pkgs.vmTools.runInLinuxVM

Run a derivation in a Linux virtual machine (using Qemu/KVM). By default, there is no disk image; the root filesystem is a tmpfs, and the nix store is shared with the host (via the 9P protocol). Thus, any pure Nix derivation should run unmodified, e.g. the call

runInLinuxVM patchelf

will build the derivation patchelf' inside a VM. The attribute preVM' can optionally contain a shell command to be evaluated before the VM is started (i.e., on the host). The attribute memSize' specifies the memory size of the VM in MiB (1024*1024 bytes), defaulting to 512. The attribute diskImage' can optionally specify a file system image to be attached to /dev/sda. (Note that currently we expect the image to contain a filesystem, not a full disk image with a partition table etc.)

If the build fails and Nix is run with the -K' option, a script run-vm' will be left behind in the temporary build directory that allows you to boot into the VM and debug it interactively.

Noogle detected

runInLinuxVM =
    drv:
    lib.overrideDerivation drv (
      {
        memSize ? 512,
        QEMU_OPTS ? "",
        args,
        builder,
        ...
      }:
      {
        requiredSystemFeatures = [ "kvm" ];
        builder = "${bash}/bin/sh";
        args = [
          "-e"
          (vmRunCommand qemuCommandLinux)
        ];
        origArgs = args;
        origBuilder = builder;
        QEMU_OPTS = "${QEMU_OPTS} -m ${toString memSize} -object memory-backend-memfd,id=mem,size=${toString memSize}M,share=on -machine memory-backend=mem";
        passAsFile = [ ]; # HACK fix - see https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/16742
      }
    );