macOS support for running NixOS tests

Announcements
1

You can now run NixOS tests on macOS using the pkgs.nixosTest utility.

CAREFULLY NOTE: You still need to build the VM on a Linux machine (e.g. aarch64-linux) using something like pkgs.darwin.linux-builder, but the actual NixOS test will run on locally on your macOS machine (e.g. aarch64-darwin). So if you get an error message like:

error: a 'aarch64-linux' with features {} is required to build '/nix/store/….drv', but I am a 'aarch64-darwin' with features {…}

… then that means you still need a Linux builder

This means that if you have access to a Linux builder you can now run a NixOS test like this one even on macOS:

{ inputs = {
    flake-utils.url = "github:numtide/flake-utils/v1.0.0";

    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/master";
  };

  outputs = { flake-utils, nixpkgs, ... }:
    flake-utils.lib.eachDefaultSystem (system: {
      checks.default =
        nixpkgs.legacyPackages."${system}".nixosTest {
          name = "test";

          nodes.machine = { };

          testScript = ''
            print(machine.succeed('echo hello'));
          '';
        };
    });
}

… using nix flake check.

Thank you to both @roberth and @tfc, who both contributed a lot to getting this working. Also, thank you to my employer, Mercury, for letting me work on taking this across the line.

16 Likes
2

Thank you! Is there an issue to follow for being able to build NixOS tests on darwin, please?

3

That’s darwin.linux-builder:

I’m not sure if there’s a better solution than that. I’m not aware of anything else in the works.

1 Like
4

Something that’s worked great for me is: https://orbstack.dev/

It can spin up a lightweight and fast NixOS VM on macOS with really good integration between the systems and the dev spent a lot of time making it performant.

2 Likes
5

Worth noting that, like Docker Desktop that it claims to replace, it’s not actually free to use when you need it for commercial purposes. You’re expected to use a paid license then, and so it’s not very apples-to-apples in this thread, however much polish and ergonomics it may seem to offer. “Will they actually enforce that” is not a particularly stable foundation to move forward with and many employers would forbid it on that basis.

1 Like
6

Can we use runInLinuxVM to build it?

1 Like