Man page - nix3-key-generate-secret(1)

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Manual

nix3-key-generate-secret

Name
Synopsis
Examples
Description
Format
Options
Logging-related options
Miscellaneous global options

Warning
This program is experimental and its interface is subject to change.

Name

nix key generate-secret - generate a secret key for signing store paths

Synopsis

nix key generate-secret [ option …]

Examples

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Generate a new secret key:

# nix key generate-secret --key-name cache.example.org-1 > ./secret-key

We can then use this key to sign the closure of the Hello package:

# nix build nixpkgs#hello
# nix store sign --key-file ./secret-key --recursive ./result

Finally, we can verify the store paths using the corresponding public key:

# nix store verify --trusted-public-keys $(nix key convert-secret-to-public < ./secret-key) ./result

Description

This command generates a new Ed25519 secret key for signing store paths and prints it on standard output. Use nix key convert-secret-to-public to get the corresponding public key for verifying signed store paths.

The mandatory argument --key-name specifies a key name (such as cache.example.org-1). It is used to look up keys on the client when it verifies signatures. It can be anything, but it’s suggested to use the host name of your cache (e.g. cache.example.org) with a suffix denoting the number of the key (to be incremented every time you need to revoke a key).

Format

Both secret and public keys are represented as the key name followed by a base-64 encoding of the Ed25519 key data, e.g.

cache.example.org-0:E7lAO+MsPwTFfPXsdPtW8GKui/5ho4KQHVcAGnX+Tti1V4dUxoVoqLyWJ4YESuZJwQ67GVIksDt47og+tPVUZw==

Options

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--key-name name

Identifier of the key (e.g. cache.example.org-1).

Logging-related options

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--debug

Set the logging verbosity level to β€˜debug’.

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--log-format format

Set the format of log output; one of raw, internal-json, bar or bar-with-logs.

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--print-build-logs / -L

Print full build logs on standard error.

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--quiet

Decrease the logging verbosity level.

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--verbose / -v

Increase the logging verbosity level.

Miscellaneous global options

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--help

Show usage information.

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--offline

Disable substituters and consider all previously downloaded files up-to-date.

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--option name value

Set the Nix configuration setting name to value (overriding nix.conf).

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--refresh

Consider all previously downloaded files out-of-date.

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--version

Show version information.

Note

See man nix.conf for overriding configuration settings with command line flags.