Overlay with user systemd unit and timer

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1

I’m trying to convert this to an overlay: PKGBUILD - aur.git - AUR Package Repositories
It is a bash client to update dynamic DNS at freedns.afraid.org

Here is what I have, ~/.config/nixpkgs/overlays/extrapkgs.nix:

self: super:

{
  petrified = super.stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
    name = "petrified-${version}";
    version = "2.0.3";

    src = super.fetchurl {
      url = "https://gitlab.com/troyengel/petrified/-/archive/v${version}/petrified-v${version}.tar.gz";
      sha256 = "bb01029abc7796d2dd824f88beb2da05fb8da10ceb3ec7a0c1682631d670fc27";
    };

    buildInputs = with self; [ iproute curl ];
    installFlags = [ "DESTDIR=$(out)" ];
  };
  
  systemd.user.services.petrified = {
    description = "Run petrified as user";
    after = [ "network-online.target" ];
    requires = [ "network-online.target" ];      
    serviceConfig = {
      Type = "simple";
      ExecStart = "${self.pkgs.petrified}/bin/petrified -c ''\"%h/.petrifiedrc''\"";
    };
    startAt = [ "0/6:00:00" ];
  };
}

I install it with nix-env -f '<nixpkgs>' -iA petrified

It installs OK, but if I do systemctl --user list-timers (or without --user) I don’t see the timer. What am I doing wrong?

1 Like
2

You can not set options through an overlay.

You need to manually create those, or provide a function from your overlay that would return a module setting up the timer.

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3

Thanks a lot, I will look into it :slight_smile:

4

To conclude, this is how I solved it with help on IRC from Ke, sphalerite, monty, V and dutchie.

Instead of an overlay, I put everything in configuration.nix. I used makeWrapper’s wrapProgram to pass locations of binaries like curl to the script. I was informed that there is an open PR for adding a tool called “resholved”, which would solve these path annoyances.

There are other ways of tackling this, for example Ke said he uses systemd.services.<name>.script instead of ExecStart with

script = "${setPath} ${pkgs.bash}/bin/bash ${exec} ${mkConfig name params}";
setPath = "PATH=${pkgs.btrfsProgs}/bin:$PATH";

or
PATH=$PATH:${lib.makeBinPath (with pkgs; [hdparm bash])}

I also found a typoed variable in the script and submitted a merge request for fixing it :slight_smile:

systemd.services.petrified = let petrifiedPkg = pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
  name = "petrified-${version}";
  version = "2.0.3";

  src = pkgs.fetchurl {
    url = "https://gitlab.com/troyengel/petrified/-/archive/v${version}/petrified-v${version}.tar.gz";
    sha256 = "bb01029abc7796d2dd824f88beb2da05fb8da10ceb3ec7a0c1682631d670fc27";
  };

  buildInputs = with pkgs; [ iproute curl makeWrapper ];
  installFlags = [ "PREFIX=$(out)" "ETCPREFIX=$(NIX_BUILD_TOP)" "VARPREFIX=$(out)/var" ];
  postInstall = ''
    wrapProgram "$out/bin/petrified" --prefix PATH : "${pkgs.curl}/bin:${pkgs.utillinux}/bin:${pkgs.iproute}/bin"
  }; in {
    description = "Run petrified in system mode";
    after = [ "network-online.target" ];
    requires = [ "network-online.target" ];      
    serviceConfig = {
      Type = "simple";
      CacheDirectory = "petrified";
      ExecStart = "${petrifiedPkg}/bin/petrified -c /etc/petrified.conf";
    };
    startAt = [ "0/6:00:00" ];
};
systemd.timers."petrified".timerConfig.Persistent = true;
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