Issue running Tailwind CSS with Rails on NixOS (devenv.sh setup)

Help
1

Hi everyone!

I’m new to both NixOS and Ruby on Rails, and I’m currently trying to learn them at the same time.

I’m using the devenv.sh Ruby on Rails example to set up a development environment. When I initialized the Rails app, I used the --css=tailwind flag. However, I get the following error :

Compile initial Tailwind build
run rails tailwindcss:build from “.”
Could not start dynamically linked executable: /home/tortillas/Code/Entrainement/rubyonrails3/.devenv/state/.bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/tailwindcss-ruby-4.1.3-x86_64-linux-gnu/exe/x86_64-linux-gnu/tailwindcss
NixOS cannot run dynamically linked executables intended for generic
linux environments out of the box. For more information, see:
Frequently Asked Questions — nix.dev documentation
bin/rails aborted!
Command failed with exit 127: /home/tortillas/Code/Entrainement/rubyonrails3/.devenv/state/.bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/tailwindcss-ruby-4.1.3-x86_64-linux-gnu/exe/x86_64-linux-gnu/tailwindcss

Tasks: TOP => tailwindcss:build
(See full trace by running task with --trace)

From what I understand, it seems like the bundled Tailwind binary isn’t compatible with NixOS due to how dynamic linking works. But I’m not sure what the best workaround is.

Is there a recommended way to get Tailwind working in a Rails project on NixOS?
Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance :slightly_smiling_face:

2

I put default.nix in the directory for my project, and run nix-shell . before starting rails stuff, here’s the content

{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:

(pkgs.buildFHSUserEnv {
  name = "rails-tailwind-env"; # Meaningful name for your Rails project
  targetPkgs = pkgs: with pkgs; [
    zlib              
    libffi            
    libyaml           
    postgresql        
    jq                
    imagemagick       
    pkg-config        
    glibc             
    gcc               
    nodejs            
    nodePackages.tailwindcss
    yarn
    openssl           
    asdf-vm           
    ghostscript
  ];
  multiPkgs = pkgs: with pkgs; [
    zlib              # Libraries needed for multiple architectures
    libffi
    openssl
  ];
  runScript = "zsh"; # Drops into a bash shell
}).env

Notice the nodePackages.tailwindcss line in there. Works for me, I hope it helps you as well.