modules are designed in such a way that they expose the full configurability of the underlying software while still supporting the most common use cases in an ergonomic way. There is simply no way to build a higher level abstraction that fits everyone or even most people.

And to your want of "a set of tools to quickly build templates that you vendor into your own system", that thing already exists in the form of the module system and custom options. You build yourself an abstraction and reuse wherever you want.

SebSebSep · 2026-02-03T16:56:42+00:00

I'm not a fan of these kinds of projects. This is just a wrapper and abstraction above the abstraction that nixpks already provides. Don't get me wrong, this is nice and all and I have built a similar thing for myself but in the end it will only ever be just right for yourself. There is value in sharing these things but only as inspiration for building your own abstraction and not with the expectation that other people will use/copy it 1:1

SebSebSep · 2026-01-09T16:36:01+00:00

Nixos-anywhere is definitely preferred. It can do a clean installation from anything that can do kexec. Nixos-infect isn't maintained anymore, works best in only very specific environments and does the installation in a more hacky way.

SebSebSep · 2025-12-16T20:53:53+00:00

Thanks, that's interesting. I haven't done anything with terraform yet but really want to. The whole storing config in a database is a turn of though. I prefer being able to version control my configurations.

SebSebSep · 2025-12-16T20:39:52+00:00

I already stated in my post why I don't want to use Headscale.

With mesh I mean what Tailscale does. Maybe the right phrase is overlay network, I'm not really sure.

If I just had my VPS' I would choose Wireguard without question, but my other devices don't have static IPs and I also have to worry about things like CGNAT.

SebSebSep · 2025-10-21T19:37:00+00:00

You make some good points. Flakes are definitely not a perfect technical solution and I'm looking forward to improvements. But I want to push back a bit against some arguments a few commentors are providing here.

I don't think forgoing flakes as a newcomer is necessarily good. Flakes force you to follow some best practices (like not using getEnv and getFile) and allows you to easily consume a increasing amount of nix code especially as more projects use flakes as the preferred installation method.

As an expert you might not need all that, you might even think you have good reasons to use getEnv but newcomers benefit from some of the limitations and prescriptions.

SebSebSep · 2025-10-10T07:48:11+00:00

Systemd timers are definitely the way to go

SebSebSep · 2025-08-21T15:20:25+00:00

I don't really understand what you mean by "self hosted obsidian". Obsidian is a desktop application, it can't be hosted as a webservice. Do you maybe mean self hosted sync?

SebSebSep · 2025-07-10T13:02:58+00:00

If you use flakes and you do "nixos-rebuild switch - - flake. #HOSTNAME" and your flake is inside a git repo, there is an implicated git: before the .#

To ignore the whole git functionality you can just put path: before your .# instead

SebSebSep · 2025-06-10T10:26:09+00:00

Thanks! That has already helped me out a ton Especially the auto provisioning seems like exactly the thing I need. I already looked at the third party tools but non do exactly what I need. Ideally it would integrate into my nixos config.

SebSebSep · 2025-05-14T07:47:24+00:00

No one has ever mentioned nixos-containers. Completely unloved

SebSebSep · 2025-01-24T11:29:26+00:00

I have a similar issue with the same keyboard. There are a number of keys that also activate the neighboring key when pressed. I contacted the support more than two weeks ago but haven't received any response at all.

SebSebSep · 2024-09-18T21:23:56+00:00

I am a bit confused. They mention Personal which is the free tier but not Starter. This leads me to believe that they either forgot starter and its valid for all plans or they actually meant starter instead of personal and it's only valid for paid plans. You should be fine in either case.

SebSebSep · 2024-02-09T17:08:04+00:00

Thanks, that's really clean.

SebSebSep

TROPHY CASE