nix run: Fix chroot execution

Running "nix run" with a diverted store, e.g.

  $ nix run --store local?root=/tmp/nix nixpkgs.hello

stopped working when Nix became multithreaded, because
unshare(CLONE_NEWUSER) doesn't work in multithreaded processes. The
obvious solution is to terminate all other threads first, but 1) there
is no way to terminate Boehm GC marker threads; and 2) it appears that
the kernel has a race where unshare(CLONE_NEWUSER) will still fail for
some indeterminate amount of time after joining other threads.

So instead, "nix run" will now exec() a single-threaded helper ("nix
__run_in_chroot") that performs the actual unshare()/chroot()/exec().

src/nix/main.cc

@@ -9,6 +9,10 @@
 #include "store-api.hh"
 #include "progress-bar.hh"
 
+extern std::string chrootHelperName;
+
+void chrootHelper(int argc, char * * argv);
+
 namespace nix {
 
 struct NixArgs : virtual MultiCommand, virtual MixCommonArgs
@@ -57,6 +61,13 @@ void mainWrapped(int argc, char * * argv)
     verbosity = lvlError;
     settings.verboseBuild = false;
 
+    /* The chroot helper needs to be run before any threads have been
+       started. */
+    if (argc > 0 && argv[0] == chrootHelperName) {
+        chrootHelper(argc, argv);
+        return;
+    }
+
     initNix();
     initGC();
 

src/nix/run.cc

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 #include "derivations.hh"
 #include "local-store.hh"
 #include "finally.hh"
+#include "fs-accessor.hh"
 
 #if __linux__
 #include <sys/mount.h>
@@ -12,6 +13,8 @@
 
 using namespace nix;
 
+std::string chrootHelperName = "__run_in_chroot";
+
 struct CmdRun : InstallablesCommand
 {
     CmdRun()
@@ -32,9 +35,54 @@ struct CmdRun : InstallablesCommand
     {
         auto outPaths = toStorePaths(store, Build);
 
+        auto accessor = store->getFSAccessor();
+
+        auto unixPath = tokenizeString<Strings>(getEnv("PATH"), ":");
+        for (auto & path : outPaths)
+            if (accessor->stat(path + "/bin").type != FSAccessor::tMissing)
+                unixPath.push_front(path + "/bin");
+        setenv("PATH", concatStringsSep(":", unixPath).c_str(), 1);
+
+        std::string cmd = "bash";
+        Strings args = { cmd };
+
+        /* If this is a diverted store (i.e. its "logical" location
+           (typically /nix/store) differs from its "physical" location
+           (e.g. /home/eelco/nix/store), then run the command in a
+           chroot. For non-root users, this requires running it in new
+           mount and user namespaces. Unfortunately,
+           unshare(CLONE_NEWUSER) doesn't work in a multithreaded
+           program (which "nix" is), so we exec() a single-threaded
+           helper program (chrootHelper() below) to do the work. */
         auto store2 = store.dynamic_pointer_cast<LocalStore>();
 
         if (store2 && store->storeDir != store2->realStoreDir) {
+            Strings helperArgs = { chrootHelperName, store->storeDir, store2->realStoreDir, cmd };
+            for (auto & arg : args) helperArgs.push_back(arg);
+
+            execv(readLink("/proc/self/exe").c_str(), stringsToCharPtrs(helperArgs).data());
+
+            throw SysError("could not execute chroot helper");
+        }
+
+        execvp(cmd.c_str(), stringsToCharPtrs(args).data());
+
+        throw SysError("unable to exec '%s'", cmd);
+    }
+};
+
+static RegisterCommand r1(make_ref<CmdRun>());
+
+void chrootHelper(int argc, char * * argv)
+{
+    int p = 1;
+    std::string storeDir = argv[p++];
+    std::string realStoreDir = argv[p++];
+    std::string cmd = argv[p++];
+    Strings args;
+    while (p < argc)
+        args.push_back(argv[p++]);
+
 #if __linux__
     uid_t uid = getuid();
     uid_t gid = getgid();
@@ -42,22 +90,22 @@ struct CmdRun : InstallablesCommand
     if (unshare(CLONE_NEWUSER | CLONE_NEWNS) == -1)
         throw SysError("setting up a private mount namespace");
 
-            /* Bind-mount realStoreDir on /nix/store. If the latter
+    /* Bind-mount realStoreDir on /nix/store. If the latter mount
-               mount point doesn't already exists, we have to create a
+       point doesn't already exists, we have to create a chroot
-               chroot environment containing the mount point and bind
+       environment containing the mount point and bind mounts for the
-               mounts for the children of /. Would be nice if we could
+       children of /. Would be nice if we could use overlayfs here,
-               use overlayfs here, but that doesn't work in a user
+       but that doesn't work in a user namespace yet (Ubuntu has a
-               namespace yet (Ubuntu has a patch for this:
+       patch for this:
        https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1478578). */
-            if (!pathExists(store->storeDir)) {
+    if (true /* !pathExists(storeDir) */) {
         // FIXME: Use overlayfs?
 
         Path tmpDir = createTempDir();
 
-                createDirs(tmpDir + store->storeDir);
+        createDirs(tmpDir + storeDir);
 
-                if (mount(store2->realStoreDir.c_str(), (tmpDir + store->storeDir).c_str(), "", MS_BIND, 0) == -1)
+        if (mount(realStoreDir.c_str(), (tmpDir + storeDir).c_str(), "", MS_BIND, 0) == -1)
-                    throw SysError(format("mounting '%s' on '%s'") % store2->realStoreDir % store->storeDir);
+            throw SysError("mounting '%s' on '%s'", realStoreDir, storeDir);
 
         for (auto entry : readDirectory("/")) {
             Path dst = tmpDir + "/" + entry.name;
@@ -78,27 +126,18 @@ struct CmdRun : InstallablesCommand
         if (chdir(cwd) == -1)
             throw SysError(format("chdir to '%s' in chroot") % cwd);
     } else
-                if (mount(store2->realStoreDir.c_str(), store->storeDir.c_str(), "", MS_BIND, 0) == -1)
+        if (mount(realStoreDir.c_str(), storeDir.c_str(), "", MS_BIND, 0) == -1)
-                    throw SysError(format("mounting '%s' on '%s'") % store2->realStoreDir % store->storeDir);
+            throw SysError("mounting '%s' on '%s'", realStoreDir, storeDir);
 
     writeFile("/proc/self/setgroups", "deny");
-            writeFile("/proc/self/uid_map", (format("%d %d %d") % uid % uid % 1).str());
+    writeFile("/proc/self/uid_map", fmt("%d %d %d", uid, uid, 1));
-            writeFile("/proc/self/gid_map", (format("%d %d %d") % gid % gid % 1).str());
+    writeFile("/proc/self/gid_map", fmt("%d %d %d", gid, gid, 1));
+
+    execvp(cmd.c_str(), stringsToCharPtrs(args).data());
+
+    throw SysError("unable to exec '%s'", cmd);
+
 #else
-            throw Error(format("mounting the Nix store on '%s' is not supported on this platform") % store->storeDir);
+    throw Error("mounting the Nix store on '%s' is not supported on this platform", >storeDir);
 #endif
-        }
+}
-
-
-        auto unixPath = tokenizeString<Strings>(getEnv("PATH"), ":");
-        for (auto & path : outPaths)
-            if (pathExists(path + "/bin"))
-                unixPath.push_front(path + "/bin");
-        setenv("PATH", concatStringsSep(":", unixPath).c_str(), 1);
-
-        if (execlp("bash", "bash", nullptr) == -1)
-            throw SysError("unable to exec 'bash'");
-    }
-};
-
-static RegisterCommand r1(make_ref<CmdRun>());