Remotely converts a target Ubuntu/Debian system to NixOS using Clever's kexec scripts.

To achieve this, nixosify runs in a container on the deployment machine, running ssh commands on the target and polling it as it undergoes phases of the installation.

You can use nixosify in two ways: as a Github Action or as a local script. The action is suitable for use in CI/CD workflows in Github, while the local script is handy for quick experiments or ad-hoc imperative conversion.

Either way, nixosify needs a private/public key pair, which has been added to authorized keys of the target.

There are four parameters for this script:

• target - the IP address or URL of the machine to be converted
• tempkey - the private temporary key uses during the install process
• tempkey_pub - the public key corresponding to tempkey (must be on target autherized key list)
• authkeys - a public key to be added to the autherized keys list of the resulting NixOS machine.

To use the Github Action, add the necessary keys to your repository as secrets, and use the action usual way in your workflow:

- name: Nixosify target
  uses: sparkletco/nixosify@master
  with:
    target: ${{ env.target_ip }}
    tempkey: ${{ secrets.workflow_key }}
    tempkey_pub: ${{ secrets.workflow_key_pub }}
    authkeys: ${{ env.authkey_pub }}

To run locally, make sure the appropriate key files needed as parameters are available and run the following:

git clone https://github.com/sparkletco/nixosify.git
cd ./nixosify
./nixosify-cli --target <target ip> --key <private key path> --pubkey <public key path> --authkey <authkey path>

The arguments of the nixosify-cli script also have single letter shorthands (-t, -k, -p and -a respectively).