macOS: home-manager switch requiring remote Darwin builder?

Help
1

I’m seeing a weird error when running my home-manager config ./swtich.

It’s looking for a remote builder for the same architecture that I’m on! Why would that be?

The log tail:

Failed to find a machine for remote build!
derivation: q4rsrzmaqm1h8mf974f1bs9mf08p05xi-home-manager-agents.drv
required (system, features): (x86_64-darwin, )
1 available machines:
(systems, maxjobs, supportedFeatures, mandatoryFeatures)
(x86_64-linux, 1, , )
error: opening directory '/nix/store/vd80vgx276jkmb78y3g3zyqd2r3pdcw4-source': Too many open files

The nixpkgs diff:

nix-home on  master [$!] on ☁️  (ap-southeast-2) 
❯ git diff  
diff --git a/nix/sources.json b/nix/sources.json
index 24b4828..4798fb9 100644
--- a/nix/sources.json
+++ b/nix/sources.json
@@ -53,10 +53,10 @@
         "homepage": "",
         "owner": "nixos",
         "repo": "nixpkgs",
-        "rev": "1882c6b7368fd284ad01b0a5b5601ef136321292",
-        "sha256": "0zg7ak2mcmwzi2kg29g4v9fvbvs0viykjsg2pwaphm1fi13s7s0i",
+        "rev": "a5282b8bfc8ba84ce2f7ec6da470d16f579a1419",
+        "sha256": "1r0myjlknzc7czdvsapj6z38nwriz3g990jalcink4vrpk4fw907",
         "type": "tarball",
-        "url": "https://github.com/nixos/nixpkgs/archive/1882c6b7368fd284ad01b0a5b5601ef136321292.tar.gz",
+        "url": "https://github.com/nixos/nixpkgs/archive/a5282b8bfc8ba84ce2f7ec6da470d16f579a1419.tar.gz",
         "url_template": "https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/archive/<rev>.tar.gz"
     },
     "nur": {

system info:

nix-shell -p nix-info --run "nix-info -m"
 - system: `"x86_64-darwin"`
 - host os: `Darwin 21.4.0, macOS 10.16`
 - multi-user?: `no`
 - sandbox: `no`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.6.0`
 - channels(ldeck): `"nixpkgs"`
 - nixpkgs: `/Users/ldeck/.nix-defexpr/channels/nixpkgs`
2

The full output:

+ nix-shell --run 'home-manager switch'
these 490 derivations will be built:
  /nix/store/022h1mby726437axgkv1l0bkh8nji8xk-source.drv
  /nix/store/02nxyxrw1vzd4k13w9linfpd7nd988dc-tablist-recipe.drv
...
  /nix/store/z1wkvyzfwkfa2a836pzzklnilwhd2hjn-python3.9-dbus-python-1.2.18
  /nix/store/z32xs32w20q8436asv7g2r0vwln1jfw7-perl5.34.1-HTTP-Message-6.26
  /nix/store/z5w0k8d148if36a02v29mynb4iyzdwy4-fd-8.3.2
  /nix/store/z69df4knhwgd4ciyml71r20x3shyxl4y-terraform-1.1.9
  /nix/store/zb2wnnc9vbgrs2kq3albldsp59dyivzh-graphite2-1.3.14
  /nix/store/zd12sw7j5jr3rmnbc8hq08xqrpid6lbr-setuptools-setup-hook
  /nix/store/zf440f4f7khpdv0523rdn1lpm8p3jr7d-zsh-autosuggestions-0.7.0
  /nix/store/zfvhw9x5907ci7wnp6b5n12yc9a2hvqc-nix-prefetch-hg
  /nix/store/zh3qpzkshxzr990yygkww1rhyiapks40-nix-2.8.0
  /nix/store/zml9hk1kv7pz59q2dq56vcl8fc2f13rz-nss-cacert-3.77
  /nix/store/zrrh7z6rqg6w7p2p2wsbs6glkyn05z0q-gdb-11.2
  /nix/store/zrvavj4q9ihgzv21hjyljx6jfyn258r5-libvorbis-1.3.7
  /nix/store/zwcrs3qh6pr9v0fv2vya7ig2sgy8k6lx-python3.9-certifi-2021.10.08
copying path '/nix/store/05xp7b65xmmlprgffqqm7bln07dzlnxl-ffmpeg-4.4.1-man' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
Failed to find a machine for remote build!
derivation: q4rsrzmaqm1h8mf974f1bs9mf08p05xi-home-manager-agents.drv
required (system, features): (x86_64-darwin, )
1 available machines:
(systems, maxjobs, supportedFeatures, mandatoryFeatures)
(x86_64-linux, 1, , )
Failed to find a machine for remote build!
derivation: yf8afcfvhdni16220z8i79wngb1bx1jz-hm-modules-messages.drv
required (system, features): (x86_64-darwin, )
1 available machines:
(systems, maxjobs, supportedFeatures, mandatoryFeatures)
(x86_64-linux, 1, , )
copying path '/nix/store/kw2p970ci522f17qxkg56xnh6ik62njz-Cython-0.29.28.tar.gz' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
Failed to find a machine for remote build!
derivation: yf8afcfvhdni16220z8i79wngb1bx1jz-hm-modules-messages.drv
required (system, features): (x86_64-darwin, )
1 available machines:
(systems, maxjobs, supportedFeatures, mandatoryFeatures)
(x86_64-linux, 1, , )
Failed to find a machine for remote build!
derivation: q4rsrzmaqm1h8mf974f1bs9mf08p05xi-home-manager-agents.drv
required (system, features): (x86_64-darwin, )
1 available machines:
(systems, maxjobs, supportedFeatures, mandatoryFeatures)
(x86_64-linux, 1, , )
error: opening directory '/nix/store/vd80vgx276jkmb78y3g3zyqd2r3pdcw4-source': Too many open files
3

The error says you’re on an x86_64-linux machine rather than an x86_64-darwin box. Not sure why Nix would determine it to be so if you’re actually on macOS though o.O

4

Yeah weird. I’ve bitten the bullet, so to speak, and have re-installed nix as multi-user install (the default these days for Darwin), and the problem appears to have disappeared.

:man_shrugging: