overrideAttrs and buildInputs doesn't include override inputs in environment

[Skarlett]

{
  coggiebot = naerk-lib.buildPackage
    rec {
      name = "coggiebot";
      src = ../../.;
      COMMIT_REV=(self.rev or "canary");
    };
  
  # uses cmake during build.rs script 
  mockingbird = coggiebot.overrideAttrs(p: { nativeBuildInputs = p.nativeBuildInputs ++ [ pkgs.cmake ]; });
}

Building mockingbird fails with

error: builder for '/nix/store/wgx876njl4wj37hg06333w92ywc6s5r8-coggiebot-deps-1.3.8.drv' failed with exit code 101;
       last 10 log lines:
       >
       >   --- stderr
       >   thread 'main' panicked at '
       >   failed to execute command: No such file or directory (os error 2)
       >   is `cmake` not installed?
       >
       >   build script failed, must exit now', /sources/cmake-0.1.49/src/lib.rs:1104:5
       >   note: run with `RUST_BACKTRACE=1` environment variable to display a backtrace
       > warning: build failed, waiting for other jobs to finish...
       > [naersk] cargo returned with exit code 101, exiting
       For full logs, run 'nix log /nix/store/wgx876njl4wj37hg06333w92ywc6s5r8-coggiebot-deps-1.3.8.drv'.
error: 1 dependencies of derivation '/nix/store/ixjakb5pal9nnbkzh70pqp3v8qcaw5sz-coggiebot-1.3.8.drv' failed to build

nix-repl>:lf .
nix-repl> (outputs.packages.x86_64-linux.coggiebot-raw.overrideAttrs(p: {nativeBuildInputs = p.nativeBuildInputs ++ [pkgs.cmake];}) ).nativeBuildInputs
[ «derivation /nix/store/ka292dhy04diz66w1kjb8ifin1yz9c0c-cargo-1.65.0.drv» «derivation /nix/store/xr7jlh2cnlv1fk6ya661wy6hpb6vz2jx-jq-1.6.drv» «derivation /nix/store/abh3b8z5f5wzsm2abyirsdr6bxak1rfk-rsync-3.2.7.drv» «derivation /nix/store/slwfkzia7azhx5jjp51cqqsmanxyx2cs-cmake-3.22.3.drv» ]

Though, we can see it included

[Skarlett]

I eventually solved this issue by applying overrides to the arguments, collecting the changes, then lowering the final result into naersk.buildPackage

[Patryk27]

To be fair, I'm not sure what's happening in here 👀 -- would you mind showing the approach that worked?

[Skarlett]

Yeah absolutely. This was my first project I was using with naersk, so the code isn't super pretty. If theres any confusions, feel free to reach out. I only wrote this a couple months ago.

The solution I ended up walking away with was the following:

The overrides being applied are at this point,
https://github.com/Skarlett/coggie-bot/blob/master/iac/coggiebot/default.nix#L215-L233

and the definitions of those overrides are defined here. https://github.com/Skarlett/coggie-bot/blob/master/iac/coggiebot/default.nix#L33C1-L88

The original pattern I was attempting when I posted this issue was akin to

coggiebot = (naersk.buildPackage ./.);
mockingbird = coggiebot.overrideAttrs { buildInputs = [ ... ]; };
other-features = mockingbird.overrrideAttrs { ... };

Attempting the above resulted in the original error posted. This may be difficult to reproduce, as I was just learning nix at the time, and there may have been mistakes previously which lead to this incident.

there is a sliver of documentation on this portion of the project, which can be found here https://github.com/Skarlett/coggie-bot/blob/master/docs/hacking.md#finalizing-in-nix
but this is primarily for contributors, but it roughs out the process of adding features into the project, and finalizing those attributes in nix.

ps: if you need to build my project nix build .#coggiebot-stable will do it.

[Patryk27]

Ah, I think I know what's going on - when you call naersk.buildPackage, it actually builds two derivations: first we build only the dependencies and then we build your code (so that if only your code changes, the dependencies don't have to get rebuilt, which could take a lot time).

So when you do stuff like:

let
  pkg = naersk.buildPackage { 
    # src etc. ...
  };

in
pkg.overrideAttrs {
  # whatever you need to override
}

... it overrides attributes only for that second derivation (i.e. your code), but it doesn't override stuff for the expression that builds the dependencies (since that expression is constructed separately inside buildPackage).

In general, this is what the override option is for, i.e.:

naersk.buildPackage {
  # src etc. ...
  
  override = old: {
    SOMETHING = "bar";
  };
}

... will apply this function to both derivations included in the build.

Although in this particular case, I think something like this should just do it:

naersk.buildPackage {
  # src etc. ...
    
  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgs.cmake ];
}