macOS 12.7.6 can't install nix-info: _mkfifoat symbol not found

[flwyd]

Environment: macOS Monterrey 12.6.7, zsh. I installed nix for the first time using the installer, didn’t encounter any errors. At the end it said to run nix-shell -p nix-info --run "nix-info -m" in a new terminal, which I did. This failed due to the inability to find the _mkfifoat symbol in dynamic libraries, which looks like it’s needed by coreutils. What, if anything, can I do to fix this?

Google didn’t seem to find any Nix-specific cases of this error, but it is similar to this issue reported with nvm and homebrew, though the resolution there seemed to be “remove coreutils from path” which doesn’t seem like it’s helpful here.

these 62 paths will be fetched (179.40 MiB download, 1302.76 MiB unpacked):
  /nix/store/f94610yg6y0axqsv6zl6k4kz09paq9rw-Csu-88
  /nix/store/9rld1yv43x6xkx7917wab3r1hszis23x-DarwinTools-1
  /nix/store/shi5b7d230hl599fi8arj9q2czlv6iw4-apple-sdk-14.4
  /nix/store/8kf8f5bfyfb7j33pzl3whnxdmnqpvm1a-bash-5.3p3
  /nix/store/faivsb08rrf4qpk58iqxdcifmlln9phd-bash-interactive-5.3p3
  /nix/store/f48yfzggwj3hjkiyn2mjbnz4kd1nj2i1-bzip2-1.0.8
  /nix/store/2gb59xpka4svl5b3a21cnjl9bfdnwaak-bzip2-1.0.8-bin
  /nix/store/4lcg5n1caqc4iwcir0kgz8vcvpy5akhx-cctools-1010.6
  /nix/store/w4grzla12mnmg46kqinvdl5aj2rag4pc-cctools-1010.6-libtool
  /nix/store/45f2lg63p0xni9v85lg4j2ad1hzz37a7-cctools-binutils-darwin-1010.6
  /nix/store/irqabjqrvkqvvxyj1981fc8whighlxiq-cctools-binutils-darwin-wrapper-1010.6
  /nix/store/lb33zpzzl0k8fbfiwxlrki3zpb78dqca-clang-21.1.2
  /nix/store/fiqwmssrckxbz4yif0bzpbgrj6jak7in-clang-21.1.2-lib
  /nix/store/byd2xnp55dlbhq1n4kkzhb4amplns3ic-clang-wrapper-21.1.2
  /nix/store/6ay8hi7wn9allwn5dm7wjbnd90n2xn47-compiler-rt-libc-21.1.2
  /nix/store/77pqdpgd6p44zh41yg7xlna3nly34zgg-compiler-rt-libc-21.1.2-dev
  /nix/store/96my83mfc808n6w0kw803s0s2h4vdxxg-coreutils-9.8
  /nix/store/9c1kq3ncvdlikia79zdizyhwmfhh6x7k-cups-headers-2.4.14
  /nix/store/qk0an1l2b2hgj2zv8iknrz5wpmf38v5w-diffutils-3.12
  /nix/store/as7i9abag60aq8yp5m08q5ybm0jmb2mh-ed-1.22.2
  /nix/store/p304hn18v84dhz3zjj3amr97yfwrdmim-expand-response-params
  /nix/store/x67yzwvlqa79g7cwkzczw4iwvmmdqc3y-file-5.45
  /nix/store/j8i57d49j9dks32islf5457f4g34i42i-findutils-4.10.0
  /nix/store/9q5hp1r8fcm6pc22yjsnr8sdqhfrcs89-gawk-5.3.2
  /nix/store/x3880309l7zbwvx7cby1scj4gzmv866g-gettext-0.25.1
  /nix/store/z6k6w5g23kki04242ki33c4nwfrvm491-gmp-with-cxx-6.3.0
  /nix/store/slm93wvdn2p6lgpb90kdcgh6m2sm9axi-gnugrep-3.12
  /nix/store/if9w0fadrxjj9bnlkw1rx3z58xmzwkaw-gnumake-4.4.1
  /nix/store/yy73qajb49xabdj957pap033zcz74r2x-gnused-4.9
  /nix/store/1q469v09nij1czcxfwn7f4psz0asrr4g-gnutar-1.35
  /nix/store/chx0hhxq04xq8jdwc2csmr07v7x7qnxs-gzip-1.14
  /nix/store/k1xmisicpxmzh3015ish1p50ikyvswbx-ld64-954.16
  /nix/store/fsjpiqf82fcp9a4gdhqa8rdj6iqnr177-ld64-954.16-lib
  /nix/store/p12sbg88ahbby8kg15d1xmxdrd8qasnj-libSystem-B
  /nix/store/0xpmi9cgs19byk0jg1vsl8fmvfa45f12-libcxx-19.1.2+apple-sdk-15.5
  /nix/store/bn7ia6cxsqkiglv70n0qdqyfdgnny0gr-libffi-40
  /nix/store/qf709w1z3w5ijlrpy7yyfd52srrr60fl-libiconv-109.100.2
  /nix/store/gihjrqcry088lscagn07mnfbrwgdn3q8-libiconv-109.100.2-dev
  /nix/store/fn79yi56n7kcrlcisaffj1s2ws2h8mzp-libresolv-91
  /nix/store/ismkh0w6gijd8wkrsfzahhy80xll9i48-libresolv-91-dev
  /nix/store/byv1kvf3xhlbbkdwqa7ksd11mg99ykvk-libsbuf-14.1.0
  /nix/store/jl5ir7117n4s6wdxvf01n25nmn96j0rv-libsbuf-14.1.0-dev
  /nix/store/hcnb31qldddmdivgrbkqiwrg4jalpafq-libutil-72
  /nix/store/a244kbm03p8gr49zcg3ilgv7a9x2ckkl-libxml2-2.15.1
  /nix/store/ywayvi6bmmw4bldf5g6cx9inj8xr0m6i-llvm-21.1.2
  /nix/store/li4f2cic2jqhql8nf00yywawj1y5qqkz-llvm-21.1.2-lib
  /nix/store/5wsrrlaczymswbs5w0zzrwfqdjvk6i4k-locale-118
  /nix/store/3nzc1i2y1nyghvaav722spgik2czfsci-ncurses-6.5
  /nix/store/wlv1cp7p1fiapvsr7izvqry65zxxxhxr-ncurses-6.5-dev
  /nix/store/zm75p6wzl3kafaibmqgyn7a7jligqgz7-ncurses-6.5-man
  /nix/store/23bnlvdlcwwl78zp12n8bjr1lqznkmyq-nix-info
  /nix/store/w50z4d7nj23q854qycw98vkzc6dd0dic-openssl-3.6.0
  /nix/store/xylqjx446bywdcqqlkfnpnhi0hl450zk-patch-2.8
  /nix/store/3qvyzff4j86kmv07j3ipq0v1fl64r5dn-pcre2-10.46
  /nix/store/ql4h1qhwvyijhb2r4y38vb3mpkw8ms72-readline-8.3p1
  /nix/store/gcax6il188wgiyy4lb8nrybdis311gy3-stdenv-darwin
  /nix/store/bffay7gq8wwsb4x9wpnmlwa19gz9lgcj-xar-minimal-501-lib
  /nix/store/1ccn49nss1c02ph6gawlv5xv4c8n9k32-xcbuild-0.1.1-unstable-2019-11-20
  /nix/store/3xk8p8d0qg16283rjk8c7j74kld0fj63-xcbuild-0.1.1-unstable-2019-11-20-xcrun
  /nix/store/829k1whiyfg3193as31wnrwkilg6nppn-xz-5.8.1
  /nix/store/a0z6f0wq97afmsrp7bn7b21y4fsy5pc8-xz-5.8.1-bin
  /nix/store/khnkmgsw9vngi0s2rlar9i99lgp2i1im-zlib-1.3.1
copying path '/nix/store/8kf8f5bfyfb7j33pzl3whnxdmnqpvm1a-bash-5.3p3' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/9rld1yv43x6xkx7917wab3r1hszis23x-DarwinTools-1' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/9q5hp1r8fcm6pc22yjsnr8sdqhfrcs89-gawk-5.3.2' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/yy73qajb49xabdj957pap033zcz74r2x-gnused-4.9' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/qf709w1z3w5ijlrpy7yyfd52srrr60fl-libiconv-109.100.2' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/5wsrrlaczymswbs5w0zzrwfqdjvk6i4k-locale-118' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/3nzc1i2y1nyghvaav722spgik2czfsci-ncurses-6.5' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/f94610yg6y0axqsv6zl6k4kz09paq9rw-Csu-88' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/f48yfzggwj3hjkiyn2mjbnz4kd1nj2i1-bzip2-1.0.8' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/6ay8hi7wn9allwn5dm7wjbnd90n2xn47-compiler-rt-libc-21.1.2' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/9c1kq3ncvdlikia79zdizyhwmfhh6x7k-cups-headers-2.4.14' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/z6k6w5g23kki04242ki33c4nwfrvm491-gmp-with-cxx-6.3.0' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/p304hn18v84dhz3zjj3amr97yfwrdmim-expand-response-params' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/p12sbg88ahbby8kg15d1xmxdrd8qasnj-libSystem-B' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/0xpmi9cgs19byk0jg1vsl8fmvfa45f12-libcxx-19.1.2+apple-sdk-15.5' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/hcnb31qldddmdivgrbkqiwrg4jalpafq-libutil-72' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/bn7ia6cxsqkiglv70n0qdqyfdgnny0gr-libffi-40' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/fn79yi56n7kcrlcisaffj1s2ws2h8mzp-libresolv-91' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/byv1kvf3xhlbbkdwqa7ksd11mg99ykvk-libsbuf-14.1.0' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/zm75p6wzl3kafaibmqgyn7a7jligqgz7-ncurses-6.5-man' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/w50z4d7nj23q854qycw98vkzc6dd0dic-openssl-3.6.0' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/2gb59xpka4svl5b3a21cnjl9bfdnwaak-bzip2-1.0.8-bin' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/3qvyzff4j86kmv07j3ipq0v1fl64r5dn-pcre2-10.46' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/829k1whiyfg3193as31wnrwkilg6nppn-xz-5.8.1' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/khnkmgsw9vngi0s2rlar9i99lgp2i1im-zlib-1.3.1' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/jl5ir7117n4s6wdxvf01n25nmn96j0rv-libsbuf-14.1.0-dev' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/x67yzwvlqa79g7cwkzczw4iwvmmdqc3y-file-5.45' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/ismkh0w6gijd8wkrsfzahhy80xll9i48-libresolv-91-dev' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/a0z6f0wq97afmsrp7bn7b21y4fsy5pc8-xz-5.8.1-bin' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/ql4h1qhwvyijhb2r4y38vb3mpkw8ms72-readline-8.3p1' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/96my83mfc808n6w0kw803s0s2h4vdxxg-coreutils-9.8' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/as7i9abag60aq8yp5m08q5ybm0jmb2mh-ed-1.22.2' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/slm93wvdn2p6lgpb90kdcgh6m2sm9axi-gnugrep-3.12' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/chx0hhxq04xq8jdwc2csmr07v7x7qnxs-gzip-1.14' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/wlv1cp7p1fiapvsr7izvqry65zxxxhxr-ncurses-6.5-dev' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/xylqjx446bywdcqqlkfnpnhi0hl450zk-patch-2.8' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/qk0an1l2b2hgj2zv8iknrz5wpmf38v5w-diffutils-3.12' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/j8i57d49j9dks32islf5457f4g34i42i-findutils-4.10.0' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/fsjpiqf82fcp9a4gdhqa8rdj6iqnr177-ld64-954.16-lib' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/77pqdpgd6p44zh41yg7xlna3nly34zgg-compiler-rt-libc-21.1.2-dev' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/faivsb08rrf4qpk58iqxdcifmlln9phd-bash-interactive-5.3p3' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/x3880309l7zbwvx7cby1scj4gzmv866g-gettext-0.25.1' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/gihjrqcry088lscagn07mnfbrwgdn3q8-libiconv-109.100.2-dev' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/a244kbm03p8gr49zcg3ilgv7a9x2ckkl-libxml2-2.15.1' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/li4f2cic2jqhql8nf00yywawj1y5qqkz-llvm-21.1.2-lib' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/bffay7gq8wwsb4x9wpnmlwa19gz9lgcj-xar-minimal-501-lib' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/1ccn49nss1c02ph6gawlv5xv4c8n9k32-xcbuild-0.1.1-unstable-2019-11-20' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/23bnlvdlcwwl78zp12n8bjr1lqznkmyq-nix-info' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/3xk8p8d0qg16283rjk8c7j74kld0fj63-xcbuild-0.1.1-unstable-2019-11-20-xcrun' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/if9w0fadrxjj9bnlkw1rx3z58xmzwkaw-gnumake-4.4.1' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/1q469v09nij1czcxfwn7f4psz0asrr4g-gnutar-1.35' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/k1xmisicpxmzh3015ish1p50ikyvswbx-ld64-954.16' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/fiqwmssrckxbz4yif0bzpbgrj6jak7in-clang-21.1.2-lib' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/ywayvi6bmmw4bldf5g6cx9inj8xr0m6i-llvm-21.1.2' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/w4grzla12mnmg46kqinvdl5aj2rag4pc-cctools-1010.6-libtool' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/4lcg5n1caqc4iwcir0kgz8vcvpy5akhx-cctools-1010.6' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/lb33zpzzl0k8fbfiwxlrki3zpb78dqca-clang-21.1.2' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/45f2lg63p0xni9v85lg4j2ad1hzz37a7-cctools-binutils-darwin-1010.6' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/shi5b7d230hl599fi8arj9q2czlv6iw4-apple-sdk-14.4' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/irqabjqrvkqvvxyj1981fc8whighlxiq-cctools-binutils-darwin-wrapper-1010.6' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/byd2xnp55dlbhq1n4kkzhb4amplns3ic-clang-wrapper-21.1.2' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/gcax6il188wgiyy4lb8nrybdis311gy3-stdenv-darwin' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
 - system: `"x86_64-darwin"`
dyld[70883]: Symbol not found: (_mkfifoat)
  Referenced from: '/nix/store/96my83mfc808n6w0kw803s0s2h4vdxxg-coreutils-9.8/bin/coreutils'
  Expected in: '/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib'
 - host os: `, macOS 12.7.6`
dyld[70889]: Symbol not found: (_mkfifoat)
  Referenced from: '/nix/store/96my83mfc808n6w0kw803s0s2h4vdxxg-coreutils-9.8/bin/coreutils'
  Expected in: '/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib'
/nix/store/23bnlvdlcwwl78zp12n8bjr1lqznkmyq-nix-info/bin/nix-info: line 65: 70889 Abort trap: 6              cat > /dev/null
 - multi-user?: `no`
dyld[70903]: Symbol not found: (_mkfifoat)
  Referenced from: '/nix/store/96my83mfc808n6w0kw803s0s2h4vdxxg-coreutils-9.8/bin/coreutils'
  Expected in: '/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib'
/nix/store/23bnlvdlcwwl78zp12n8bjr1lqznkmyq-nix-info/bin/nix-info: line 65: 70903 Abort trap: 6              cat > /dev/null
dyld[70914]: Symbol not found: (_mkfifoat)
  Referenced from: '/nix/store/96my83mfc808n6w0kw803s0s2h4vdxxg-coreutils-9.8/bin/coreutils'
  Expected in: '/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib'
/nix/store/23bnlvdlcwwl78zp12n8bjr1lqznkmyq-nix-info/bin/nix-info: line 65: 70914 Abort trap: 6              cat > /dev/null
 - sandbox: `yes`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.32.4`
dyld[70929]: Symbol not found: (_mkfifoat)
  Referenced from: '/nix/store/96my83mfc808n6w0kw803s0s2h4vdxxg-coreutils-9.8/bin/coreutils'
  Expected in: '/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib'
 - channels(): `"nixpkgs"`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/store/74gjg82ahpk52gcccibc35baqiaiillw-nixpkgs/nixpkgs`

dyld[70932]: Symbol not found: (_mkfifoat)
  Referenced from: '/nix/store/96my83mfc808n6w0kw803s0s2h4vdxxg-coreutils-9.8/bin/coreutils'
  Expected in: '/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib'
/private/tmp/nix-shell-70867-2910634434/rc: line 1: 70932 Abort trap: 6              exit

[waffle8946]

@flwyd

macOS Monterrey 12.6.7

Wild guess - that sounds quite old. I would check by filing an issue in GitHub · Where software is built to verify if it’s still supported.

@flwyd

I installed nix for the first time using the installer,

Which installer btw?

[flwyd]

wget https://nixos.org/nix/install && sh install

[xokdvium]

The issue here is that new (unstable and 25.11) will ship with the toolchain that doesn’t bundle a libc++ by default and will instead use the system provided one. Previously nixpkgs provided a custom-built libc++ but that is fragile and a ODR violation minefield.

Minimum supported macOS version for 25.11 is > macOS 14 (all older versions are not supported even by apple). I think macOS 12 has been past EOL for a year at this point.

[waffle8946]

@xokdvium

Minimum supported macOS version for 25.11 is > macOS 14

Is this documented somewhere?

EDIT: found in

doc/release-notes/rl-2511.section.md?plain=1

[reckenrode]

Also announced in the breaking changes topic.

Breaking changes announcement for unstable

As announced in the release notes for 25.05, the minimum supported version of macOS has been increases to 14.0. The default SDK is now 14.4. Older versions of the SDK have been moved to darwin-aliases.nix and are no longer available. Packages that used them have been updated to use the default SDK. Availability warnings are now errors by default when compiling with Clang on Darwin to ensure that packages do not unconditionally use newer APIs than the configured deployment target.