[Nix-dev] Nix expressions for packages with complex acquisition procedures

[Thomas Levine]

I want to install files that are contained in an archive. The only way I
know to extract the files from the archive involves clicking buttons in
a graphical interface. (It's a Windows installer for Qualcomm Gobi
firmware, and I run it in WINE.)

I cannot simply extract these once and serve them on a web server
because the package has strong restrictions on redistribution; people
are permitted to download the package freely from a particular website,
but people are not permitted to redistribute the package.

Installing it for my own use is easy enough, of course, because I can
just hard-code the paths to the appropriate files, but it would be
easier in the long-run if I put it in the upstream nixpkgs.

Is there a typical way of handling situations like this? For example,
the obvious thing that comes to mind is a convenient way to specify that
nix should prompt you to download and extract the archive and to enter
the path to the resulting files on the local filesystem.