nix3-key-generate-secret(1)

    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

•   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

•   --key-name name

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

  Logging-related options

•   --debug

    Set the logging verbosity level to ‘debug’.

•   --log-format format

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

•   --print-build-logs / -L

    Print full build logs on standard error.

•   --quiet

    Decrease the logging verbosity level.

•   --verbose / -v

    Increase the logging verbosity level.

  Miscellaneous global options

•   --help

    Show usage information.

•   --offline

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

•   --option name value

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

•   --refresh

    Consider all previously downloaded files out-of-date.

•   --version

    Show version information.

    Note

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