nixpkgs/nixos/modules/services/development/livebook.md
Philip Munksgaard 897d5670a3
livebook: Use mix release to build instead of escript
The current build of livebook does not work with the new [Livebook
Teams](https://livebook.dev/teams/) features. The problem can be observed by
running the current version of livebook, adding a new team and going to the team
page. The process will crash and the team page will show a 500 error.

The base of the problem is that the escript build method is not officially
supported. This commit changes the livebook package to use the `mix release`
workflow, which is also the one used to build the official Docker container.

Unfortunately, the binary built with `mix release` does not support command line
arguments like the `escript` binary does. Instead, users need to pass in most of
the configuration as environment variables, as documented
[here](https://hexdocs.pm/livebook/readme.html#environment-variables). As a
result, this commit also changes the Livebook service to reflect this new way of
configuring Livebook.

Finally, the Livebook release configuration specifically excludes the
ERTS (Erlang Runtime System), which means that the resulting release cannot run
without Erlang installed.

I have tested the results (both of the package and the service) locally.
2024-01-26 20:19:46 +01:00

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1.7 KiB
Markdown

# Livebook {#module-services-livebook}
[Livebook](https://livebook.dev/) is a web application for writing
interactive and collaborative code notebooks.
## Basic Usage {#module-services-livebook-basic-usage}
Enabling the `livebook` service creates a user
[`systemd`](https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/) unit
which runs the server.
```
{ ... }:
{
services.livebook = {
enableUserService = true;
environment = {
LIVEBOOK_PORT = 20123;
LIVEBOOK_PASSWORD = "mypassword";
};
# See note below about security
environmentFile = "/var/lib/livebook.env";
};
}
```
::: {.note}
The Livebook server has the ability to run any command as the user it
is running under, so securing access to it with a password is highly
recommended.
Putting the password in the Nix configuration like above is an easy way to get
started but it is not recommended in the real world because the resulting
environment variables can be read by unprivileged users. A better approach
would be to put the password in some secure user-readable location and set
`environmentFile = /home/user/secure/livebook.env`.
:::
The [Livebook
documentation](https://hexdocs.pm/livebook/readme.html#environment-variables)
lists all the applicable environment variables. It is recommended to at least
set `LIVEBOOK_PASSWORD` or `LIVEBOOK_TOKEN_ENABLED=false`.
### Extra dependencies {#module-services-livebook-extra-dependencies}
By default, the Livebook service is run with minimum dependencies, but
some features require additional packages. For example, the machine
learning Kinos require `gcc` and `gnumake`. To add these, use
`extraPackages`:
```
services.livebook.extraPackages = with pkgs; [ gcc gnumake ];
```