Nix-Ekklesia-VVVote

Set of Nix expressions for building and installing VVVote, intended for use with the Ekklesia eDemocracy project.

Quick Test Installation In Four Steps

This should work on all Linux distributions and MacOS. You need the Nix package manager and a running MySQL server. If you don't have experience with Nix, start Get Nix running on your system from Zero to Nix.

What Will Happen?

• Step 3 creates two MySQL databases. Please read the SQL script before executing it!
• The last step downloads all missing dependencies. It may take some minutes on the first run. Dependencies are installed to /nix/store.
• Server keys and logfiles are placed in the subdir quickstart. Keys are overwritten on each run, log files are appended.

How Is It Done?

1. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/edemocracy/nix-ekklesia-vvvote
2. Go to the nix-ekklesia-vvvote directory: cd nix-ekklesia-vvvote
3. Create the MySQL databases and grant access: mysql prepare-databases.sql (mysql call depends on your MySQL configuration)
4. Run VVVote: ./vvvote-quickstart

The last lines should show two running Apache instances. You can visit http://localhost:10002/getclient.php now.

Note that creating votings doesn't work right now.

Nix Files In This Repo

• nix/config.php.nix: VVVote configuration template.
• nix/vvvote.nix: This Nix expression packages the VVVote code.
• nix/sources.json: Controls which nixpkgs and VVVote version is used.
• nix/serve_app.nix Runs the installation process.
• nix/config_dir.nix Builds config.
• default.nix: Entrypoint for standalone mode.
• *vars*.nix: vars files contain the settings that influence the build process or customize the configuration files built from templates.

Configuring, Building And Installing VVVote

VVVote configuration files are created by Nix in the installation process. Default settings are in default_vars.nix which can be overridden by custom config expressions. To configure two instances, copy example_custom_vars_local_server_1.nix and example_custom_vars_local_server_2.nix to custom_vars_local_server_1.nix resp. custom_vars_local_server_2.nix and read the comments in both files.

See the vvvote-local script as an example how to build and run the two VVVote backend instances. The first one is also used to serve the webclient to users.

Building VVVote Docker Images

The Nix expression in docker.nix builds image tars that can be used with Docker. (Private) keys must be copied to the Nix store and then to the image, so the setting copyKeysToStore must be set to true and keydir must be a path, absolute or relative (without double quotes). httpAddress should be set to "0.0.0.0" (empty string) so HTTP can be reached from outside the container.

Have a look at vvvote-build-docker-images to see how to build and import images into Docker.