[Nix-dev] nix-build failing to run

[Tony White]

2009/7/25 Bill Trost <trost at cloud.rain.com>:
> Lluís Batlle wrote:
>    I think you wanted to write something like one of those sparse .nix
>    files in nixpkgs, and tried to build from it as if it could work
>    isolated from the rest of nixpkgs.
>
> Yes, exactly. I've included my current .nix files, as Marc suggested.
>
>    Following the imports from default.nix, you will end up in
>    pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix. Read a bit this file, and see how
>    many functions from .nix files are imported and called with the proper
>    parameters (stdenv, fetchurl, ...).
>
>    You will notice that also your $HOME/.nixpkgs/config.nix is imported
>    somewhere, and try to guess what does a packagesOverride attribute....
>
> These hints were very helpful. I was able to put together config.nix that
> imports my .nix file (also attached). Now, I'm getting a new error:
>
>    nix-build -f pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix   --no-out-link   -A quilt
>    error: infinite recursion encountered
>
> I'm again mystified -- I don't see any recursion at all in what I wrote, and no
> clue as to how to get nix-build to tell me why it thinks it's recursing.
>
> Thank again,
> Bill
>
>
> trost at funnel:~/.nixpkgs$ cat ../quilt/default.nix
> {stdenv, fetchurl}:
>
> stdenv.mkDerivation {
>  name = "quilt-0.48";
>  src = fetchurl {
>    url = "http://savannah.inetbridge.net/quilt/quilt-0.48.tar.gz";
>    sha256 = "...";
>  };
>
>  meta = {
>    homepage = http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/quilt;
>    description = "Quilt allows you to easily manage large numbers of patches by keeping track of the changes each patch makes.";
>  };
> }
>
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>

Hi Bill,
Maybe this will help? I've just built quilt with the following here :

/etc/nixos/nixpkgs/pkgs/development/tools/misc/quilt/default.nix
looks like this :

args: with args;
let version = "0.48"; in

stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
  name = "quilt";
  src = fetchurl {
    url = "http://mirrors.zerg.biz/nongnu/${name}/${name}-${version}.tar.gz";
    sha256 = "73fd760d3b5cbf06417576591dc37d67380d189392db9000c21b7cbebee49ffc";
  };

  buildInputs = [
    perl
  ];

  meta = {
    homepage = "http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/quilt";
    description = "Quilt allows you to easily manage large numbers of
patches by keeping
		   track of the changes each patch makes. Patches can be applied,
		   un-applied, refreshed, and more.";
  };
}



And the line added to /etc/nixos/nixpkgs/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
looks like :

  quilt = import ../development/tools/misc/quilt {
    inherit stdenv fetchurl perl;
  };


I added quilt to all-packages.nix below pkgconfig and above radare. I
find it easy to search for where a package entry is in
all-packages.nix by doing a search for :
pkgconfig =
for example to find pkgconfig's entry.

Using that; I got quilt to build and install into the nix store.

Things to watch out for in the build using the expression above :
It's very basic and optional dependencies are missing so you may want
to fill them in.

Here's some of the output of things that are missing but optional :

checking for column... no
configure: WARNING: Using internal column mechanism.  Use option
'--with-column' to override

column's not in nixpkgs, you would have to add that one yourself by
creating the expression and adding it as a build dep.

checking for getopt... no
configure: WARNING: Using internal getopt mechanism.  Use option
'--with-getopt' to override

getopt is the nixpkgs and you can add that as a build dep if you want
that functionality, see below.

checking for diffstat... no
configure: WARNING: diffstat not found, some optional functionalities
will be missing

diffstat is in nixpkgs, you can add that too if you wanted.

checking for sendmail... no
configure: WARNING: Using internal sendmail mechanism.  Use option
'--with-sendmail' to override

Surprisingly sendmail isn't in nixpkgs, you would need to create the
expression for that first also to add that functionality.

checking for rpm... no
configure: WARNING: rpmbuild not found, some optional functionalities
will be missing

I can't see rpmbuild in nixpgs but I would guess that it might pick it
up if you add rpm as a build dep should you want that functionality
too.

That's it.
If you wanted getopt, do like this in ../quilt/default.nix :

  buildInputs = [
    perl
    getopt
  ];

and like this in ../top-level/all-packages.nix :

  quilt = import ../development/tools/misc/quilt {
    inherit stdenv fetchurl perl getopt;
  };

You can do the same with the other missing build deps if you need them
but as noted, some don't exist and you would need to create the
expressions for them first.

Hope this is helpful/useful?

Thanks,
Tony