From 93ba3d8fc41c5fef8ddf79fb4ab5a6dc708a87c4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Val Packett <val@invisiblethingslab.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2025 02:06:09 -0300
Subject: [PATCH] Switch from sysusers to new "baked" userborn usage

Avoid spending ~100ms of userspace boot time on unnecessary regeneration
of entirely static /etc/{passwd,group,shadow}. This will be proposed to nixpkgs.
---
 nixosModules/default.nix | 46 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------
 1 file changed, 35 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/nixosModules/default.nix b/nixosModules/default.nix
index 9012eac..d3763a5 100644
--- a/nixosModules/default.nix
+++ b/nixosModules/default.nix
@@ -7,6 +7,29 @@
     StandardError = "tty";
   };
   runtimeDir = "/run/vm-user";
+    userbornConfig = {
+      groups = lib.mapAttrsToList (username: opts: {
+        inherit (opts) name gid members;
+      }) config.users.groups;
+      users = lib.mapAttrsToList (username: opts: {
+        inherit (opts)
+          name
+          uid
+          group
+          description
+          home
+          password
+          hashedPassword
+          hashedPasswordFile
+          initialPassword
+          initialHashedPassword
+          ;
+        isNormal = opts.isNormalUser;
+        shell = utils.toShellPath opts.shell;
+      }) (lib.filterAttrs (_: u: u.enable) config.users.users);
+    };
+    userbornConfigJson = pkgs.writeText "userborn.json" (builtins.toJSON userbornConfig);
+    userbornResults = pkgs.runCommand "baked userborn" {} "mkdir -p $out; ${lib.getExe pkgs.userborn} ${userbornConfigJson} $out";
 in {
   boot.isContainer = true;
   fileSystems."/".device = lib.mkDefault "/dev/sda"; # dummy
@@ -34,8 +57,6 @@ in {
   boot.initrd.systemd.enable = true; # for etc.overlay, but we don't have initrd
   system.etc.overlay.enable = true; # erofs
   system.etc.overlay.mutable = false;
-  systemd.sysusers.enable = true;
-  services.userborn.enable = false;
   services.udev.enable = lib.mkDefault true;
   services.udev.packages = lib.mkDefault [];
   environment.etc."resolv.conf".source = "/run/resolv.conf";
@@ -57,7 +78,6 @@ in {
       "systemd-journald-audit.socket"
       "systemd-journald-dev-log.socket"
       "systemd-journald.service"
-      "systemd-sysusers.service"
       "systemd-udevd-kernel.socket"
       "systemd-udevd-control.socket"
       "systemd-udevd.service"
@@ -67,7 +87,7 @@ in {
     upstreamWants = ["multi-user.target.wants"];
   });
 
-  # systemd.package = pkgs.systemdMinimal; # no sysusers
+  # systemd.package = pkgs.systemdMinimal; # no analyze
   systemd.defaultUnit = "microvm.target";
   systemd.targets.microvm = {
     description = "Minimal microVM system";
@@ -78,16 +98,12 @@ in {
   systemd.services.systemd-pstore.enable = lib.mkForce false;
   systemd.services.lastlog2-import.enable = lib.mkForce false;
   systemd.services.suid-sgid-wrappers.enable = lib.mkForce false;
-  systemd.services.systemd-sysusers.serviceConfig = {
-    ExecStartPre = lib.mkForce [];
-    ExecStartPost = lib.mkForce [];
-  };
   systemd.services.microvm-nixos-activation = {
     enable = true;
     description = "NixOS Activation";
     wantedBy = ["local-fs.target"];
-    before = ["systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service" "systemd-sysusers.service"];
-    requires = ["systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service" "systemd-sysusers.service"];
+    before = ["systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service"];
+    requires = ["systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service"];
     unitConfig.DefaultDependencies = false;
     serviceConfig = {
       Type = "oneshot";
@@ -101,7 +117,15 @@ in {
     '';
   };
 
-  # Configure user account
+  # Configure user accounts
+  # The immutable overlay wants userborn or sysusers.. we just want baked-in files w/o running a service.
+  # So we can just run userborn at system closure build time!
+  systemd.sysusers.enable = false;
+  services.userborn.enable = true;
+  systemd.services.userborn.enable = false;
+  environment.etc."passwd" = lib.mkForce { source = "${userbornResults}/passwd"; mode = "0444"; };
+  environment.etc."group" = lib.mkForce { source = "${userbornResults}/group"; mode = "0444"; };
+  environment.etc."shadow" = lib.mkForce { source = "${userbornResults}/shadow"; mode = "0440"; };
   users.mutableUsers = false;
   users.users.appvm = {
     uid = 1337;