netboot.nix/README.md

netboot.nix

Alternative expressions for netboot.

In the future, I'd like to structure this as a module, to easily turn on recursive Nix builds, or target a ZFS filesystem, etc.

Also, the future should include tests in this repo.

Included Module Expressions

• ./quickly.nix uses recursive Nix to build the initrd and squashfs filesystems more quickly, allowing for faster iteration of images. Initial testing reduced build time from 5-10 minutes per image to 15-30 seconds.

Setting up recursive nix

Setting up recursive Nix requires support on the build machine:

{ pkgs, ... }: {
  nix = {
    package = pkgs.nixUnstable;
    systemFeatures = [ "recursive-nix" "kvm" "nixos-test" ];
    extraOptions = ''
      experimental-features = recursive-nix
    '';
  };
}