bug: getting error "attribute 'nix-lib-nmd' missing" when doing "home-manager switch" on darwin

[punnie]

Are you following the right branch?

• [X] My Nixpkgs and Home Manager versions are in sync

Is there an existing issue for this?

• [X] I have searched the existing issues

Issue description

Upon running home-manager switch I got the error attribute 'nix-lib-nmd' missing.

I am using darwin. I have updated all channels. Here's the output of nix-channel --list:

$ nix-channel --list                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                ~
darwin https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin/archive/master.tar.gz
home-manager https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/archive/release-23.11.tar.gz

And here's the error trace:

$ home-manager switch                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               ~
error:
       … while calling the 'derivationStrict' builtin

         at //builtin/derivation.nix:9:12: (source not available)

       … while evaluating derivation 'home-manager-generation'
         whose name attribute is located at /nix/store/4968h3bbp11pj1k44w412b7ckads1ixk-nixpkgs/nixpkgs/pkgs/stdenv/generic/make-derivation.nix:300:7

       … while evaluating attribute 'buildCommand' of derivation 'home-manager-generation'

         at /nix/store/4968h3bbp11pj1k44w412b7ckads1ixk-nixpkgs/nixpkgs/pkgs/build-support/trivial-builders/default.nix:87:14:

           86|       enableParallelBuilding = true;
           87|       inherit buildCommand name;
             |              ^
           88|       passAsFile = [ "buildCommand" ]

       (stack trace truncated; use '--show-trace' to show the full trace)

       error: attribute 'nix-lib-nmd' missing

       at /Users/pedro/.nix-defexpr/channels/home-manager/docs/default.nix:10:12:

            9|
           10|   nmdSrc = pkgs.nix-lib-nmd;
             |            ^
           11|

Thank you for supporting this project, and let me know if I can do anything to help pinpoint the cause.

Maintainer CC

@rycee

System information

- system: `"x86_64-darwin"`
 - host os: `Darwin 23.2.0, macOS 10.16`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `no`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.15.1`
 - channels(root): `"nixpkgs"`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixpkgs`

[rycee]

Try updating Nixpkgs.

[sreehax]

This looks like a duplicate of #4903 but yeah updating nixpkgs doesn't seem to help. I believe it's something new changed when migrating from sourcehut to the binary cache. Edit: my bad the other issue is newer so that's the duplicate

[rohanssrao]

Having the same issue on Fedora 39, attempting to install Home Manager on a fresh installation of Nix with nix run home-manager/master -- init --switch.

[andersrh]

same issue on Fedora Kinoite 39. using command: nix-shell '' -A install

[terlar]

What Nixpkgs version are you using? Did you update the version as suggested?

[daneov]

I was on 2.17.1, upgraded to 2.18.1, issue persists but not on Darwin so not sure if that is related

❯ nix-shell -p nix-info --run "nix-info -m" this path will be fetched (0.00 MiB download, 0.00 MiB unpacked): /nix/store/2bk3cqpj26fi3fwgshgg3k0fxwz0h55g-nix-info copying path '/nix/store/2bk3cqpj26fi3fwgshgg3k0fxwz0h55g-nix-info' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...

• system: "x86_64-linux"
• host os: Linux 6.5.0-14-generic, Ubuntu, 23.10 (Mantic Minotaur), nobuild
• multi-user?: yes
• sandbox: yes
• version: nix-env (Nix) 2.18.1
• channels(root): "nixpkgs-23.11"
• nixpkgs: /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixpkgs

[andreivolt]

I was on 2.17.1, upgraded to 2.18.1, issue persists but not on Darwin so not sure if that is related

I still have the issue on Darwin. I'm not using Flakes.

[terlar]

Which commit of Nixpkgs do you run? Still no one with this issue have answered that.

I can see for example the Nixpkgs path pointing to a channel of nixpkgs-23.11 but we don't know if the channel is up to date.

[andreivolt]

I'm on master

[andreivolt]

Which commit of Nixpkgs do you run? Still no one with this issue have answered that.

I can see for example the Nixpkgs path pointing to a channel of nixpkgs-23.11 but we don't know if the channel is up to date.

I'm using home-manager as a module with nix-darwin, both channels are on master and uptodate.

[andreivolt]

allright, it works after setting nixpkgs.pkgs to latest (this is for nixpkgs-23.11-darwin branch):

nixpkgs.pkgs = import (builtins.fetchTarball "https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/archive/fc4e67c811b7681e72a0324be0144d627005ab3d.tar.gz") {};

[rohanssrao]

The cause of the issue and a workaround for it can be found here: https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/issues/4903#issuecomment-1893985197

As a workaround until the flake.lock is updated, it should be possible to override the flake input via --override-input, e.g.

nix shell --override-input nixpkgs github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable home-manager/master

Run your desired home-manager commands inside this shell and they should work. If you want to freshly install home-manager, run

nix run --override-input nixpkgs github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable home-manager/master -- init --switch

[hitsmaxft]

met same issue with flake home-manager standalone in wsl2

home-manager release-23.11 nixpkgs tag 23.11

[fightingdreamer]

Running nix-channel --update on MacOS as root fixed problem for me.

Channels:

# root
nix-channel --list
nixpkgs https://nixos.org/channels/nixpkgs-23.11-darwin

# user
nix-channel --list
nixpkgs https://nixos.org/channels/nixpkgs-23.11-darwin
home-manager https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/archive/release-23.11.tar.gz

[andreivolt]

@fightingdreamer also on macOS, I have solved it differently, do you understand how the root channels relate to user channels? I would think there shouldn't be any relation in nix-darwin since darwin-rebuild runs as user

[fightingdreamer]

@andreivolt IMHO user channel is overlaying the root channel for user installed packages, but home-manager probably pulls dependencies from root channel.

Trough there is one difference:

I'm using home-manager as a module with nix-darwin, both channels are on master and uptodate.

I using pure nix with home-manager on MacOS, that maybe related to different channel resolution logic.

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[punnie]

Hey,

Apologies for the long delay coming back to this. I managed to solve this by using a flake to finely control my dependencies and overcome a stale version of nixpkgs. Other methods in this thread may solve it as well.

Thank you everyone for chiming in, especially the maintainers.