Building docker images with Nix that require internet access? + `dockerTools` usecases

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I’d like to use Nix and Nixpkgs’ dockerTools to help me compile something on an Ubuntu machine, hopefully in a reproducible manner. It’s something proprietary, very non-portable unfortunately, even when trying to use buildFHSEnv (let’s not get into the details of that).

The thing is, that I need a few Debian packages to be installed in that image before I start compiling things there - this is the only part where I need internet connection. Does that makes things overly complicated? Because Nix would then require a fixed output derivation? Should I simply use a Dockerfile and work like everyone else?

Since I’m also somewhat less familiar with Docker, I’d like to hear your use-cases for Nixpkgs’ dockerTools, especially if other distributions are involved in these use-cases.

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If it is just a few .debs you can prefetch them and then just install them using extraCommands.

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Hmm right… Since there could be many dependencies, it may not be trivial to get all the dependencies correctly, but it should also be possible to get them all via a script and a fixed output derivation.

I am still wondering if anyone has also felt the need for a generalized way to do it. If I’ll write a script such as the above for sure I’ll share it…