Command-not-found not working

noblman · December 15, 2022, 7:52am

I just recently converted my system to use a flake (nixos configuration and standalone home-manager). I assumed that when running in this new flake setup, I no longer need channels. Is that correct?

This is what I have in my flake.nix:

{
  description = "NixOS configuration";

  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "nixpkgs/nixos-22.11";
    home-manager.url = "github:nix-community/home-manager/release-22.11";
    home-manager.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
  };
...

But, when I try to run comamnd-not-found, I get this:

DBI connect('dbname=/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos/programs.sqlite','',...) failed: unable to open database file at /run/current-system/sw/bin/command-not-found line 13.
cannot open database `/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos/programs.sqlite' at /run/current-system/sw/bin/command-not-found line 13.

vcunat · December 15, 2022, 8:04am

This programs.sqlite is published only in channels. I’m not aware of any really nice way for this to work, but on the other hand I find even using a year old DB useful. Right now, maybe it’s easiest to also add a channel (as root) and occasionally sync it.

ElvishJerricco · December 15, 2022, 8:45am

I personally use nix-index instead and just update it manually from time to time. It has a command-not-found script and gives the benefit of having a handy nix-locate CLI tool for doing more stuff.

R-VdP · December 15, 2022, 11:08am

I use nix-index, with the nix-index-database repository to have automatic updates tracked as a flake input.

I wrote a small home-manager module that I use for this (but you could do it system-wide as well):

github.com

R-VdP/nixos-config/blob/1c3470b5b88c0fddbb9a7f48e1240ab81d77d445/home-modules/nix-index.nix

{ inputs, pkgs, ... }:

{
  home.file = {
    # Put the pre-generated nix-index database in place,
    # used for command-not-found.
    ".cache/nix-index/files".source =
      inputs.nix-index-database.legacyPackages.${pkgs.system}.database;
  };

  programs =
    let
      genericInitExtra = ''
        # Create an empty intial profile
        # Some tools, like NixOS' command-not-found, check for
        # ~/.nix-profile/manifest.json to decide whether we use the nix3 interface.
        if [[ ! -e "''${HOME}/.nix-profile/manifest.json" ]]; then
          nix profile install "nixpkgs#hello"
          nix profile remove 0
          nix profile wipe-history

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noblman · December 15, 2022, 10:35pm

I found programs.nix-index.enable in home-manager options. I enabled it, but afterwards, I get this when I try to run it:

❯ nix-index
+ querying available packages
error: querying available packages failed
caused by: nix-env failed with error: nix-env failed with exit code 1:
warning: Nix search path entry '/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos' does not exist, ignoring
error: file 'nixpkgs' was not found in the Nix search path (add it using $NIX_PATH or -I)

R-VdP · December 16, 2022, 1:56pm

That’s where the additional logic that I posted above comes in, to put the database in place.

EDIT: also, you don’t usually run the nix-index command itself, as it’s used only to create the database. Once you have the database, nix-index is used internally by command-not-found.