docspell/website/site/content/docs/install/nix.md

+++ title = "Nix / NixOS" weight = 24 +++

Install via Nix

Docspell can be installed via the nix package manager, which is available for Linux and OSX. Docspell is currently not part of the nixpkgs collection, but you can use the derivation from this repository. This is sometimes referred to as import from derivation.

For example, the builtins.fetchTarball function can be used to retrieve the files; then import the release.nix file:

let
  docspellsrc = builtins.fetchTarball "https://github.com/eikek/docspell/archive/master.tar.gz";
in
import "${docspellsrc}/nix/release.nix";

This creates a set containing a function for creating a derivation for docspell. This then needs to be called like other custom packages. For example, in your ~/.nixpkgs/config.nix you could write this:

let
  docspellsrc = builtins.fetchTarball "https://github.com/eikek/docspell/archive/master.tar.gz";
  docspell = import "${docspellsrc}/nix/release.nix";
in
{ packageOverrides = pkgs:
   let
     callPackage = pkgs.lib.callPackageWith(custom // pkgs);
     custom = {
       docspell = callPackage docspell.currentPkg {};
     };
   in custom;
}

The docspell custom package is again a set that contains derivations for all 3 installable docspell programs: the restserver, joex and the tools.

Then you can install docspell via nix-shell or nix-env, for example:

$ nix-env -iA nixpkgs.docspell.server nixpkgs.docspell.joex nixpkgs.docspell.tools

You may need to replace nixpkgs with nixos when you're on NixOS.

The expression docspell.currentPkg refers to the most current release of Docspell. So even if you use the tarball of the current master branch, the release.nix file only contains derivations for releases. The expression docspell.currentPkg is a shortcut for selecting the most current release. For example it translates to docspell.pkg docspell.cfg.v{{ pversion() }} – if the current version is {{version()}}.

Upgrading

Since downgrading is not supported, it is recommended to backup your database before upgrading. Should something not work as expected, restore the database backup and go back to the previous version.

When using the provided nix setup, the currentPkg always points to the latest release. Thus it is enough to run nix-build.

Docspell on NixOS

If you are running NixOS, there is a module definition for installing Docspell as a service using systemd.

There are the following modules provided:

• restserver
• joex
• consumedir

The consumedir module defines a systemd unit that starts the dsc watch command to watch one or more directories for new files.

You need to import the release.nix file as described above in your configuration.nix and then append the docspell module to your list of modules. Here is an example:

{ config, pkgs, ... }:
let
  docspellsrc = builtins.fetchTarball "https://github.com/eikek/docspell/archive/master.tar.gz";
  docspell = import "${docspellsrc}/nix/release.nix";
in
{
  imports = [ mymodule1 mymodule2 ] ++ docspell.modules;

  nixpkgs = {
    config = {
      packageOverrides = pkgs:
        let
          callPackage = pkgs.lib.callPackageWith(custom // pkgs);
          custom = {
            docspell = callPackage docspell.currentPkg {};
          };
        in custom;
    };
  };

  services.docspell-restserver = {
    enable = true;
    base-url = "http://docspelltest:7880";
    # ... more settings here
  };
  services.docspell-joex = {
    enable = true;
    base-url = "http://docspelltexst:7878";
    # ... more settings here
  };
  services.docspell-consumedir = {
    enable = true;
    watchDirs = ["/tmp/test"];
    source-id = "the-source-id";
  };

  ...
}

Please see the nix/module-server.nix and nix/module-joex.nix files for the set of options. The nixos options are modelled after the default configuration file.

The modules files are only applicable to the newest version of Docspell. If you really need an older version, checkout the appropriate commit.

NixOS Example

This is a example system configuration that installs docspell with a postgres database. This snippet can be used to create a vm (using nixos-rebuild build-vm as shown above) or a container, for example.

{ config, pkgs, ... }:
let
  docspellsrc = builtins.fetchTarball "https://github.com/eikek/docspell/archive/master.tar.gz";
  docspell = import "${docspellsrc}/nix/release.nix";
in
{
  imports = docspell.modules;

  nixpkgs = {
    config = {
      packageOverrides = pkgs:
        let
          callPackage = pkgs.lib.callPackageWith(custom // pkgs);
          custom = {
            docspell = callPackage docspell.currentPkg {};
          };
        in custom;
    };
  };

  ##### just for the example…
  users.users.root = {
    password = "root";
  };
  #####

  # install docspell-joex and enable the systemd service
  services.docspell-joex = {
    enable = true;
    base-url = "http://localhost:7878";
    bind = {
      address = "0.0.0.0";
      port = 7878;
    };
    scheduler = {
      pool-size = 1;
    };
    jdbc = {
      url = "jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/docspell";
      user = "docspell";
      password = "docspell";
    };
  };

  # install docspell-restserver and enable the systemd service
  services.docspell-restserver = {
    enable = true;
    base-url = "http://localhost:7880";
    bind = {
      address = "0.0.0.0";
      port = 7880;
    };
    auth = {
      server-secret = "b64:EirgaudMyNvWg4TvxVGxTu-fgtrto4ETz--Hk9Pv2o4=";
    };
    backend = {
      signup = {
        mode = "invite";
        new-invite-password = "dsinvite2";
        invite-time = "30 days";
      };
      jdbc = {
        url = "jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/docspell";
        user = "docspell";
        password = "docspell";
      };
    };
  };

  # install postgresql and initially create user/database
  services.postgresql =
  let
    pginit = pkgs.writeText "pginit.sql" ''
      CREATE USER docspell WITH PASSWORD 'docspell' LOGIN CREATEDB;
      GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA public TO docspell;
      GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON ALL SEQUENCES IN SCHEMA public TO docspell;
      CREATE DATABASE DOCSPELL OWNER 'docspell';
    '';
  in {
      enable = true;
      package = pkgs.postgresql_11;
      enableTCPIP = true;
      initialScript = pginit;
      port = 5432;
      authentication = ''
        host  all  all 0.0.0.0/0 md5
      '';
  };


  networking = {
    hostName = "docspellexample";
    firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [7880];
  };
}