+++
title = "Running non Nixpkgs services on NixOS, the lazy way"
date = 2025-04-05T14:09:14+01:00
draft = false
+++

NixOS is really nice for self hosting.
Anything that has a NixOS module can be hosted in a few lines of nix code.
But what if the service we want to host doesn't come with a NixOS module written for us already in Nixpkgs?
This is where NixOS can be a little hard, as a guide on setting up a service in Debian or Arch will rarely work on NixOS.
Of course, the 'nix way' would be to write your own package and module for it, but that can be a daunting task.
Here are some 'escape hatches' to host some of the simpler services without having to write your own Nix package or module.

## Nginx

If the application is a simple static website, containing just HTML and JS,
the `nginx` module on NixOS provides us with a way to manage virtual hosts complete with https.
Shown is how I host my Hugo generated blog.

```nix
{ config, ... }: {
  services.nginx.virtualHosts."gabevenberg.com" = {
      enableACME = true;
      forceSSL = true;
      root = "/var/www/gabevenberg.com";
  };
  security.acme = {
    acceptTerms = true;
    defaults.email = "myname@example.com";
  };
  networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [443 80];
}
```
The complete list of options for virtual hosts can be found [here](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/options#opt-services.nginx.virtualHosts)

## Docker
If the service publishes a Docker image, one can just run that on NixOS.
Here's how I host a game server using a premade docker container.
Things get a bit more complicated with docker-compose,
but one can use [compose2nix](https://github.com/aksiksi/compose2nix) to translate a docker-compose.yaml file into a nix file much like the one shown.
```nix
{ config, ... }: {
  virtualisation.oci-containers = {
    backend = "docker";
    containers.factorio = {
      image = "factoriotools/factorio:stable";
      volumes = ["/storage/factorio:/factorio"];
      hostname = "factorio";
      ports = ["34197:34197/tcp"];
      environment = {UPDATE_MODS_ON_START = "true";};
    };
  };
  virtualisation.docker.enable = true;
}
```

There are, of course, more options for the oci-containers module, found [here](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/options#opt-virtualisation.oci-containers.containers)

## Systemd

Finally, if the service is composed of a single static binary, NixOS makes it really easy to write Systemd services.
(I've used a package in Nixpkgs here,
but you could just as easily point the Systemd service to a binary you threw in `/opt/` or somewhere.)

```nix
{ config, ... }: {
  systemd.services.miniserve = {
    wantedBy = ["multi-user.target"];
    after = ["network.target"];
    description = "A directory miniserve instance";
    environment = {MINISERVE_ENABLE_TAR_GZ="true";}
    serviceConfig.ExecStart = "${pkgs.miniserve}/bin/miniserve -i 127.0.0.1 -- /storage/miniserve"
  };
}

```
And like the last 2 times, the complete list of options for Systemd service can be found [here](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/options.html#opt-systemd.services)


*(This article was originally published in issue #6 of the [Paged Out!](https://pagedout.institute/) magazine.)*