Package Mox as a service

[themadbit]

• Exposed Mox as a service to resolve issue(s).
• Initial tests are running, and a local rebuild of NixOS with the module included runs just fine.
  i.e:

However, it fails to start/survive reboot with:

[themadbit@nixos:~]$ systemctl status mox
○ mox.service
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/mox.service; enabled; preset: ignored)
     Active: inactive (dead)

Mar 27 14:40:30 nixos systemd[1]: Dependency failed for mox.service.
Mar 27 14:40:30 nixos systemd[1]: mox.service: Job mox.service/start failed with result 'dependency'.

So, I'll leave this as a draft PR as I investigate further. Putting it out here in case you've had a similar headache and know the painkiller 😅

[themadbit]

Update: I've run the test interactively for debugging and got access to the VM. The VM might not have a running nameserver, and I'd like to know if there's a way I can get one running as part of the machine configs before running the test(s). @eljamm, any pointers for further debugging?

ss of log:

[eljamm]

Turns out that it was just a matter of modifying the service order since the dns configuration is not over by the time the mox-setup service tries to start. With the following patch, the setup completes, the server runs and the NixOS Test succeeds:

fix-mox-service-order.patch

---
 projects/Mox/module.nix | 9 ++++++---
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/projects/Mox/module.nix b/projects/Mox/module.nix
index 43bb8d7..91d38d7 100644
--- a/projects/Mox/module.nix
+++ b/projects/Mox/module.nix
@@ -48,23 +48,26 @@
     systemd.services.mox-setup = {
       description = "Setup Mox Mail Server";
       wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ];
+      requires = [ "network-online.target" ];
+      after = [ "network-online.target" ];
       before = [ "mox.service" ];
       serviceConfig = {
         Type = "oneshot";
         RemainAfterExit = true;
+        User = "mox";
+        Group = "mox";
       };
       script = ''
         mkdir -p /var/lib/mox
         cd /var/lib/mox
         ${pkgs.mox}/bin/mox quickstart -hostname ${config.services.mox.hostname} ${config.services.mox.user}
-        chown -R mox:mox /var/lib/mox
       '';
     };

     systemd.services.mox = {
       wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ];
-      after = [ "network.target" "mox-setup.service" ];
-      requires = [ "mox-setup.service" ]; # This ensures mox-setup must succeed
+      after = [ "mox-setup.service" ];
+      requires = [ "mox-setup.service" ];
       serviceConfig = {
         WorkingDirectory = "/var/lib/mox";
         ExecStart = "${pkgs.mox}/bin/mox -config /var/lib/mox/config/mox.conf serve";
--
2.47.2

[themadbit]

lol. Been on it since I left the office hour
I also figured out a way to get it working. But it is a very brute force way (but at least I got to learn lots of networking configs).

I added services.dnsmasq and enabled dnssec and had the mox-setup unit wait for that to be up and running.

[eljamm]

I added services.dnsmasq and enabled dnssec and had the mox-setup unit wait for that to be up and running.

That sounds like it could be useful for a separate example config that uses DNSSEC, for those interested in that

[themadbit]

That sounds like it could be useful for a separate example config that uses DNSSEC, for those interested in that

Yess. I've stashed changes using dnsmasq to have a running service first, and then I can build upon it slowly. Ultimately a user should be able to specify all their desired config(s) which means supporting sconf. Nonetheless, the current implementation, if successfully built, a user with a working and configured domain can have Mox running and set up working emails.

[eljamm]

I think the test fails in CI because it's not running with .driver or .driverInteractive as those give the VM an internet connection (which is required here for dns, I guess). To reproduce this, one can run:

nix build .#checks.x86_64-linux.projects/Mox/nixos/tests/basic

which will fail.