List of activationScripts deps

Help
1

I am still new to NixOS. I trying to write an activationScript that takes place sometime after SOPS copies its secrets. There is a deps field that I can enter dependencies into, but I have no idea what all of the valid entries are for this field.

Can someone provide a list of valid values or point to me a way to figure it out? Of course I want to use this for my SOPS problem but a list will still be useful to me for configuring other activationScripts.

system.activationScripts = {
  example_script = {
    text = "example text";
    deps = ["What goes in here?"];
  };
};
2

I just search the nixpkgs github repo for “activationScripts” to find all the activation scripts.

In your case, you’d of course also want to search sopsnix

3

You list out which scripts need to run prior to this.

4

Thank you for such a quick and helpful answer!

5

Btw, in general, you should not be making custom activation scripts if you can help it. It’s generally much better to put logic like that into systemd services, either as an ExecStartPre to an existing service or as a separate service entirely with the necessary unit ordering applied to make sure it happens before the service that would use the result.

Activation scripts are a critical bootup component, and failures can be catastrophic to the basic functioning of the system (though usually won’t be). A systemd unit is a far safer bet, and we’ve been trying to discourage custom activation scripts for years now.