I think I found a bug in gitwatch package but I don't know how to verify and - possibly - fix it

Development
1

I will try to be concrete:

  1. on nixos stable 24.11
  2. refers to package gitwatch
  3. when on interactive shell gitwatch program runs OK
  4. when invoked from userspaced systemd service unit it complains:
Dec 31 22:34:50 hosthost gitwatch[3688627]: /nix/store/vabiazsm1vk3mcjhfx7cq31p211icx7s-gitwatch/bin/.gitwatch-wrapped: line 225: sed: command not found
Dec 31 22:34:50 hosthost gitwatch[3688629]: /nix/store/vabiazsm1vk3mcjhfx7cq31p211icx7s-gitwatch/bin/.gitwatch-wrapped: line 273: grep: command not found

When looking at the gitwatch/package.nix I assume that there should be two more packages added at the beginning and end of the file (besides git, openssh and inotify-tools): gnugrep and gnused. I’d like to check if my assumptions are correct before I PR to the main tree.

I’m nixos novice, coming from Gentoo world. I don’t use flakes. I’ve tried the way described on the nixos.wiki, but it involved updating whole system and finally crashed due to some failed tests.

Is there any SIMPLE way to:

  1. make change in the package like I describe above,
  2. test if it helps (fixes the bug I found)
  3. if so, fork-modify-PR

?

I think about overlays but they don’t look SIMPLE.

1 Like
2

Perhaps just open an issue or (untested) pull request and ping the .meta.maintainers?

3

Thanks. I have created pull request and described the issue the best I can.

Now, how to ping .meta.mainterners?

4

Creating a Pull Request on GitHub pointed me a hint: I should use branch release-24.11 when cloning GitHub - NixOS/nixpkgs: Nix Packages collection & NixOS.

I’ll give it a try.

5

No, net-new PRs should always go to master (or staging) - master is the correct branch here. After that PR is merged, a secondary PR can be created to backport it to the corresponding stable branch.

1 Like