Merge pull request #5212 from mkenigs/auto-uid-allocation

Merge master into #3600

1 files changed, 743 insertions, 149 deletions

diff --git a/src/libstore/globals.hh b/src/libstore/globals.hh
index 5cf73c7b4..0ae768124 100644
--- a/src/libstore/globals.hh
+++ b/src/libstore/globals.hh
@@ -25,7 +25,33 @@ struct MaxBuildJobsSetting : public BaseSetting<unsigned int>
         options->addSetting(this);
     }
 
-    void set(const std::string & str) override;
+    void set(const std::string & str, bool append = false) override;
+};
+
+struct PluginFilesSetting : public BaseSetting<Paths>
+{
+    bool pluginsLoaded = false;
+
+    PluginFilesSetting(Config * options,
+        const Paths & def,
+        const std::string & name,
+        const std::string & description,
+        const std::set<std::string> & aliases = {})
+        : BaseSetting<Paths>(def, name, description, aliases)
+    {
+        options->addSetting(this);
+    }
+
+    void set(const std::string & str, bool append = false) override;
+};
+
+class MissingExperimentalFeature: public Error
+{
+public:
+    std::string missingFeature;
+
+    MissingExperimentalFeature(std::string feature);
+    virtual const char* sname() const override { return "MissingExperimentalFeature"; }
 };
 
 class Settings : public Config {
@@ -34,6 +60,8 @@ class Settings : public Config {
 
     StringSet getDefaultSystemFeatures();
 
+    StringSet getDefaultExtraPlatforms();
+
     bool isWSL1();
 
 public:
@@ -80,73 +108,181 @@ public:
     Setting<bool> keepGoing{this, false, "keep-going",
         "Whether to keep building derivations when another build fails."};
 
-    Setting<bool> tryFallback{this, false, "fallback",
-        "Whether to fall back to building when substitution fails.",
+    Setting<bool> tryFallback{
+        this, false, "fallback",
+        R"(
+          If set to `true`, Nix will fall back to building from source if a
+          binary substitute fails. This is equivalent to the `--fallback`
+          flag. The default is `false`.
+        )",
         {"build-fallback"}};
 
     /* Whether to show build log output in real time. */
     bool verboseBuild = true;
 
     Setting<size_t> logLines{this, 10, "log-lines",
-        "If verbose-build is false, the number of lines of the tail of "
+        "If `verbose-build` is false, the number of lines of the tail of "
         "the log to show if a build fails."};
 
-    MaxBuildJobsSetting maxBuildJobs{this, 1, "max-jobs",
-        "Maximum number of parallel build jobs. \"auto\" means use number of cores.",
+    MaxBuildJobsSetting maxBuildJobs{
+        this, 1, "max-jobs",
+        R"(
+          This option defines the maximum number of jobs that Nix will try to
+          build in parallel. The default is `1`. The special value `auto`
+          causes Nix to use the number of CPUs in your system. `0` is useful
+          when using remote builders to prevent any local builds (except for
+          `preferLocalBuild` derivation attribute which executes locally
+          regardless). It can be overridden using the `--max-jobs` (`-j`)
+          command line switch.
+        )",
         {"build-max-jobs"}};
 
-    Setting<unsigned int> buildCores{this, getDefaultCores(), "cores",
-        "Number of CPU cores to utilize in parallel within a build, "
-        "i.e. by passing this number to Make via '-j'. 0 means that the "
-        "number of actual CPU cores on the local host ought to be "
-        "auto-detected.", {"build-cores"}};
+    Setting<unsigned int> buildCores{
+        this, getDefaultCores(), "cores",
+        R"(
+          Sets the value of the `NIX_BUILD_CORES` environment variable in the
+          invocation of builders. Builders can use this variable at their
+          discretion to control the maximum amount of parallelism. For
+          instance, in Nixpkgs, if the derivation attribute
+          `enableParallelBuilding` is set to `true`, the builder passes the
+          `-jN` flag to GNU Make. It can be overridden using the `--cores`
+          command line switch and defaults to `1`. The value `0` means that
+          the builder should use all available CPU cores in the system.
+        )",
+        {"build-cores"}};
 
     /* Read-only mode.  Don't copy stuff to the store, don't change
        the database. */
     bool readOnlyMode = false;
 
-    Setting<std::string> thisSystem{this, SYSTEM, "system",
-        "The canonical Nix system name."};
-
-    Setting<time_t> maxSilentTime{this, 0, "max-silent-time",
-        "The maximum time in seconds that a builer can go without "
-        "producing any output on stdout/stderr before it is killed. "
-        "0 means infinity.",
+    Setting<std::string> thisSystem{
+        this, SYSTEM, "system",
+        R"(
+          This option specifies the canonical Nix system name of the current
+          installation, such as `i686-linux` or `x86_64-darwin`. Nix can only
+          build derivations whose `system` attribute equals the value
+          specified here. In general, it never makes sense to modify this
+          value from its default, since you can use it to ‘lie’ about the
+          platform you are building on (e.g., perform a Mac OS build on a
+          Linux machine; the result would obviously be wrong). It only makes
+          sense if the Nix binaries can run on multiple platforms, e.g.,
+          ‘universal binaries’ that run on `x86_64-linux` and `i686-linux`.
+
+          It defaults to the canonical Nix system name detected by `configure`
+          at build time.
+        )"};
+
+    Setting<time_t> maxSilentTime{
+        this, 0, "max-silent-time",
+        R"(
+          This option defines the maximum number of seconds that a builder can
+          go without producing any data on standard output or standard error.
+          This is useful (for instance in an automated build system) to catch
+          builds that are stuck in an infinite loop, or to catch remote builds
+          that are hanging due to network problems. It can be overridden using
+          the `--max-silent-time` command line switch.
+
+          The value `0` means that there is no timeout. This is also the
+          default.
+        )",
         {"build-max-silent-time"}};
 
-    Setting<time_t> buildTimeout{this, 0, "timeout",
-        "The maximum duration in seconds that a builder can run. "
-        "0 means infinity.", {"build-timeout"}};
+    Setting<time_t> buildTimeout{
+        this, 0, "timeout",
+        R"(
+          This option defines the maximum number of seconds that a builder can
+          run. This is useful (for instance in an automated build system) to
+          catch builds that are stuck in an infinite loop but keep writing to
+          their standard output or standard error. It can be overridden using
+          the `--timeout` command line switch.
+
+          The value `0` means that there is no timeout. This is also the
+          default.
+        )",
+        {"build-timeout"}};
 
     PathSetting buildHook{this, true, nixLibexecDir + "/nix/build-remote", "build-hook",
         "The path of the helper program that executes builds to remote machines."};
 
-    Setting<std::string> builders{this, "@" + nixConfDir + "/machines", "builders",
-        "A semicolon-separated list of build machines, in the format of nix.machines."};
-
-    Setting<bool> buildersUseSubstitutes{this, false, "builders-use-substitutes",
-        "Whether build machines should use their own substitutes for obtaining "
-        "build dependencies if possible, rather than waiting for this host to "
-        "upload them."};
+    Setting<std::string> builders{
+        this, "@" + nixConfDir + "/machines", "builders",
+        R"(
+          A semicolon-separated list of build machines.
+          For the exact format and examples, see [the manual chapter on remote builds](../advanced-topics/distributed-builds.md)
+        )"};
+
+    Setting<bool> buildersUseSubstitutes{
+        this, false, "builders-use-substitutes",
+        R"(
+          If set to `true`, Nix will instruct remote build machines to use
+          their own binary substitutes if available. In practical terms, this
+          means that remote hosts will fetch as many build dependencies as
+          possible from their own substitutes (e.g, from `cache.nixos.org`),
+          instead of waiting for this host to upload them all. This can
+          drastically reduce build times if the network connection between
+          this computer and the remote build host is slow.
+        )"};
 
     Setting<off_t> reservedSize{this, 8 * 1024 * 1024, "gc-reserved-space",
         "Amount of reserved disk space for the garbage collector."};
 
-    Setting<bool> fsyncMetadata{this, true, "fsync-metadata",
-        "Whether SQLite should use fsync()."};
+    Setting<bool> fsyncMetadata{
+        this, true, "fsync-metadata",
+        R"(
+          If set to `true`, changes to the Nix store metadata (in
+          `/nix/var/nix/db`) are synchronously flushed to disk. This improves
+          robustness in case of system crashes, but reduces performance. The
+          default is `true`.
+        )"};
 
     Setting<bool> useSQLiteWAL{this, !isWSL1(), "use-sqlite-wal",
         "Whether SQLite should use WAL mode."};
 
     Setting<bool> syncBeforeRegistering{this, false, "sync-before-registering",
-        "Whether to call sync() before registering a path as valid."};
-
-    Setting<bool> useSubstitutes{this, true, "substitute",
-        "Whether to use substitutes.",
+        "Whether to call `sync()` before registering a path as valid."};
+
+    Setting<bool> useSubstitutes{
+        this, true, "substitute",
+        R"(
+          If set to `true` (default), Nix will use binary substitutes if
+          available. This option can be disabled to force building from
+          source.
+        )",
         {"build-use-substitutes"}};
 
-    Setting<std::string> buildUsersGroup{this, "", "build-users-group",
-        "The Unix group that contains the build users."};
+    Setting<std::string> buildUsersGroup{
+        this, "", "build-users-group",
+        R"(
+          This options specifies the Unix group containing the Nix build user
+          accounts. In multi-user Nix installations, builds should not be
+          performed by the Nix account since that would allow users to
+          arbitrarily modify the Nix store and database by supplying specially
+          crafted builders; and they cannot be performed by the calling user
+          since that would allow him/her to influence the build result.
+
+          Therefore, if this option is non-empty and specifies a valid group,
+          builds will be performed under the user accounts that are a member
+          of the group specified here (as listed in `/etc/group`). Those user
+          accounts should not be used for any other purpose\!
+
+          Nix will never run two builds under the same user account at the
+          same time. This is to prevent an obvious security hole: a malicious
+          user writing a Nix expression that modifies the build result of a
+          legitimate Nix expression being built by another user. Therefore it
+          is good to have as many Nix build user accounts as you can spare.
+          (Remember: uids are cheap.)
+
+          The build users should have permission to create files in the Nix
+          store, but not delete them. Therefore, `/nix/store` should be owned
+          by the Nix account, its group should be the group specified here,
+          and its mode should be `1775`.
+
+          If the build users group is empty, builds will be performed under
+          the uid of the Nix process (that is, the uid of the caller if
+          `NIX_REMOTE` is empty, the uid under which the Nix daemon runs if
+          `NIX_REMOTE` is `daemon`). Obviously, this should not be used in
+          multi-user settings with untrusted users.
+        )"};
 
     #if __linux__
     Setting<bool> autoAllocateUids{this, false, "auto-allocate-uids",
@@ -165,17 +301,32 @@ public:
         "Whether to impersonate a Linux 2.6 machine on newer kernels.",
         {"build-impersonate-linux-26"}};
 
-    Setting<bool> keepLog{this, true, "keep-build-log",
-        "Whether to store build logs.",
+    Setting<bool> keepLog{
+        this, true, "keep-build-log",
+        R"(
+          If set to `true` (the default), Nix will write the build log of a
+          derivation (i.e. the standard output and error of its builder) to
+          the directory `/nix/var/log/nix/drvs`. The build log can be
+          retrieved using the command `nix-store -l path`.
+        )",
         {"build-keep-log"}};
 
-    Setting<bool> compressLog{this, true, "compress-build-log",
-        "Whether to compress logs.",
+    Setting<bool> compressLog{
+        this, true, "compress-build-log",
+        R"(
+          If set to `true` (the default), build logs written to
+          `/nix/var/log/nix/drvs` will be compressed on the fly using bzip2.
+          Otherwise, they will not be compressed.
+        )",
         {"build-compress-log"}};
 
-    Setting<unsigned long> maxLogSize{this, 0, "max-build-log-size",
-        "Maximum number of bytes a builder can write to stdout/stderr "
-        "before being killed (0 means no limit).",
+    Setting<unsigned long> maxLogSize{
+        this, 0, "max-build-log-size",
+        R"(
+          This option defines the maximum number of bytes that a builder can
+          write to its stdout/stderr. If the builder exceeds this limit, it’s
+          killed. A value of `0` (the default) means that there is no limit.
+        )",
         {"build-max-log-size"}};
 
     /* When buildRepeat > 0 and verboseBuild == true, whether to print
@@ -186,57 +337,148 @@ public:
     Setting<unsigned int> pollInterval{this, 5, "build-poll-interval",
         "How often (in seconds) to poll for locks."};
 
-    Setting<bool> checkRootReachability{this, false, "gc-check-reachability",
-        "Whether to check if new GC roots can in fact be found by the "
-        "garbage collector."};
-
-    Setting<bool> gcKeepOutputs{this, false, "keep-outputs",
-        "Whether the garbage collector should keep outputs of live derivations.",
+    Setting<bool> gcKeepOutputs{
+        this, false, "keep-outputs",
+        R"(
+          If `true`, the garbage collector will keep the outputs of
+          non-garbage derivations. If `false` (default), outputs will be
+          deleted unless they are GC roots themselves (or reachable from other
+          roots).
+
+          In general, outputs must be registered as roots separately. However,
+          even if the output of a derivation is registered as a root, the
+          collector will still delete store paths that are used only at build
+          time (e.g., the C compiler, or source tarballs downloaded from the
+          network). To prevent it from doing so, set this option to `true`.
+        )",
         {"gc-keep-outputs"}};
 
-    Setting<bool> gcKeepDerivations{this, true, "keep-derivations",
-        "Whether the garbage collector should keep derivers of live paths.",
+    Setting<bool> gcKeepDerivations{
+        this, true, "keep-derivations",
+        R"(
+          If `true` (default), the garbage collector will keep the derivations
+          from which non-garbage store paths were built. If `false`, they will
+          be deleted unless explicitly registered as a root (or reachable from
+          other roots).
+
+          Keeping derivation around is useful for querying and traceability
+          (e.g., it allows you to ask with what dependencies or options a
+          store path was built), so by default this option is on. Turn it off
+          to save a bit of disk space (or a lot if `keep-outputs` is also
+          turned on).
+        )",
         {"gc-keep-derivations"}};
 
-    Setting<bool> autoOptimiseStore{this, false, "auto-optimise-store",
-        "Whether to automatically replace files with identical contents with hard links."};
-
-    Setting<bool> envKeepDerivations{this, false, "keep-env-derivations",
-        "Whether to add derivations as a dependency of user environments "
-        "(to prevent them from being GCed).",
+    Setting<bool> autoOptimiseStore{
+        this, false, "auto-optimise-store",
+        R"(
+          If set to `true`, Nix automatically detects files in the store
+          that have identical contents, and replaces them with hard links to
+          a single copy. This saves disk space. If set to `false` (the
+          default), you can still run `nix-store --optimise` to get rid of
+          duplicate files.
+        )"};
+
+    Setting<bool> envKeepDerivations{
+        this, false, "keep-env-derivations",
+        R"(
+          If `false` (default), derivations are not stored in Nix user
+          environments. That is, the derivations of any build-time-only
+          dependencies may be garbage-collected.
+
+          If `true`, when you add a Nix derivation to a user environment, the
+          path of the derivation is stored in the user environment. Thus, the
+          derivation will not be garbage-collected until the user environment
+          generation is deleted (`nix-env --delete-generations`). To prevent
+          build-time-only dependencies from being collected, you should also
+          turn on `keep-outputs`.
+
+          The difference between this option and `keep-derivations` is that
+          this one is “sticky”: it applies to any user environment created
+          while this option was enabled, while `keep-derivations` only applies
+          at the moment the garbage collector is run.
+        )",
         {"env-keep-derivations"}};
 
     /* Whether to lock the Nix client and worker to the same CPU. */
     bool lockCPU;
 
-    Setting<SandboxMode> sandboxMode{this,
+    Setting<SandboxMode> sandboxMode{
+        this,
         #if __linux__
           smEnabled
         #else
           smDisabled
         #endif
         , "sandbox",
-        "Whether to enable sandboxed builds. Can be \"true\", \"false\" or \"relaxed\".",
+        R"(
+          If set to `true`, builds will be performed in a *sandboxed
+          environment*, i.e., they’re isolated from the normal file system
+          hierarchy and will only see their dependencies in the Nix store,
+          the temporary build directory, private versions of `/proc`,
+          `/dev`, `/dev/shm` and `/dev/pts` (on Linux), and the paths
+          configured with the `sandbox-paths` option. This is useful to
+          prevent undeclared dependencies on files in directories such as
+          `/usr/bin`. In addition, on Linux, builds run in private PID,
+          mount, network, IPC and UTS namespaces to isolate them from other
+          processes in the system (except that fixed-output derivations do
+          not run in private network namespace to ensure they can access the
+          network).
+
+          Currently, sandboxing only work on Linux and macOS. The use of a
+          sandbox requires that Nix is run as root (so you should use the
+          “build users” feature to perform the actual builds under different
+          users than root).
+
+          If this option is set to `relaxed`, then fixed-output derivations
+          and derivations that have the `__noChroot` attribute set to `true`
+          do not run in sandboxes.
+
+          The default is `true` on Linux and `false` on all other platforms.
+        )",
         {"build-use-chroot", "build-use-sandbox"}};
 
-    Setting<PathSet> sandboxPaths{this, {}, "sandbox-paths",
-        "The paths to make available inside the build sandbox.",
+    Setting<PathSet> sandboxPaths{
+        this, {}, "sandbox-paths",
+        R"(
+          A list of paths bind-mounted into Nix sandbox environments. You can
+          use the syntax `target=source` to mount a path in a different
+          location in the sandbox; for instance, `/bin=/nix-bin` will mount
+          the path `/nix-bin` as `/bin` inside the sandbox. If *source* is
+          followed by `?`, then it is not an error if *source* does not exist;
+          for example, `/dev/nvidiactl?` specifies that `/dev/nvidiactl` will
+          only be mounted in the sandbox if it exists in the host filesystem.
+
+          Depending on how Nix was built, the default value for this option
+          may be empty or provide `/bin/sh` as a bind-mount of `bash`.
+        )",
         {"build-chroot-dirs", "build-sandbox-paths"}};
 
     Setting<bool> sandboxFallback{this, true, "sandbox-fallback",
         "Whether to disable sandboxing when the kernel doesn't allow it."};
 
-    Setting<PathSet> extraSandboxPaths{this, {}, "extra-sandbox-paths",
-        "Additional paths to make available inside the build sandbox.",
-        {"build-extra-chroot-dirs", "build-extra-sandbox-paths"}};
-
-    Setting<size_t> buildRepeat{this, 0, "repeat",
-        "The number of times to repeat a build in order to verify determinism.",
+    Setting<size_t> buildRepeat{
+        this, 0, "repeat",
+        R"(
+          How many times to repeat builds to check whether they are
+          deterministic. The default value is 0. If the value is non-zero,
+          every build is repeated the specified number of times. If the
+          contents of any of the runs differs from the previous ones and
+          `enforce-determinism` is true, the build is rejected and the
+          resulting store paths are not registered as “valid” in Nix’s
+          database.
+        )",
         {"build-repeat"}};
 
 #if __linux__
-    Setting<std::string> sandboxShmSize{this, "50%", "sandbox-dev-shm-size",
-        "The size of /dev/shm in the build sandbox."};
+    Setting<std::string> sandboxShmSize{
+        this, "50%", "sandbox-dev-shm-size",
+        R"(
+          This option determines the maximum size of the `tmpfs` filesystem
+          mounted on `/dev/shm` in Linux sandboxes. For the format, see the
+          description of the `size` option of `tmpfs` in mount8. The default
+          is `50%`.
+        )"};
 
     Setting<Path> sandboxBuildDir{this, "/build", "sandbox-build-dir",
         "The build directory inside the sandbox."};
@@ -250,121 +492,451 @@ public:
         "Whether to log Darwin sandbox access violations to the system log."};
 #endif
 
-    Setting<bool> runDiffHook{this, false, "run-diff-hook",
-        "Whether to run the program specified by the diff-hook setting "
-        "repeated builds produce a different result. Typically used to "
-        "plug in diffoscope."};
+    Setting<bool> runDiffHook{
+        this, false, "run-diff-hook",
+        R"(
+          If true, enable the execution of the `diff-hook` program.
+
+          When using the Nix daemon, `run-diff-hook` must be set in the
+          `nix.conf` configuration file, and cannot be passed at the command
+          line.
+        )"};
+
+    PathSetting diffHook{
+        this, true, "", "diff-hook",
+        R"(
+          Absolute path to an executable capable of diffing build
+          results. The hook is executed if `run-diff-hook` is true, and the
+          output of a build is known to not be the same. This program is not
+          executed to determine if two results are the same.
 
-    PathSetting diffHook{this, true, "", "diff-hook",
-        "A program that prints out the differences between the two paths "
-        "specified on its command line."};
+          The diff hook is executed by the same user and group who ran the
+          build. However, the diff hook does not have write access to the
+          store path just built.
 
-    Setting<bool> enforceDeterminism{this, true, "enforce-determinism",
-        "Whether to fail if repeated builds produce different output."};
+          The diff hook program receives three parameters:
 
-    Setting<Strings> trustedPublicKeys{this,
+          1.  A path to the previous build's results
+
+          2.  A path to the current build's results
+
+          3.  The path to the build's derivation
+
+          4.  The path to the build's scratch directory. This directory will
+              exist only if the build was run with `--keep-failed`.
+
+          The stderr and stdout output from the diff hook will not be
+          displayed to the user. Instead, it will print to the nix-daemon's
+          log.
+
+          When using the Nix daemon, `diff-hook` must be set in the `nix.conf`
+          configuration file, and cannot be passed at the command line.
+        )"};
+
+    Setting<bool> enforceDeterminism{
+        this, true, "enforce-determinism",
+        "Whether to fail if repeated builds produce different output. See `repeat`."};
+
+    Setting<Strings> trustedPublicKeys{
+        this,
         {"cache.nixos.org-1:6NCHdD59X431o0gWypbMrAURkbJ16ZPMQFGspcDShjY="},
         "trusted-public-keys",
-        "Trusted public keys for secure substitution.",
+        R"(
+          A whitespace-separated list of public keys. When paths are copied
+          from another Nix store (such as a binary cache), they must be
+          signed with one of these keys. For example:
+          `cache.nixos.org-1:6NCHdD59X431o0gWypbMrAURkbJ16ZPMQFGspcDShjY=
+          hydra.nixos.org-1:CNHJZBh9K4tP3EKF6FkkgeVYsS3ohTl+oS0Qa8bezVs=`.
+        )",
         {"binary-cache-public-keys"}};
 
-    Setting<Strings> secretKeyFiles{this, {}, "secret-key-files",
-        "Secret keys with which to sign local builds."};
-
-    Setting<unsigned int> tarballTtl{this, 60 * 60, "tarball-ttl",
-        "How long downloaded files are considered up-to-date."};
+    Setting<Strings> secretKeyFiles{
+        this, {}, "secret-key-files",
+        R"(
+          A whitespace-separated list of files containing secret (private)
+          keys. These are used to sign locally-built paths. They can be
+          generated using `nix-store --generate-binary-cache-key`. The
+          corresponding public key can be distributed to other users, who
+          can add it to `trusted-public-keys` in their `nix.conf`.
+        )"};
+
+    Setting<unsigned int> tarballTtl{
+        this, 60 * 60, "tarball-ttl",
+        R"(
+          The number of seconds a downloaded tarball is considered fresh. If
+          the cached tarball is stale, Nix will check whether it is still up
+          to date using the ETag header. Nix will download a new version if
+          the ETag header is unsupported, or the cached ETag doesn't match.
+
+          Setting the TTL to `0` forces Nix to always check if the tarball is
+          up to date.
+
+          Nix caches tarballs in `$XDG_CACHE_HOME/nix/tarballs`.
+
+          Files fetched via `NIX_PATH`, `fetchGit`, `fetchMercurial`,
+          `fetchTarball`, and `fetchurl` respect this TTL.
+        )"};
+
+    Setting<bool> requireSigs{
+        this, true, "require-sigs",
+        R"(
+          If set to `true` (the default), any non-content-addressed path added
+          or copied to the Nix store (e.g. when substituting from a binary
+          cache) must have a valid signature, that is, be signed using one of
+          the keys listed in `trusted-public-keys` or `secret-key-files`. Set
+          to `false` to disable signature checking.
+        )"};
+
+    Setting<StringSet> extraPlatforms{
+        this,
+        getDefaultExtraPlatforms(),
+        "extra-platforms",
+        R"(
+          Platforms other than the native one which this machine is capable of
+          building for. This can be useful for supporting additional
+          architectures on compatible machines: i686-linux can be built on
+          x86\_64-linux machines (and the default for this setting reflects
+          this); armv7 is backwards-compatible with armv6 and armv5tel; some
+          aarch64 machines can also natively run 32-bit ARM code; and
+          qemu-user may be used to support non-native platforms (though this
+          may be slow and buggy). Most values for this are not enabled by
+          default because build systems will often misdetect the target
+          platform and generate incompatible code, so you may wish to
+          cross-check the results of using this option against proper
+          natively-built versions of your derivations.
+        )"};
+
+    Setting<StringSet> systemFeatures{
+        this, getDefaultSystemFeatures(),
+        "system-features",
+        R"(
+          A set of system “features” supported by this machine, e.g. `kvm`.
+          Derivations can express a dependency on such features through the
+          derivation attribute `requiredSystemFeatures`. For example, the
+          attribute
 
-    Setting<bool> requireSigs{this, true, "require-sigs",
-        "Whether to check that any non-content-addressed path added to the "
-        "Nix store has a valid signature (that is, one signed using a key "
-        "listed in 'trusted-public-keys'."};
+              requiredSystemFeatures = [ "kvm" ];
 
-    Setting<StringSet> extraPlatforms{this,
-        std::string{SYSTEM} == "x86_64-linux" && !isWSL1() ? StringSet{"i686-linux"} : StringSet{},
-        "extra-platforms",
-        "Additional platforms that can be built on the local system. "
-        "These may be supported natively (e.g. armv7 on some aarch64 CPUs "
-        "or using hacks like qemu-user."};
+          ensures that the derivation can only be built on a machine with the
+          `kvm` feature.
 
-    Setting<StringSet> systemFeatures{this, getDefaultSystemFeatures(),
-        "system-features",
-        "Optional features that this system implements (like \"kvm\")."};
+          This setting by default includes `kvm` if `/dev/kvm` is accessible,
+          and the pseudo-features `nixos-test`, `benchmark` and `big-parallel`
+          that are used in Nixpkgs to route builds to specific machines.
+        )"};
 
-    Setting<Strings> substituters{this,
-        nixStore == "/nix/store" ? Strings{"https://cache.nixos.org/"} : Strings(),
+    Setting<Strings> substituters{
+        this,
+        Strings{"https://cache.nixos.org/"},
         "substituters",
-        "The URIs of substituters (such as https://cache.nixos.org/).",
+        R"(
+          A list of URLs of substituters, separated by whitespace. Substituters
+          are tried based on their Priority value, which each substituter can set
+          independently. Lower value means higher priority.
+          The default is `https://cache.nixos.org`, with a Priority of 40.
+        )",
         {"binary-caches"}};
 
-    // FIXME: provide a way to add to option values.
-    Setting<Strings> extraSubstituters{this, {}, "extra-substituters",
-        "Additional URIs of substituters.",
-        {"extra-binary-caches"}};
-
-    Setting<StringSet> trustedSubstituters{this, {}, "trusted-substituters",
-        "Disabled substituters that may be enabled via the substituters option by untrusted users.",
+    Setting<StringSet> trustedSubstituters{
+        this, {}, "trusted-substituters",
+        R"(
+          A list of URLs of substituters, separated by whitespace. These are
+          not used by default, but can be enabled by users of the Nix daemon
+          by specifying `--option substituters urls` on the command
+          line. Unprivileged users are only allowed to pass a subset of the
+          URLs listed in `substituters` and `trusted-substituters`.
+        )",
         {"trusted-binary-caches"}};
 
-    Setting<Strings> trustedUsers{this, {"root"}, "trusted-users",
-        "Which users or groups are trusted to ask the daemon to do unsafe things."};
-
-    Setting<unsigned int> ttlNegativeNarInfoCache{this, 3600, "narinfo-cache-negative-ttl",
-        "The TTL in seconds for negative lookups in the disk cache i.e binary cache lookups that "
-        "return an invalid path result"};
-
-    Setting<unsigned int> ttlPositiveNarInfoCache{this, 30 * 24 * 3600, "narinfo-cache-positive-ttl",
-        "The TTL in seconds for positive lookups in the disk cache i.e binary cache lookups that "
-        "return a valid path result."};
+    Setting<Strings> trustedUsers{
+        this, {"root"}, "trusted-users",
+        R"(
+          A list of names of users (separated by whitespace) that have
+          additional rights when connecting to the Nix daemon, such as the
+          ability to specify additional binary caches, or to import unsigned
+          NARs. You can also specify groups by prefixing them with `@`; for
+          instance, `@wheel` means all users in the `wheel` group. The default
+          is `root`.
+
+          > **Warning**
+          > 
+          > Adding a user to `trusted-users` is essentially equivalent to
+          > giving that user root access to the system. For example, the user
+          > can set `sandbox-paths` and thereby obtain read access to
+          > directories that are otherwise inacessible to them.
+        )"};
+
+    Setting<unsigned int> ttlNegativeNarInfoCache{
+        this, 3600, "narinfo-cache-negative-ttl",
+        R"(
+          The TTL in seconds for negative lookups. If a store path is queried
+          from a substituter but was not found, there will be a negative
+          lookup cached in the local disk cache database for the specified
+          duration.
+        )"};
+
+    Setting<unsigned int> ttlPositiveNarInfoCache{
+        this, 30 * 24 * 3600, "narinfo-cache-positive-ttl",
+        R"(
+          The TTL in seconds for positive lookups. If a store path is queried
+          from a substituter, the result of the query will be cached in the
+          local disk cache database including some of the NAR metadata. The
+          default TTL is a month, setting a shorter TTL for positive lookups
+          can be useful for binary caches that have frequent garbage
+          collection, in which case having a more frequent cache invalidation
+          would prevent trying to pull the path again and failing with a hash
+          mismatch if the build isn't reproducible.
+        )"};
 
     /* ?Who we trust to use the daemon in safe ways */
-    Setting<Strings> allowedUsers{this, {"*"}, "allowed-users",
-        "Which users or groups are allowed to connect to the daemon."};
+    Setting<Strings> allowedUsers{
+        this, {"*"}, "allowed-users",
+        R"(
+          A list of names of users (separated by whitespace) that are allowed
+          to connect to the Nix daemon. As with the `trusted-users` option,
+          you can specify groups by prefixing them with `@`. Also, you can
+          allow all users by specifying `*`. The default is `*`.
+
+          Note that trusted users are always allowed to connect.
+        )"};
 
     Setting<bool> printMissing{this, true, "print-missing",
         "Whether to print what paths need to be built or downloaded."};
 
-    Setting<std::string> preBuildHook{this, "",
-        "pre-build-hook",
-        "A program to run just before a build to set derivation-specific build settings."};
+    Setting<std::string> preBuildHook{
+        this, "", "pre-build-hook",
+        R"(
+          If set, the path to a program that can set extra derivation-specific
+          settings for this system. This is used for settings that can't be
+          captured by the derivation model itself and are too variable between
+          different versions of the same system to be hard-coded into nix.
+
+          The hook is passed the derivation path and, if sandboxes are
+          enabled, the sandbox directory. It can then modify the sandbox and
+          send a series of commands to modify various settings to stdout. The
+          currently recognized commands are:
+
+            - `extra-sandbox-paths`\
+              Pass a list of files and directories to be included in the
+              sandbox for this build. One entry per line, terminated by an
+              empty line. Entries have the same format as `sandbox-paths`.
+        )"};
+
+    Setting<std::string> postBuildHook{
+        this, "", "post-build-hook",
+        R"(
+          Optional. The path to a program to execute after each build.
+
+          This option is only settable in the global `nix.conf`, or on the
+          command line by trusted users.
+
+          When using the nix-daemon, the daemon executes the hook as `root`.
+          If the nix-daemon is not involved, the hook runs as the user
+          executing the nix-build.
+
+            - The hook executes after an evaluation-time build.
+
+            - The hook does not execute on substituted paths.
+
+            - The hook's output always goes to the user's terminal.
+
+            - If the hook fails, the build succeeds but no further builds
+              execute.
 
-    Setting<std::string> postBuildHook{this, "", "post-build-hook",
-        "A program to run just after each successful build."};
+            - The hook executes synchronously, and blocks other builds from
+              progressing while it runs.
 
-    Setting<std::string> netrcFile{this, fmt("%s/%s", nixConfDir, "netrc"), "netrc-file",
-        "Path to the netrc file used to obtain usernames/passwords for downloads."};
+          The program executes with no arguments. The program's environment
+          contains the following environment variables:
+
+            - `DRV_PATH`  
+              The derivation for the built paths.
+
+              Example:
+              `/nix/store/5nihn1a7pa8b25l9zafqaqibznlvvp3f-bash-4.4-p23.drv`
+
+            - `OUT_PATHS`  
+              Output paths of the built derivation, separated by a space
+              character.
+
+              Example:
+              `/nix/store/zf5lbh336mnzf1nlswdn11g4n2m8zh3g-bash-4.4-p23-dev
+              /nix/store/rjxwxwv1fpn9wa2x5ssk5phzwlcv4mna-bash-4.4-p23-doc
+              /nix/store/6bqvbzjkcp9695dq0dpl5y43nvy37pq1-bash-4.4-p23-info
+              /nix/store/r7fng3kk3vlpdlh2idnrbn37vh4imlj2-bash-4.4-p23-man
+              /nix/store/xfghy8ixrhz3kyy6p724iv3cxji088dx-bash-4.4-p23`.
+        )"};
+
+    Setting<std::string> netrcFile{
+        this, fmt("%s/%s", nixConfDir, "netrc"), "netrc-file",
+        R"(
+          If set to an absolute path to a `netrc` file, Nix will use the HTTP
+          authentication credentials in this file when trying to download from
+          a remote host through HTTP or HTTPS. Defaults to
+          `$NIX_CONF_DIR/netrc`.
+
+          The `netrc` file consists of a list of accounts in the following
+          format:
+
+              machine my-machine
+              login my-username
+              password my-password
+
+          For the exact syntax, see [the `curl`
+          documentation](https://ec.haxx.se/usingcurl-netrc.html).
+
+          > **Note**
+          > 
+          > This must be an absolute path, and `~` is not resolved. For
+          > example, `~/.netrc` won't resolve to your home directory's
+          > `.netrc`.
+        )"};
 
     /* Path to the SSL CA file used */
     Path caFile;
 
 #if __linux__
-    Setting<bool> filterSyscalls{this, true, "filter-syscalls",
-            "Whether to prevent certain dangerous system calls, such as "
-            "creation of setuid/setgid files or adding ACLs or extended "
-            "attributes. Only disable this if you're aware of the "
-            "security implications."};
-
-    Setting<bool> allowNewPrivileges{this, false, "allow-new-privileges",
-        "Whether builders can acquire new privileges by calling programs with "
-        "setuid/setgid bits or with file capabilities."};
+    Setting<bool> filterSyscalls{
+        this, true, "filter-syscalls",
+        R"(
+          Whether to prevent certain dangerous system calls, such as
+          creation of setuid/setgid files or adding ACLs or extended
+          attributes. Only disable this if you're aware of the
+          security implications.
+        )"};
+
+    Setting<bool> allowNewPrivileges{
+        this, false, "allow-new-privileges",
+        R"(
+          (Linux-specific.) By default, builders on Linux cannot acquire new
+          privileges by calling setuid/setgid programs or programs that have
+          file capabilities. For example, programs such as `sudo` or `ping`
+          will fail. (Note that in sandbox builds, no such programs are
+          available unless you bind-mount them into the sandbox via the
+          `sandbox-paths` option.) You can allow the use of such programs by
+          enabling this option. This is impure and usually undesirable, but
+          may be useful in certain scenarios (e.g. to spin up containers or
+          set up userspace network interfaces in tests).
+        )"};
 #endif
 
-    Setting<Strings> hashedMirrors{this, {"http://tarballs.nixos.org/"}, "hashed-mirrors",
-        "A list of servers used by builtins.fetchurl to fetch files by hash."};
-
-    Setting<uint64_t> minFree{this, 0, "min-free",
-        "Automatically run the garbage collector when free disk space drops below the specified amount."};
-
-    Setting<uint64_t> maxFree{this, std::numeric_limits<uint64_t>::max(), "max-free",
-        "Stop deleting garbage when free disk space is above the specified amount."};
+    Setting<Strings> hashedMirrors{
+        this, {}, "hashed-mirrors",
+        R"(
+          A list of web servers used by `builtins.fetchurl` to obtain files by
+          hash. The default is `http://tarballs.nixos.org/`. Given a hash type
+          *ht* and a base-16 hash *h*, Nix will try to download the file from
+          *hashed-mirror*/*ht*/*h*. This allows files to be downloaded even if
+          they have disappeared from their original URI. For example, given
+          the default mirror `http://tarballs.nixos.org/`, when building the
+          derivation
+
+          ```nix
+          builtins.fetchurl {
+            url = "https://example.org/foo-1.2.3.tar.xz";
+            sha256 = "2c26b46b68ffc68ff99b453c1d30413413422d706483bfa0f98a5e886266e7ae";
+          }
+          ```
+
+          Nix will attempt to download this file from
+          `http://tarballs.nixos.org/sha256/2c26b46b68ffc68ff99b453c1d30413413422d706483bfa0f98a5e886266e7ae`
+          first. If it is not available there, if will try the original URI.
+        )"};
+
+    Setting<uint64_t> minFree{
+        this, 0, "min-free",
+        R"(
+          When free disk space in `/nix/store` drops below `min-free` during a
+          build, Nix performs a garbage-collection until `max-free` bytes are
+          available or there is no more garbage. A value of `0` (the default)
+          disables this feature.
+        )"};
+
+    Setting<uint64_t> maxFree{
+        this, std::numeric_limits<uint64_t>::max(), "max-free",
+        R"(
+          When a garbage collection is triggered by the `min-free` option, it
+          stops as soon as `max-free` bytes are available. The default is
+          infinity (i.e. delete all garbage).
+        )"};
 
     Setting<uint64_t> minFreeCheckInterval{this, 5, "min-free-check-interval",
         "Number of seconds between checking free disk space."};
 
-    Setting<Paths> pluginFiles{this, {}, "plugin-files",
-        "Plugins to dynamically load at nix initialization time."};
-
-    Setting<std::string> githubAccessToken{this, "", "github-access-token",
-        "GitHub access token to get access to GitHub data through the GitHub API for github:<..> flakes."};
+    PluginFilesSetting pluginFiles{
+        this, {}, "plugin-files",
+        R"(
+          A list of plugin files to be loaded by Nix. Each of these files will
+          be dlopened by Nix, allowing them to affect execution through static
+          initialization. In particular, these plugins may construct static
+          instances of RegisterPrimOp to add new primops or constants to the
+          expression language, RegisterStoreImplementation to add new store
+          implementations, RegisterCommand to add new subcommands to the `nix`
+          command, and RegisterSetting to add new nix config settings. See the
+          constructors for those types for more details.
+
+          Warning! These APIs are inherently unstable and may change from
+          release to release.
+
+          Since these files are loaded into the same address space as Nix
+          itself, they must be DSOs compatible with the instance of Nix
+          running at the time (i.e. compiled against the same headers, not
+          linked to any incompatible libraries). They should not be linked to
+          any Nix libs directly, as those will be available already at load
+          time.
+
+          If an entry in the list is a directory, all files in the directory
+          are loaded as plugins (non-recursively).
+        )"};
+
+    Setting<StringMap> accessTokens{this, {}, "access-tokens",
+        R"(
+          Access tokens used to access protected GitHub, GitLab, or
+          other locations requiring token-based authentication.
+
+          Access tokens are specified as a string made up of
+          space-separated `host=token` values.  The specific token
+          used is selected by matching the `host` portion against the
+          "host" specification of the input. The actual use of the
+          `token` value is determined by the type of resource being
+          accessed:
+
+          * Github: the token value is the OAUTH-TOKEN string obtained
+            as the Personal Access Token from the Github server (see
+            https://docs.github.com/en/developers/apps/authorizing-oath-apps).
+
+          * Gitlab: the token value is either the OAuth2 token or the
+            Personal Access Token (these are different types tokens
+            for gitlab, see
+            https://docs.gitlab.com/12.10/ee/api/README.html#authentication).
+            The `token` value should be `type:tokenstring` where
+            `type` is either `OAuth2` or `PAT` to indicate which type
+            of token is being specified.
+
+          Example `~/.config/nix/nix.conf`:
+
+          ```
+          access-tokens = github.com=23ac...b289 gitlab.mycompany.com=PAT:A123Bp_Cd..EfG gitlab.com=OAuth2:1jklw3jk
+          ```
+
+          Example `~/code/flake.nix`:
+
+          ```nix
+          input.foo = {
+            type = "gitlab";
+            host = "gitlab.mycompany.com";
+            owner = "mycompany";
+            repo = "pro";
+          };
+          ```
+
+          This example specifies three tokens, one each for accessing
+          github.com, gitlab.mycompany.com, and sourceforge.net.
+
+          The `input.foo` uses the "gitlab" fetcher, which might
+          requires specifying the token type along with the token
+          value.
+          )"};
 
     Setting<Strings> experimentalFeatures{this, {}, "experimental-features",
         "Experimental Nix features to enable."};
@@ -378,6 +950,28 @@ public:
 
     Setting<bool> warnDirty{this, true, "warn-dirty",
         "Whether to warn about dirty Git/Mercurial trees."};
+
+    Setting<size_t> narBufferSize{this, 32 * 1024 * 1024, "nar-buffer-size",
+        "Maximum size of NARs before spilling them to disk."};
+
+    Setting<std::string> flakeRegistry{this, "https://github.com/NixOS/flake-registry/raw/master/flake-registry.json", "flake-registry",
+        "Path or URI of the global flake registry."};
+
+    Setting<bool> allowSymlinkedStore{
+        this, false, "allow-symlinked-store",
+        R"(
+          If set to `true`, Nix will stop complaining if the store directory
+          (typically /nix/store) contains symlink components.
+
+          This risks making some builds "impure" because builders sometimes
+          "canonicalise" paths by resolving all symlink components. Problems
+          occur if those builds are then deployed to machines where /nix/store
+          resolves to a different location from that of the build machine. You
+          can enable this setting if you are sure you're not going to do that.
+        )"};
+
+    Setting<bool> useRegistries{this, true, "use-registries",
+        "Whether to use flake registries to resolve flake references."};
 };