Copying a local path as a flake input causes hang on Mac

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1

When I add a local path as a flake input like below, build causes hanging

{
  inputs.tree-sitter.url = "path:/Users/bglgwyng/Documents/GitHub/tree-sitter";
  # ...
}

with the following message.

copying "/Users/bglgwyng/Documents/GitHub/tree-sitter" to the store

I’ve never had the same experience on NixOS, but it frequently occurs on Mac.
Does anyone know about this?

2

How big is that folder? It’ll copy the whole thing including .git and any untracked files.
You should not use path:. If it’s a git repo, you’re copying bits that aren’t used; if it’s not a git repo… let nix figure that out instead.

3

Thanks! I didn’t know git+file: protocol.

4

I meant you should specify no protocol and let nix infer it automatically. But yeah git+file:// is fine in this case, since that’s what nix will end up using if the flake is a git repo.

5

Hmm… I suspect that Mac prefers path:/ to git+profile for default protocol while Linux does the opposite. I frequently omit the protocol part, but on Linux it’s been ok.

1 Like
6

There shouldn’t be any preference by the OS. Though git: flakes will only copy files known to git while path: flakes will copy everything in the folder, recursively.