Update Your Machines

Clan CLI enables you to remotely update your machines over SSH. This requires setting up a target address for each target machine.

Setting targetHost

In your Nix files, set the targetHost to the reachable IP address of your new machine. This eliminates the need to specify --target-host with every command.

{
# Ensure this is unique among all clans you want to use.
meta.name = "my-clan";

inventory.machines = {
    # Define machines here.
    # The machine name will be used as the hostname.
    jon = {
        deploy.targetHost = "root@192.168.192.4"; # (1)
    };
};
# [...]
}

Setting a Build Host

If the machine does not have enough resources to run the NixOS evaluation or build itself, it is also possible to specify a build host instead. During an update, the cli will ssh into the build host and run nixos-rebuild from there.

buildClan {
    # ...
    machines = {
        "jon" = {
            clan.core.networking.buildHost = "root@<host_or_ip>";
        };
    };
};

You can also override the build host via the command line:

# Build on a remote host
clan machines update jon --build-host root@192.168.1.10

# Build locally (useful for testing or when the target has limited resources)
clan machines update jon --build-host local

Updating Machine Configurations

Execute the following command to update the specified machine:

clan machines update jon

You can also update all configured machines simultaneously by omitting the machine name:

clan machines update

Excluding a machine from clan machine update

To exclude machines from being updated when running clan machines update without any machines specified, one can set the clan.deployment.requireExplicitUpdate option to true:

buildClan {
    # ...
    machines = {
        "jon" = {
            clan.deployment.requireExplicitUpdate = true;
        };
    };
};

This is useful for machines that are not always online or are not part of the regular update cycle.

Uploading Flake Inputs

When updating remote machines, flake inputs are usually fetched by the build host. However, if your flake inputs require authentication (e.g., private repositories), you can use the --upload-inputs flag to upload all inputs from your local machine:

clan machines update jon --upload-inputs

This is particularly useful when: - Your flake references private Git repositories - Authentication credentials are only available on your local machine - The build host doesn't have access to certain network resources