HM 24.11: Firefox with passff-host

kvtb · December 7, 2024, 12:06pm

Hello,
after upgrading home-manager to 24.11 I notice my passff-host (nativemessaginghost) is not working anymore.

{
  programs.firefox = {
    enable = true;
    nativeMessagingHosts = [ pkgs.passff-host pkgs.ff2mpv-go ];
 ...

after activation,

~/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/passff.json points to /nix/store/zjab4mh73wyh6i23v5xcj9djgj0k7cf4-home-manager-files/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/passff.json

but this symlink is broken:

/nix/store/zjab4mh73wyh6i23v5xcj9djgj0k7cf4-home-manager-files/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/passff.json points to ../../../share/passff-host/passff.json

I don’t know what’s the deal with this relative link, but since no-one else seems to be complaining I figure this might be an issue with my own setup. But what can I do to fix this?

waffle8946 · December 7, 2024, 12:42pm

github.com/nix-community/home-manager

files: don't handle symlinks in a special way when home.file.<name>.recursive is set to true

nix-community:master ← Luflosi:fix-firefox-nativeMessagingHosts-with-relative-symlinks

opened 01:14PM - 06 May 24 UTC

Luflosi

+1 -1

### Description I'm using `pass` as my password manager. In order to use it in… Firefox, I use the passff extension. The passff extension needs the `passff-host` native messaging host to access the passwords. Here is what the file structure of the `passff-host` package looks like: ``` result ├── etc │ ├── chromium │ │ └── native-messaging-hosts │ │ └── passff.json -> ../../../share/passff-host/passff.json │ ├── opt │ │ └── chrome │ │ └── native-messaging-hosts │ │ └── passff.json -> ../../../../share/passff-host/passff.json │ └── vivaldi │ └── native-messaging-hosts │ └── passff.json -> ../../../share/passff-host/passff.json ├── lib │ ├── librewolf │ │ └── native-messaging-hosts │ │ └── passff.json -> ../../../share/passff-host/passff.json │ └── mozilla │ └── native-messaging-hosts │ └── passff.json -> ../../../share/passff-host/passff.json └── share └── passff-host ├── passff.json └── passff.py ``` As you can see, `lib/mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/passff.json` is a relative symlink. This is perfectly reasonable. When adding `programs.firefox.nativeMessagingHosts = [ pkgs.passff-host ]` to the home-manager configuration, the firefox module first joins all the `nativeMessagingHosts` using `symlinkJoin` and stores the result in a variable called `nativeMessagingHostsJoined`. This creates `ff_native-messaging-hosts` in the Nix store: ``` /nix/store/bv62k5yl7jwzkhyci838ir3vgz59gqsa-ff_native-messaging-hosts ├── bin │ └── firefox -> /nix/store/0zqxaz44w75gjq32xj53i32jl2j91pzy-firefox-125.0.1/bin/firefox ├── etc │ ├── chromium │ │ └── native-messaging-hosts │ │ └── passff.json -> ../../../share/passff-host/passff.json │ ├── opt │ │ └── chrome │ │ └── native-messaging-hosts │ │ └── passff.json -> ../../../../share/passff-host/passff.json │ └── vivaldi │ └── native-messaging-hosts │ └── passff.json -> ../../../share/passff-host/passff.json ├── lib │ ├── [...] │ ├── librewolf │ │ └── native-messaging-hosts │ │ └── passff.json -> ../../../share/passff-host/passff.json │ └── mozilla │ ├── native-messaging-hosts │ │ └── passff.json -> ../../../share/passff-host/passff.json │ └── pkcs11-modules └── share ├── [...] └── passff-host ├── passff.json -> /nix/store/pag1akgbmls1xa63h6rzmb0h6xxwwzmy-passff-host-1.2.4/share/passff-host/passff.json └── passff.py -> /nix/store/pag1akgbmls1xa63h6rzmb0h6xxwwzmy-passff-host-1.2.4/share/passff-host/passff.py ``` Still perfectly fine. Then the `firefox` module sets ```nix home.file.".mozilla/native-messaging-hosts" = { source = "${nativeMessagingHostsJoined}/lib/mozilla/native-messaging-hosts"; recursive = true; } ``` The `file` module then calls `lndir -silent "/nix/store/bv62k5yl7jwzkhyci838ir3vgz59gqsa-ff_native-messaging-hosts/lib/mozilla/native-messaging-hosts" ".mozilla/native-messaging-hosts"` To see the problem, here is the resulting directory tree: ``` .mozilla ├── [...] └── native-messaging-hosts └── passff.json -> ../../../share/passff-host/passff.json ``` Obviously this symlink doesn't go anywhere. `lndir` created a broken symlink. To fix this, add the `-ignorelinks` argument to `lndir`, which causes it to instead just create a symlink to the symlink in `ff_native-messaging-hosts`: ``` .mozilla ├── [...] └── native-messaging-hosts └── passff.json -> /nix/store/bv62k5yl7jwzkhyci838ir3vgz59gqsa-ff_native-messaging-hosts/lib/mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/passff.json ``` ### Checklist  - [ ] Change is backwards compatible. (I'm honestly not 100% sure on this one) - [x] Code formatted with `./format`. - [x] Code tested through `nix-shell --pure tests -A run.all` or `nix develop --ignore-environment .#all` using Flakes. - [ ] Test cases updated/added. See [example](https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/commit/f3fbb50b68df20da47f9b0def5607857fcc0d021#diff-b61a6d542f9036550ba9c401c80f00ef). - [x] Commit messages are formatted like ``` {component}: {description} {long description} ``` See [CONTRIBUTING](https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/#sec-commit-style) for more information and [recent commit messages](https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/commits/master) for examples. - If this PR adds a new module - [ ] Added myself as module maintainer. See [example](https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/blob/068ff76a10e95820f886ac46957edcff4e44621d/modules/programs/lesspipe.nix#L6). #### Maintainer CC @rycee @kira-bruneau @Lillecarl @mlyxshi

Someone tried to fix this half a year ago, but HM maintainers didn’t look at it yet

kvtb · December 7, 2024, 12:52pm

OK - clear, then I need to implement a dirty workaround.

Code for who is looking for a workaround:

  home.file.passff-host-workaround = {
    target =
      "${config.home.homeDirectory}/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/passff.json";
    source = "${pkgs.passff-host}/share/passff-host/passff.json";
  };
  programs.firefox = {
    enable = true;
    nativeMessagingHosts = [
      #  pkgs.passff-host # disabled see above
      pkgs.ff2mpv-go
    ];
  ...