I can’t run gcc in my standard NixOS environment even though all libraries are installed.
Running inside nix-shell works perfectly:
nix-shell -p gcc glibc.dev glibc binutils
But outside nix-shell I get linker errors like:
ld: cannot find Scrt1.o: No such file or directory
ld: cannot find crti.o: No such file or directory
ld: cannot find -lgcc_s
How can I make GCC work in my normal environment?
What exactly do you mean by “normal environment”?
What do you mean by “all libraries are installed”?
On NixOS, a shell is the normal environment for development, as well as the intended way to “install” libraries for the sake of development.
I’ve installed glibc glibc.dev gcc libgccjit binutils .
What does that mean to you? Adding libraries to environment.systemPackages or home.packages or similar does nothing but wasting space.
This is not how NixOS works. Just use devshells.
I occasionally solve coding problems and participate in contests, so I sometimes need these compilers available alongside VS Code. My main goal is to have VS Code automatically detect these libraries. Is there a recommended way to make this work seamlessly on NixOS without having to launch the IDE from a devshell every time?
There is a way, but it isn’t recommended, as it basically defeats the purpose of nix.
The essence is to set a variety of environment variables that setup hooks would set for you in a shell and/or create symlinks at certain (default) locations.
The recommended way is to use devshells though, or a docker container/VM that works the way you want it to work.
Personally I have no problems with drive by contributions and ad-hoc shells or uncommitted shell.nixs.
PS: yes, I know, it can feel like an annoying limitation at the beginning of the journey, though once you got used to it, it really becomes a major strength of the ecosystem, in my opinion.
Thanks for the explanation! I appreciate it.
You don’t need these with nix-shell, stdenv includes these.