nixpkgs/doc/functions/fhs-environments.xml

<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
         xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
         xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
         xml:id="sec-fhs-environments">
 <title>buildFHSUserEnv</title>

 <para>
  <function>buildFHSUserEnv</function> provides a way to build and run FHS-compatible lightweight sandboxes. It creates an isolated root with bound <filename>/nix/store</filename>, so its footprint in terms of disk space needed is quite small. This allows one to run software which is hard or unfeasible to patch for NixOS -- 3rd-party source trees with FHS assumptions, games distributed as tarballs, software with integrity checking and/or external self-updated binaries. It uses Linux namespaces feature to create temporary lightweight environments which are destroyed after all child processes exit, without root user rights requirement. Accepted arguments are:
 </para>

 <variablelist>
  <varlistentry>
   <term>
    <literal>name</literal>
   </term>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     Environment name.
    </para>
   </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
  <varlistentry>
   <term>
    <literal>targetPkgs</literal>
   </term>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     Packages to be installed for the main host's architecture (i.e. x86_64 on x86_64 installations). Along with libraries binaries are also installed.
    </para>
   </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
  <varlistentry>
   <term>
    <literal>multiPkgs</literal>
   </term>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     Packages to be installed for all architectures supported by a host (i.e. i686 and x86_64 on x86_64 installations). Only libraries are installed by default.
    </para>
   </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
  <varlistentry>
   <term>
    <literal>extraBuildCommands</literal>
   </term>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     Additional commands to be executed for finalizing the directory structure.
    </para>
   </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
  <varlistentry>
   <term>
    <literal>extraBuildCommandsMulti</literal>
   </term>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     Like <literal>extraBuildCommands</literal>, but executed only on multilib architectures.
    </para>
   </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
  <varlistentry>
   <term>
    <literal>extraOutputsToInstall</literal>
   </term>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     Additional derivation outputs to be linked for both target and multi-architecture packages.
    </para>
   </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
  <varlistentry>
   <term>
    <literal>extraInstallCommands</literal>
   </term>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     Additional commands to be executed for finalizing the derivation with runner script.
    </para>
   </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
  <varlistentry>
   <term>
    <literal>runScript</literal>
   </term>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     A command that would be executed inside the sandbox and passed all the command line arguments. It defaults to <literal>bash</literal>.
    </para>
   </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
 </variablelist>

 <para>
  One can create a simple environment using a <literal>shell.nix</literal> like that:
 </para>

<programlisting><![CDATA[
{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:

(pkgs.buildFHSUserEnv {
  name = "simple-x11-env";
  targetPkgs = pkgs: (with pkgs;
    [ udev
      alsaLib
    ]) ++ (with pkgs.xorg;
    [ libX11
      libXcursor
      libXrandr
    ]);
  multiPkgs = pkgs: (with pkgs;
    [ udev
      alsaLib
    ]);
  runScript = "bash";
}).env
]]></programlisting>

 <para>
  Running <literal>nix-shell</literal> would then drop you into a shell with these libraries and binaries available. You can use this to run closed-source applications which expect FHS structure without hassles: simply change <literal>runScript</literal> to the application path, e.g. <filename>./bin/start.sh</filename> -- relative paths are supported.
 </para>
</section>