What is the nix --store runtime?

[dnkmmr69420]

I can't find any explanation for it

[kai-tub]

Hey, I was asking myself the same question and I believe it refers to the direct local-store implementation in nix:

This store type accesses a Nix store in the local filesystem directly (i.e. not via the Nix daemon). [...]
A store that uses a root other than / is called a chroot store. With such stores, the store directory is "logically" still /nix/store, so programs stored in them can only be built and executed by chroot-ing into root. Chroot stores only support building and running on Linux when mount namespaces and user namespaces are enabled.

https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/store/types/local-store

[dnkmmr69420]

What are the advantages of this anyways?

[DavHau]

• we could potentially get rid of bubblewrap if the nix local-store sandbox turns out to be reliable.
• using nix to set up the sandbox is less complex than passing all the right flags to bubblewrap
• we help debugging the nix local-store upstream mechanism by using it.