Bug: nixStatic has dependencies in /nix/store

[michaelCTS]

Describe the bug

When trying to run nix-channel using the static binary in a virgin, non-nix environment, it fails trying to find nix-env in /nix/store. store = /home/user/my-store in nix.conf is ignored.

Steps To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Start a virgin, non-nix environment e.g alpine or debian in a VM or docker
2. Download the static nix binary (or transfer it from your nix environment) (see discourse for attempts at making that easier and [Feature request] Provide static binary on github release page nix#9176; a feature request for easier retrieval)
3. Create a folder and add it to PATH
4. Move the nix binary into it and create symlinks to it called nix-channel and nix-env
5. run nix-channel --add https://nixos.org/channels/nixpkgs-unstable nixpkgs
6. run nix-channel --update

Expected behavior

The nixpkgs channel should be downloaded.

Screenshots

$ nix-channel --update
unpacking channels...
error: executing '/nix/store/qibdl14c7jcxna48v5h5g51qm1iw2iw9-nix-static-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl-2.17.0/bin/nix-env': No such file or directory
error: program '/nix/store/qibdl14c7jcxna48v5h5g51qm1iw2iw9-nix-static-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl-2.17.0/bin/nix-env' failed with exit code 1

Additional context

Basically was trying to do what @matthewbauer did https://matthewbauer.us/blog/static-nix.html , but with the official nixStatic. Related PR #56281 which was superseded by #70024

Notify maintainers

@eelco @lovesegfault @Artturin

Metadata

Please run nix-shell -p nix-info --run "nix-info -m" and paste the result.

[user@system:~]$ nix-shell -p nix-info --run "nix-info -m"
output here

--> this doesn't work as channels don't work

[Artturin]

This is a nix issue, not a nixpkgs one

https://github.com/NixOS/nix/blob/e58566a057692bbfbd30a6639248adfcf81df108/src/nix-channel/nix-channel.cc#L146

there's many usages of runProgram(settings.nixBinDir

Try export NIX_BIN_DIR=$(dirname $(type -p nix))

weirdly the variable is not documented anywhere nor is it mentioned in any issue

https://github.com/search?q=%2F%5CbNIX_BIN_DIR%2F+NOT+is%3Afork&type=code

Maybe the code could be changed to re-execute itself with a different argv0?

[Artturin]

Please create a issue in the nix repo and I will repost my comment there.

[Artturin]

Created NixOS/nix#9193