Nix shell vs. nix-shell and setup hooks

[jorsn]

Hi there! I am trying to run coq with packages. Coq finds its packages if they are listed in COQPATH,
and

nix-shell -p coqPackages.mathcomp-ssreflect

sets this variable correctly. This is probably due to a setup hook added with addEnvHooks by the coq package.

In contrast, with nix shell or nix develop I don’t manage to get the COQPATH set automatically, whether I specify the packages on the commandline or in a flake. Is there a way to achieve this?

[jtojnar]

You would need something like the following:

Using `nix run` with several packages

glibcLocales relies on setup hook to set the LOCALE_ARCHIVE environment variable. Unlike nix-shell, nix shell or other new command will not run setup hooks as that is too much Nixpkgs-specific behaviour. To be precise, nix-shell created a derivation using a helper from Nixpkgs – with new commands, you will need to create it explicitly using something like the following: nix develop --impure --expr 'let pkgs = import (builtins.getFlake "nixpkgs/nixos-unstable") {}; in pkgs.mkShell { buildInputs …