Introduce nixos module for tclip

[fzakaria]

• Add a nixosModule
• Add an overlay

This how I tested it:

• Created separate flake.nix
• build it via nixos-rebuild build-vm --flake ".#test"

{
  inputs.nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-24.05";
  inputs.tclip.url = "path:/home/fmzakari/code/github.com/tailscale-dev/tclip";
  outputs = {
    self,
    nixpkgs,
    tclip,
    ...
  }: let
    system = "x86_64-linux";
  in {
    # test is a hostname for our machine
    nixosConfigurations.test = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      inherit system;
      modules = [
        tclip.nixosModules.default
        ({config, ...}: {
          users.users.alice = {
            isNormalUser = true;
            extraGroups = ["wheel"]; # Enable ‘sudo’ for the user.
            initialPassword = "test";
          };
          services.tclip.enable = true;
          # just give some fake file for now
          services.tclip.tailscaleAuthKeyFile = ./flake.lock;
          system.stateVersion = "24.05";
        })
      ];
    };
  };
}

Validation

<<< Welcome to NixOS 24.05.20240811.a731b45 (x86_64) - ttyS0 >>>

Run 'nixos-help' for the NixOS manual.

nixos login: alice
Password: 

[alice@nixos:~]$ which tclip
/run/current-system/sw/bin/tclip

[alice@nixos:~]$ tclip --help
Usage: tclip [filename]

Takes a file or standard in and posts it to your tailnet's tclip service. Returns a URL on standard out for sharing.

Flags:
  -n string
    	filename to use for pastes from standard input
  -target string
    	tclip server URL (default "http://paste")

[alice@nixos:~]$ systemctl status tclip
● tclip.service
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/tclip.service; enabled; preset: enable>
     Active: activating (auto-restart) (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2024-08-13>
    Process: 931 ExecStart=/nix/store/qfs9i87qa3m3yx84fq2amfjaijx5s3zb-unit-scr>
   Main PID: 931 (code=exited, status=2)
         IP: 0B in, 0B out
        CPU: 39ms

fixes #63

[fzakaria]

If I look at other examples https://github.com/ryantm/agenix they are structured differently; t
the overlay defines the packages and then packages attribute just pull it out of nixpkgs itself.

This goes in the other direction; not sure how "wrong" that is.

[Erisa]

I don't have any strong feelings here, as long as it works well and doesn't break or complicate anything.

[fzakaria]

These changes are from formatting; I added formatter as an attribute so nix fmt should keep this consistent.

[fzakaria]

I would love if someone else can test this out too; I'll post on my twitter.

[fzakaria]

@Erisa let me know what you think.
I added more description to demonstrate it running in a VM.

The systemd service was failing to run because I gave it an invalid auth key.

[Erisa]

Thank you for contributing this! Sorry for the delay getting around to reviewing this.

Are you able to

• Add support for all the options available here: https://github.com/tailscale-dev/tclip?tab=readme-ov-file#configuration
• Add some short documentation to the README on how one might use this? If there are general resources you can point to that explain concepts better, those can be linked to.

My experience with NixOS (especially with flakes) is a little lacking and while I was able to add this as an input for a flake, I had difficulty getting it to work in order to test. I imagine the README changes should help with that!

[fzakaria]

@Erisa I plan to revisit your comments; I've just been busy.

For those who want to see a working version, I've been running in my NixOS configuration
https://github.com/fzakaria/nix-home/blob/master/modules/nixos/tclip.nix

[Erisa]

Thanks for the example - and no worries about being busy, I have been as well!