I’m trying to use nix copy to copy a development environment to disk so that I can take with me to a computer that doesn’t have Internet access.
According to the docs, and Moving stuff around with Nix it should be fairly straightforward, but it doesn’t work.
I have a complete reproduction of the issue at GitHub - a-h/nix-devshell-problem that uses a Docker container with the network disabled.
The first step is to export the required parts of the local store.
# Copy the packages (there's only 1).
nix copy --to file://$PWD/export .#packages.x86_64-linux.default
nix copy --derivation --to file://$PWD/export .#packages.x86_64-linux.default
# Copy the devshell.
nix copy --to file://$PWD/export .#devShells.x86_64-linux.default
nix copy --derivation --to file://$PWD/export .#devShells.x86_64-linux.default
# According to this post, the inputDerivation is needed to run the devshell.
# https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-to-get-nix-store-path-of-nix-develop-shell/38846/2?u=a-h
nix copy --to file://$PWD/export .#devShells.x86_64-linux.default.inputDerivation
# Copy the flake inputs to the store.
nix flake archive --to file://$PWD/export
Then, I can mount the export into a Docker container for testing.
The Docker container is very simple, it’s stock Ubuntu with Nix installed via the Determinate systems Nix installer.
FROM ubuntu:latest
RUN apt update -y
RUN apt install curl -y
RUN curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install linux \
--extra-conf "filter-syscalls = false" \
--init none \
--no-confirm
ENV PATH="${PATH}:/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin"
I can then run the container with the export and flake code mounted:
docker run --entrypoint=/bin/bash \
--mount type=bind,source="$(pwd)",target=/code \
--workdir=/code --network=none \
-it --rm --platform linux/amd64 \
nix-devshell-problem:latest
Inside the container, I can then import the export.
root@d369f4b7260a:/code# nix copy --no-check-sigs --all --from file://$PWD/export/
warning: you don't have Internet access; disabling some network-dependent features
This chugs away, and imports everything, but when I run nix develop it attempts to connect to the Internet, even though it should have everything it needs already.
root@d369f4b7260a:/code# nix develop
warning: you don't have Internet access; disabling some network-dependent features
warning: Git tree '/code' is dirty
error: builder for '/nix/store/5jrd75v747s76s16zxk59384xfcjqn58-bash-5.2.tar.gz.drv' failed with exit code 1;
last 4 log lines:
> error:
> … writing file '/nix/store/v28dv6l0qk3j382kp40bksa1v6h7dx9p-bash-5.2.tar.gz'
>
> error: unable to download 'https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/bash/bash-5.2.tar.gz': Couldn't resolve host name (6)
For full logs, run 'nix log /nix/store/5jrd75v747s76s16zxk59384xfcjqn58-bash-5.2.tar.gz.drv'.
error: 1 dependencies of derivation '/nix/store/hdpsnzp3vajlzbi6dmrbnkb6mhfc8axz-bash-5.2-p15.drv' failed to build
error: 1 dependencies of derivation '/nix/store/hpkl2vyxiwf7rwvjh9lpij7swp7igilx-bash-5.2-p15.drv' failed to build
error: 1 dependencies of derivation '/nix/store/kgag4vbp9csw1mqbig4r2dd1l2fri70s-bash-5.2-p15.drv' failed to build
error: 1 dependencies of derivation '/nix/store/lp1y9zymyyrn2hc5l8sycffd0048ls4z-bash-5.2-p15.drv' failed to build
error: 1 dependencies of derivation '/nix/store/dm7bl6lprdslgkcspsws8jk999b02a5q-bash-5.2.tar.gz.drv' failed to build
error (ignored): error: 1 dependencies of derivation '/nix/store/xjvqa1vlyfzay8z8nzkbzm5rl478l0fy-bash-interactive-5.2-p15.drv' failed to build
I’ve noticed that if I copy the whole store from my current store into the container, it works, but I think that’s just through luck more than judgement, and it takes a long time.
Am I doing something wrong or have I found a bug?