Description of the attribute `inputDrvs` in the Nix-manual

[ilneit]

@iamai Didn’t know that we have an AI here.

Ok, so in https://github.com/NixOS/nix/blob/eb910149286ea3221c6a10c36dcfced3963cc0cb/src/libexpr/primops.cc#L1426 the inputDrvs is build. That’s the precise line.

@iamai

@ilneit

This documentation does not say anything about how json-values are treated.

Do you mean an attrset? An attrset is not allowed to be coerced unless it has the __toString or outPath attribute.

For future reference: What I mean is that inputDrvs is not mentioned as input-attribute of a derivation. The answer from @waffle8946 explains that. It is only part of the internal representation which diverges from the signature of the derivation-function in the Nix-DSL. I was not aware of this and wondered if it is passed into the builder as a string. But it is not passed, as @waffle8946’s explanation shows.

A different topic is that it seems to be desirable to get access to parts of that internal representation, see e.g. https://discourse.nixos.org/t/any-way-to-get-a-derivations-inputdrvs-from-within-nix/7212.