fix: grant coder user ownership of /nix for single-user mode#12
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megheaiulian merged 1 commit intomainfrom Feb 10, 2026
Merged
fix: grant coder user ownership of /nix for single-user mode#12megheaiulian merged 1 commit intomainfrom
megheaiulian merged 1 commit intomainfrom
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The Nix store database (/nix/var/nix/db/) is owned by root after image build, causing 'Permission denied' when the coder user runs nix commands like 'nix develop'. Grant ownership of the entire /nix tree to the coder user (uid 1000) so single-user Nix operations can acquire locks and write to the store without requiring a daemon.
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Summary
Permission deniederror when runningnix develop(or any Nix command that needs store access) as thecoderuserchown -R 1000:1000 ./nixinfakeRootCommandsso the coder user owns the entire/nixtree, allowing single-user Nix operations to acquire locks and write to the store/db without a daemonProblem
The image is built with
buildLayeredImageWithNixDb, which populates the Nix database at build time. The/nix/var/nix/db/directory ends up owned by root, but the container runs as usercoder(uid 1000). In single-user mode (no Nix daemon), Nix commands need direct write access to the store and database, resulting in: