macOS: home-manager switch requiring remote Darwin builder?

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`

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

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

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: