[Nix-dev] nix-shell unpackPhase does not work on my system

[Massimo Zaniboni]

Hi,

if I *not install*

   nix-env -i bash

and I execute the command

   nix-shell '<nixpkgs>' -A hello

I don't enter into a nix-shell environment, but there is no error 
message, and also

   echo $?
   0

signals that it is all ok. But this is not the case, because the 
nix-shell never started: the prompt remain the normal prompt, and not 
the nix-shell special prompt. So this is a bad behaviour of nix-shell 
that at least must signal an error message.

On the contrary if I * first install*

   nix-env -i bash

then

   nix-shell '<nixpkgs>' -A hello

starts correctly, also if I'm calling it from the native bash of Mint, 
and not from the bash of Nix. Probably nix-shell calls the bash of Nix, 
and in this case it finds it because I installed it.

I'm probably in a strange case respect normal Nix usage, because I start 
as normal user, with no Nix profile installed. So the bash shell is 
always the bash of Mint in my case.

A work-around is inserting into the installation manual/wiki, the 
suggested command

  nix-env -i bash

so all nix-shell commands will work as expected.

Can be a proper analysis of the problem?

Regards,
Massimo


On 20/08/2015 18:27, Massimo Zaniboni wrote:
> Problem fixed :-) But the solution is a little "strange", and I don't
> know if it is better improving the Wiki.
>
> I installed the bash of Nix
>
>    nix-env -i bash
>
> Then I executed
>
>    bash
>
> Then nix-shell is working
>
>    nix-shell '<nixpkgs>' -A hello
>    unpackPhase
>    configurePhase
>    buildPhase
>
> On Nix
>
>    which bash
>    /home/zanibonim/.nix-profile/bin/bash
>    bash-4.3$ bash --version
>    GNU bash, versione 4.3.39(1)-release (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu)
>
> On Mint
>
>    which bash
>    /bin/bash
>    bash --version
>    GNU bash, versione 4.3.11(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
>
> So is it a requirement of Nix, that the hosting shell must be the same
> shell shipped with Nix?
>
> When I need to run Nix, I manually execute
>
>    source /home/zanibonim/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/nix.sh
>
> so by default in my case, the Bash shell is the shell shipped with Mint,
> because at login/startup, no Nix package is never called.
>
> Regards,
> Massimo
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 20/08/2015 18:13, Massimo Zaniboni wrote:
>>> But on my Mint system, the nix-shell does not see the "configurePhase"
>>> and all other "*Phase" commands.
>>
>> I tried also on a Mint system installed from scratch on a distinct VM,
>> for excluding problems on my system.
>>
>>