# Mkdir: cannot create directory '/homeless-shelter': Permission denied

**URL:** https://discourse.nixos.org/t/mkdir-cannot-create-directory-homeless-shelter-permission-denied/81104
**Category:** Help
**Created:** [November 10, 2026, 12:44pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/mkdir-cannot-create-directory-homeless-shelter-permission-denied/81104 "2026-11-10T12:44:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Zsele](https://discourse.nixos.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/f6c823/32.png) [@Zsele](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/Zsele)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2026, 12:44pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/mkdir-cannot-create-directory-homeless-shelter-permission-denied/81104/1 "2026-11-10T12:44:49Z")

</div>

Trying to package praxisLIVE, but i’m running into said error

```auto
{
  stdenv,
  fetchzip,
  jdk,
  maven,
}:

stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
  pname = "praxis-live";
  version = "6.7.0";

  src = fetchzip {
    url = "https://github.com/praxis-live/praxis-live/archive/refs/tags/v${version}.tar.gz";
    sha256 = "sha256-ujdHtr7b5pFeykS2fEPTzQXM6pUbh1jtKf2LG17c3EE=";
  };

  nativeBuildInputs = [
    maven
  ];
  buildInputs = [jdk];

  buildPhase = ''
    runHook preBuild 
    ./mvnw clean package
    runHook postBuild
  '';
}

```

I also tried adding `mkdir $out` before running `./mvnw clean package` but it still tries to create /homeless-shelter, the only solution i found was running `export HOME=$TMPDIR` but that doesn’t seem very clean to me

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![ethancedwards](https://discourse.nixos.org/user_avatar/discourse.nixos.org/ethancedwards/32/37788_2.png) [@ethancedwards](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/ethancedwards)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2026, 12:45pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/mkdir-cannot-create-directory-homeless-shelter-permission-denied/81104/2 "2026-11-10T12:45:52Z")

</div>

We have `writableTmpDirAsHomeHook` for this purpose! Add it to nativeBuildInputs

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![rntpts](https://discourse.nixos.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@rntpts](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/rntpts)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2026, 1:01pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/mkdir-cannot-create-directory-homeless-shelter-permission-denied/81104/3 "2026-11-10T13:01:55Z")

</div>

There is also a dedicated maven builder that you may want to check out. See the docs at [Nixpkgs Manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/unstable/#maven)