NiCacher

A Nix Binary Cache implemented in Rust

Objectives

Unlike other existing cache solutions (Cachix and a S3 bucket), this project aims to "mirror" upstream caches, such as cache.nixos.org. Instead of caching only those requested, a cron job periodically fetches from the upstream.

This project also aims to be able to build derivations with nix and cache them if requested but not avaliable.

Building

Simply run:

nix build

or

cargo build

SQLite Database

As sqlx query macros are used to access the SQLite database, extra setup is required for the type-checking capabilities to function.

By default, since the offline feature flag is enabled for sqlx and the sqlx-data.json file is checked in, building the crate will function as normal. However, if there is need for adding new queries, editting existing ones or modifying the schema, one will be required to have a local sqlite database file.

With the sqlx-cli utility, this is made simple.

First, either a DATABASE_FILE environment variable needs to be set to the location of the SQLite database file, such as sqlite://cache.db, or a .env file is placed in the repo root.

Creating the database file:

sqlx database setup

Reseting the database file:

sqlx database reset

Updating the sqlx-data.json file:

cargo sqlx prepare